"I intend that this autobiography shall become a model for all future autobiographies when it is published, after my death, and I also intend that it shall be read and admired a good many centuries because of its form and method—a form and method whereby the past and the present are constantly brought face to face, resulting in contrasts which newly fire up the interest all along, like contact of flint with steel. Moreover, this autobiography of mine does not select from my life its showy episodes, but deals mainly in the common experiences which go to make up the life of the average human being, because these episodes are of a sort which he is familiar with in his own life, and in which he sees his own life reflected and set down in print. The usual, conventional autobiographer seems to particularly hunt out those occasions in his career when he came into contact with celebrated persons, whereas his contacts with the uncelebrated were just as interesting to him, and would be to his reader, and were vastly more numerous than his collisions with the famous."
So begins one of the most remarkable autobiographies in all of American Literature. Mark Twain was, in the words of his good friend, editor and Pulitzer Prize Committee member Albert Paine, a true visionary.
CONTENTS
This new signature edition collection of autobiographical and biographical writings on Mark Twain brings together, for the very first time, i) the hard to find chapters from Mark Twain’s autobiography published in the North American Review and ii) Samuel Clemens’ own, extremely rare, privately printed autobiographical sketch, iii) a history of Mark Twain’s Life, Literature and Legacy by Albert Paine (Pulitzer Prize Committee member and editor of the Collected Letters of Mark Twain and the Collected Speeches of Mark Twain), and iv) several of Mark Twain’s major essays illuminating his thoughts and views on key issues of his time.
The enduring freshness and relevance of Mark Twain’s writings serves as a true testament to a remarkable spirit which “still young ... continues to cheer and comfort a tired world” even to this day.
SPECIAL NOOK ENABLED FEATURES:
This edition has special Nook enabled features, including interactive table of contents.
Contains the only autobiography published in Twain's own lifetime. Includes an extensive historical background by Albert B. Paine of the Pulitzer Prize Committee, authorized biographer of Mark Twain and editor of The Letters of Mark Twain and The Speeches of Mark Twain.
"Highly recommended ... Mark Twain in his very own words"
"A superb collection, coinciding with the 100th anniversary of Twain's death"
"A true American genius, and a giant of world literature"
