Mark Twain 
Autobiography of Mark Twain 
Volume 1, Reader’s Edition

The year 2010 marked the 100th anniversary of Mark Twain’s death. In celebration of this important milestone and in honor of the cherished tradition of publishing Mark Twain’s works, UC Press published
Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1, the first of a projected three-volume edition of the complete, uncensored autobiography. The book became an immediate bestseller and was hailed as the capstone of the life’s work of America’s favorite author.


This
Reader’s Edition, a portable paperback in larger type, republishes the text of the hardcover
Autobiography in a form that is convenient for the general reader, without the editorial explanatory notes. It includes a brief introduction describing the evolution of Mark Twain’s ideas about writing his autobiography, as well as a chronology of his life, brief family biographies, and an excerpt from the forthcoming Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 2—a controversial but characteristically humorous attack on Christian doctrine.

Table of Content

Acknowledgments

Introduction


AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARK TWAIN

An Early Attempt

My Autobiography [Random Extracts from It]

The Latest Attempt

The Final (and Right) Plan

Preface. As from the Grave

The Florentine Dictations

Autobiographical Dictations, January–March 1906


Appendix: Preliminary Manuscripts and Dictations

Samuel L. Clemens: A Brief Chronology

Family Biographies

References

Excerpt from Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 2

Photographs

About the author

Harriet Elinor Smith is an editor at the Mark Twain Project, which is housed within the Mark Twain Papers, the world’s largest archive of primary materials by this major American writer. Under the direction of General Editor Robert H. Hirst, the Project’s editors are producing the first comprehensive edition of all of Mark Twain’s writings.