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

by Mark Twain, Harriet E. Smith (Editor), Grover Gardner (Narrator)

[This is Part 1 of a 2 part audiobook Cassette library edition.] [Edited by Harriet Elinor Smith and other editors of the Mark Twain Project] ''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 The strict instruction that many of these texts remain unpublished for one hundred years meant that when they came out, he would be ''dead, and unaware, and indifferent,'' and that he was therefore free to speak his ''whole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 one hundredth anniversary of Twain's death. In celebration of this impo

Genres: Biography, Autobiography, Audiobook, Nonfiction

Audio Cassette

Published November 15, 2010

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Faulkner calling him "the father of American literature." His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), with the latter often called the "Great American Novel." Twain also wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) and Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), and co-wrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) with Charles Dudley Warner.

Reviews

[Jim · Rating 1 out of 5]

I tried skipping through this to get to the autobiography. I kept running into an amazingly boring & repetitive account of HOW this was written, who published what before, & why. Never did find the actual autobiography. Finally got frustrated & quit after 1.5 or 2 hours.

Not what I was hoping for at all. I expected Twain to be interesting. This wasn't, but then it wasn't Twain's writing, just some boring guy talking about Twain's writing. Worse, this is just 1 of 3 volumes. I can't take it.

[Larry Bassett · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you had held the printed version of this book in your hands and then listen to the audible book and followed along with the e-book you might be like me somewhat confused about the content. The printed version and the e-book both contain considerable background material for the actual autobiographical recordings that are the predominant aspect of the audible version. The audible version also contains a number of written efforts that were compiled by the author before he began the process of dictation in the early 20th century just prior to his death in 1910. The printed version began to be released in 2010, 100 years after his death as the author requested. The reason for this delay was to allow him to be as frank as he possibly could manage to be without worry that people who he would be speaking about would still be alive or their children still alive. Whether he manage to speak that honestly is some thing that probably only the author knows for sure. He certainly said things that might lead you to doubt that he thought any human could possibly accomplish such honesty in speaking of his or her own life.

The book that is actually the transcription of his recordings undertaken over several years are obviously of a spoken nature rather than a more formal written presentation. This makes listening to it very comfortable and humanizing.

There is a considerable amount of background material both in the printed book and in the E book presentation. There are also two additional printed volumes that have followed this initial volume. Those additional volumes are also available on audible books.

I found listening to this to be an enjoyable lesson in getting to know Mark twain. Probably many of us are familiar with some of his well-known books and we have possibly also been made aware of some of the aspects of his personal life. This autobiography will not replace reading any of his actual books because they are mostly only noted by reference and are not included here whatsoever. But there is an awareness that material in his books is often of an autobiographical nature and that fact is acknowledged regularly in the autobiographical material.

I found it somewhat challenging to match up the Audible material with the e-book material. The two sources do not claim to be synced so you have to match them up manually and then follow once you locate the matching locations. This was somewhat disappointing but not fatally so. The audible version remained a very reasonably enjoyable listening experience.

It is possible that if you actually read all of the material in the printed volume or in the e-book that you might feel more able to answer the question of who really why is the sky Mark Twain? He had this fake name and he had this reputation for shading the truth and he traded in that obfuscation as a part of his touring character for decades. You do get some sense of the real person he was from the autobiography but you also have the sense that there might be a fair amount of misdirection resulting from his words because you can never be quite sure when he is acting and when he is being truthful.

But the important thing to remember having finished volume one it is that there is still volume two and volume three left to go! And the author suggested that a real autobiography would require several libraries to hold it all and maybe that would not be enough either.

[Jenn "JR" · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought in the hype around the release of Mark Twain's autobiography and bought a hard cover copy nearly 15 years ago, standing in line at Revolution Books to get my own. Over the years, I have picked it up and read scattered stories but, it's a ridiculously big and heavy book. You'd have to be a scholar sitting at a carrel with a nice big table to properly utilize this version of the book.

