Waubonsee Community College

Autobiography of Mark Twain, Harriet Elinor Smith, editor ; associate editors, Benjamin Griffin [and others]

eng

Includes bibliographical references and index

autobiography

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Autobiography of Mark Twain

bibliography

472790247

Harriet Elinor Smith, editor ; associate editors, Benjamin Griffin [and others]

The Mark Twain papers

Presents Mark Twain's authentic and unsuppressed voice, brimming with humor, ideas, and opinions, and speaking clearly from the grave as he intended"I've struck it!" Mark Twain wrote in a 1904 letter to a friend. "And I will give it away to you. You will never know how much enjoyment you have lost until you get to dictating your autobiography." Thus, after dozens of false starts and hundreds of pages, Twain embarked on his "Final (and Right) Plan" for telling the story of his life. His innovative notion, to "talk only about the thing which interests you for the moment", meant that his thoughts could range freely. The strict instruction that many of these texts remain unpublished for 100 years meant that when they came out, he would be "dead, and unaware, and indifferent," and that he was therefore free to speak his "whole frank mind." The year 2010 marked the 100th anniversary of Twain's death. In celebration of this important milestone this is Mark Twain's uncensored autobiography in its entirety and exactly as he left it. It is told over three volumes and presents Mark Twain's authentic and unsuppressed voice, brimming with humor, ideas, and opinions, and speaking clearly from the grave as he intended.-- Publisher information"This third and final volume crowns and completes [Twain's] work. Like its companion volumes, it chronicles Twain's inner and outer life through a series of daily dictations that go wherever his fancy leads. Created from March 1907 to December 1909, these dictations present Mark Twain at the end of his life: receiving an honorary degree from Oxford University; railing against Theodore Roosevelt; founding numerous clubs; incredulous at an exhibition of the Holy Grail; credulous about the authorship of Shakespeare's plays; relaxing in Bermuda; observing (and investing in) new technologies."--Book jacket

v. 1. Preliminary manuscripts and dictations, 1870-1905 ; Autobiography of Mark Twain ; Explanatory notes ; Appendixes: Samuel L. Clemens, a brief chronology ; Family biographies ; Speech at the seventieth birthday dinner, 5 December 1905 ; Speech at the Players, 3 January 1906 ; Previous publication -- v. 2. Autobiography of Mark Twain ; Explanatory notes ; Appendixes: Samuel L. Clemens, a brief chronology ; Family biographies ; Previous publication -- v. 3. The Ashcroft-Lyon manuscript ; Explanatory notes ; Appendixes ; Note on the text ; Word division in this volume

Mark Twain