Autobiography of Mark Twain

One of the really big books of the season. Stands to reason! Twain dictated this material (which will run to three volumes when publication is complete) in the last four years of his life- charging his executors with the instruction that it was to remain unpublished until he’d been dead a hundred years.

One of a handful of America’s greatest writers, handling material he’d been anxious to compile for three decades or more- during which time he’d made numerous false starts. Beginning in January 1906, however, he dictated to a stenographer almost daily, working in as well some of the earlier attempts, and declared the job done in December 1909. Here’s the first third, in all its glory!