Recently, I had the brilliant idea of trying out the audio book version which I found on Libby App. I recommend listening at least 1.5x - some stretches at 1.75x. The first four hours are basically prefatory BS detailing the meta history of Clemens's efforts and attitude toward creating the manuscript, as well as the trouble in determining the right order of collation of the various spurts of effort. The attempts of the author of the introduction to emulate Twain's style is stuffy and sad at the same time.

Most of the stories are fairly trivial - complaints about taxi drivers, for example. It makes me realize how hard Bill Bryson is trying to be the modern Mark Twain. Some touching family stories - about his wife, his daughter, etc - which are mostly just interesting to family. There are some pithy one liners throughout. Many of the stories are self interrupted with digressions, but he usually returns to the topic at hand. The story about sneaking out to ice skate one night is quite good - and reminds me a little of John Muir's writing about his adventures in nature.

I will definitely borrow the remaining volumes, and listen to them as audio books. While I enjoyed the book, it wasn't overwhelmingly hilarious or meaningful. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

[Robert Case · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a review of the audible.com format of Volume 1 of the autobiography of world renowned author and speaker, Mark Twain. He dictated this work in the later years of his life and directed that it be published, without editing, 100-years after his death. The book was only published in 2014. The stories and vignettes are classic. Yes, the content is wholly unorganized and sometimes repetitive. But, if you are a true fan or follower of this author, then you will enjoy the book anyway.

[Nicole C. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Years ago, I read about Mark Twain's autobiography finally coming out in an unabridged version. When he wrote it, he requested that it not be published until 100 years after his death, so that he could freely discuss his contemporaries without fear of reprisal. The guy I was dating at the time listened to me prattle on about this and I neglected to tell him that I purchased the Kindle edition, with which I was immediately disappointed as the footnotes (of which there are MANY) were not linked [that has since been corrected].

A few days later, I went over to his house to watch a movie. I noticed there was a very large package sitting on his dining room table, wrapped in sparkly paper. He bought me the hardcover edition that morning, added a Hello Kitty bookmark, and wrapped it before I got there. We hadn't been dating that long at that point, and that really showed care and interest and feeling, so I was pretty hooked. We ended up dating for a few years and were even engaged but then broke up over family drama - and the fact that he turned out to be a selfish prat, in the end. We're both with other people now, and I am definitely happier.

Anyway, while dating him I tried to start this book. I was interested at first in the many versions of the autobiography over the years and how it came to be, but then, I wanted to get to the meat of it. Some false starts of his and then a few more. I abandoned it for a time, only to pick it up again later. I placed two bookmarks in it, one for the actual book portion and the other for the endnotes.

Over the next few years, I would start and stop this a few times; the hardcover is unwieldy to hold for long periods of time, and it's not practical to lay it flat on a table. Recently, I shelved it again and pulled out the Kindle edition I had purchased long ago. The footnotes are linked, but there are still some other endnotes that I have not gone through, as I forgot about them until the end of the narrative. No matter, I'm calling it done. Some day I will go back to them.

Some of Twain's insights were amusing; I enjoyed his anecdotes about Grant and other contemporaries. His humor shines through, but in the end, I suppose because of all the buildup over the years, I expected more. There are two other volumes, but I'm not sure what they contain if this is the end of the autobiography. To be fair, I haven't looked very closely at those.

I realize that this review talks more about MY life than Twain's but I find it fitting for this particular book. Besides, how it came into my life is more of a story than reading the actual autobiography!

[Jane Sadek · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mark Twain just may be the funniest guy that ever lived. He's mostly known for Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, but those are probably my least favorite of his writings. Imagine what you could say about your life, if you knew no one would see what you wrote, until everyone in the book was dead. You wouldn't have to run the risk of getting sued or offending anyone. You could just have your say and be done with it. Now imagine that you could say it with that unique turn of phrase perfected by Mark Twain. All of us would be much more interesting and entertaining under those circumstances. I nearly busted a gut laughing as I read it and about wore my Kindle out sharing it.

