Mark Twain 
Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1 
The Complete and Authoritative Edition

‘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 The strict instruction that many of these texts remain unpublished for 100 years meant that when they came out, he would be ‘dead, and unaware, and indifferent, ‘ and that he was therefore free to speak his ‘whole frank mind.’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 marks the 100th anniversary of Twain’s death. In celebration of this important milestone and in honor of the cherished tradition of publishing Mark Twain’s works, UC Press is proud to offer for the first time Mark Twain’s uncensored autobiography in its entirety and exactly as he left it. This major literary event brings to readers, admirers, and scholars the first of 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.


Editors:


Harriet E. Smith, Benjamin Griffin, Victor Fischer, Michael B. Frank, Sharon K. Goetz, Leslie Myrick

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

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.