Mark Twain

Autobiography of Mark Twain READER'S EDITION Now Available! Half the Size, All the Twain! ISBN 978052027255 "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 The strict instruction that many of these texts remain unpublished for 100 years meant that when they came out, he would be "dead, and unaware, and indifferent," and that he was therefore free to speak his "whole frank mind."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

Life on the Mississippi was, in some ways, the book Mark Twain always wanted to write. It was the travel narrative most closely connected with his youth, with his sense of self, with his life. Twain viewed the Mississippi River as a defining feature of his life, his culture, and his country. It is in this book that we learn how Samuel Clemens took on the pen name Mark Twain. This is a work not about the Mississippi, but about life on the Mississippi. It is a text that lays before the reader not only the life of America’s greatest river, but the life of one of her greatest artists. Yet, in doing these two things, it does more, for, when all is said and done, Life on the Mississippi lays before the reader the life of the nation itself, a portrait of nineteenth-century American life and culture as only Mark Twain can paint it.

This landmark anniversary edition contains a selection of Twain's hard-to-find letters and notes expressing his always-engaging opinions on the publication of "Tom Sawyer".

This 125th Anniversary edition of "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" is expanded with thoroughly updated notes and references, and a selection of original documents - letters, advertisements, and playbills - some never before published, from Twain's first book tour.