[Mark C. Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mark Twain is a genius. This book is just a little more proof. Twain's ability to add a clever remark about any situation is easily viewed here, as in other works. He also shows how little times have changed: his railing about media coverage of inconsequential events fits as well today as it did 100 years ago. It may not be the best way to see Twain's genius, but it's still a good way to enjoy it.

[Kit · Rating 5 out of 5]

odd book, but really moving in places. So much of it is aggregated around Twain's reading of his late daughter's autobiography of him, written when she was 13, with his comments about and digressions from that text. Strangely modern in its rambling. Not really an autobiography, however, any more than a slide show from a cross-country road trip is a map of the US.

[Noah]

This is an immensely frustrating book for a number of reasons. There are many passages of Twain’s writing that are funny, interesting, and occasionally profound. Unfortunately, his unusual approach to the composition—dictating freely off the top of his head for a few hours each day on whatever topic was at the forefront of his mind—means that these nuggets of interest are tucked in between lengthy recollections of various inconsequential business disputes, newspaper clippings, and secondhand stories from middling newspapermen.

Twain left the text of the Autobiography in trust for his descendants, similar to the way that Ernest Hemingway referred to the manuscript of his second African safari as an insurance policy for his wife. Both works ended up being carefully edited by academics before being published in full, but there’s a crucial distinction in my eyes. While Hemingway’s “African book,” which was eventually released as Under Kilimanjaro, was the result of years of intense effort and revision by the author, Twain’s Autobiography is essentially a transcript of off-the-cuff ramblings. It’s the 1906 equivalent of a one man podcast. But the grieving, 70-year old Twain was no Bill Burr, and there are sadly no recordings of his actual speech. Twain did revise the transcripts to some extent, but did not alter the text from the order that it was dictated in, and added very few clarifying notes.

The work of adding context to the text, which obviously became much more difficult after decades had passed, was the instead performed by a team of editors at the Mark Twain Project. They did an exhaustive job, but the results leave much to be desired. Using footnotes instead of endnotes would have made it easier to refer to the notes, which are frequently the only way that Twain’s anecdotes make sense. Constantly flipping back and forth in a 700+ page book with tiny print is tiresome, particularly as the table of contents maddeningly does not list the many individual dictations that make up the bulk of the work.

Other choices by the editors are baffling. The book begins with an extremely dry 60 page introduction that quotes heavily from the text that we haven’t read yet and is preoccupied with explaining how various copies of the manuscript were collated. This material would do better following the actual Autobiography. Before we get to the Autobiography, we’re treated to 140 pages of Twain’s many unsuccessful attempts to write the Autobiography, including dull “sketches” of a few of Twain’s acquaintances and an account of Ulysses S. Grant’s difficulties with publishing his own memoirs. Aside from being largely uninteresting, these sections have nothing to do with Twain’s “final” project. If they had to be included in the book at all, it should have been in an appendix. Even when the Autobiography proper starts on page 201, there are 46 more pages of fragments composed before Twain really began in earnest in 1906.

But the final sin of the editors is the worst, at least in my mind. The book jacket and introduction heavily emphasize that this book is the first time that many of the work has been published, 100 years after Twain’s death, in line with his intentions. However, large portions of the Autobiography have already been published, including the majority of Twain’s material from this Volume. Much of it was even published during Twain’s lifetime. And having read large portions of it in an earlier published version, it gives me no pleasure to report that the older version, which was patched into a more coherent form by its editors, is in many ways more compelling. There are some new sections that are interesting, like Twain’s heartfelt condemnation of U.S. atrocities in the Philippines, but in several cases, the elements withheld from previous publications were simply cut to avoid offending long-dead acquaintances of Twain’s who have faded from memory.

Anyway. I don’t think I’ll be able to bring myself to read Volumes II and III.

[Jason Gibbons · Rating 4 out of 5]

I laughed out loud on numerous occasions and was moved on others. True to form, there is often a bit of wading required to reach the far shore, but you are rarely sorry of the journey.

[Gloria E Meunier · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ecclesiastes 12 v One

[Tom Ries · Rating 5 out of 5]

Though very long and at times rambling (the complete autobiography is three volumes of over 750 pages each) this collection of autobiographical material by Samuel L. Clemens is, in the main, delightful. It reflects the personality of the humorist we have come to know and love, while expanding into deeper sides of his life and thought. The insights into General Grant, which Clemens understandably did not want published for at least 100 years, are themselves worth the read. Based on those recollections, I was motivated to also read the 660-page memoirs of the General. They, too, were outstanding.

The editors of the Mark Twain autobiographical papers deserve a five-star rating, as does the narrator of the audio version, Grover Gardner.

[Jeremy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a good read. The conversational wandering tone taken by Twain makes it a very unique autobiography. My only complaint occurred during a couple of hard to relate to passages, particularly the section where Twain describes the Florentine villa he was currently residing in. When I read the actual book, I repeatedly got stuck in this section and ended up giving up for a time. It took listening to the audiobook to find the point of that section and move on (it turns out that the point to his diatribe was that his landlord, a widowed American countess, was the devil. Or, failing that distinction, she was just a horrible person.)

[Jon · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a re-reading of this volume, in preparation for volumes 2 and 3. This is wonderful, exactly what I was looking for. The creative way that Twain finally landed on for writing (or more appropriately, dictating) his autobiography was a perfect fit for his oratory style.

Lovely slices of life, recanting of life stories that he carved many of his works out of, and his stories of his time with Grant are excellent. All very telling of the man behind the name "Twain", and even moreso to "Clemens".

Kudos to the editors for bringing this to life.

[Tim · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this book. It seemed to jump around all over the place and included many original letters, quotes anecdotes etc etc, but it was all delivered with the infamous twain sense of humor that made it all come to life. It gives you a real taste of that time period as it describes so much of the day-to-day, rather mundane, issues of life that would probably bore you to death if it wasn't filtered through the wonderful brain of Mark Twain.

[Tony Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uniquely presented, this autobiography is presented in a manner that makes it seem like a person is listening to the author present his various thoughts aside a camp fire about anything and everything. This manner of presentation is terrific, particularly because his life and acquaintances are very interesting and made all the better with his thoughts about the various parts of life. The introduction can be cumbersome, but it's inclusion makes sense and adds to the effect.

[Jennifer Nanek · Rating 4 out of 5]

This took awhile. I listened to the audio. The beginning where the editors? are describing how the book was done was boring and awful. Who cares? The abridged version would have sufficed. When it finally got to the Mark Twain part it was good. Some chapters are a bit dull.. but the sections about his wife, daughter and some of the historic characters he interacted with were great. Hes really funny when insulting someone. Enjoyed the meat of this book very much.

[Sid Johnson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just got through most of part 4 in the audio version. If you're a student of Mark Twain, this is a 5-star book. If you, like me, just wanted to read his autobiography, it is a snoozer. Not only is it full of history about the material in the autobiography, but spends a lot of time (in the part I listened to) with Twain's various rants about other people and situations. Interesting at first, but got old quickly.

[Coco V · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love the idea of delivering your life story from the grave. Mark Twain has a brilliantly dry sense of humor when at his best, but about half of this volume rambles on about completely insignificant events. I hear all the good stuff is in part 2, so I'm still looking forward to finishing it.

[Vaughn W · Rating 5 out of 5]

Prior to reading this work, I had some familiarity with Mark Twain's life. But the personally dictated musings of a man in his autumn years, paints a more complete picture of this publicly entertaining man who faced a considerable amount of sorrow in his late years.

[E · Rating 4 out of 5]

Once it gets going it is fantastic.

[Anji · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got this as a book on CD and listened to it where ever I went. It was funny, and as insightful as He wanted it to be.

[Kellen Mcgee]

Rollicking, acerbic, delightful, tragic, wonderful. One learns a lot reviewing life through such an eye.

[Anogoya · Rating 5 out of 5]

A child
He remained a child
From start to finish