We know Samuel Langhorne Clemens better as Mark Twain, the author who brought us such classics of American literature as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Huck Finn, and Life on the Mississippi. He is considered by most to be among the greatest, and most quintessential of American writers.
Great American Author Had Trouble Writing His Own Story
When it came to writing his own autobiography, however, Twain had more than a little trouble. While The Autobiography of Mark Twain was his last published work, it was written over many years, even decades. There have been several editions of substantially varying lengths and inclusions/exclusions. The version reviewed here is the most "complete:" the 1959 edition edited by Charles Neider.
Even at 500 pages and 79 chapters, this version of The Autobiography of Mark Twain is apparently not quite what Twain had in mind for his life story. The entirety of dictations and chapters, scribbles and anecdotes collected over forty-plus years and meant for his autobiography amounted to nearly half a million (500,000) words. While Neider's edition is the most complete, then, it is not exhaustive. Rather, it seems the appropriate compromise between truly complete and reasonable.
Twain Intended his Story to be a Model for all Future Autobiographies
The trouble Twain encountered with the composition had little to do with length, however, but nearly every other aspect: style, approach, construct, motivation and its eventual reception. One aspect of the autobiography never in question to Twain's mind were his intentions: "I intend that this autobiography shall become a model for all future autobiographies when it is published...it shall be read and admired a good many centuries..."
A singular, approved edition never was finished in Mark Twain's lifetime; he was still working on it when he died in 1910 at the age of 74. Years earlier, when speaking of his last great work, Twain generated the type of simple-yet-witty comment for which he'd become known, that it "will not be finished until I die."
The Autobiography of Mark Twain is as entertaining and informative a book as any reader interested in American history would want to read. With trademark Twain wit, and style, the author shares anecdotes about everything from family life, to his writing life, to his vast and wide travels. One of the great lecturers of the age, he shares those insights that inspired the talks, like having a personal interview with man of the hour.
A Quintessentially American Life, Story
More than any of the single stories or confessions or brushes with other great names of the day, what Twain achieves with his autobiography is, like many of his novels, the broader story of an America in its formative years, post civil-war, pre-twentieth century. That is its greatest strength, and that is what would allow for even a reader who's never heard of Mark Twain to take a great deal from his autobiography.
Although the editor has done an admirable job turning hundreds of anecdotes and dictations (written over a period of more than four decades) into a relatively cohesive autobiography, modern readers may well sense a hodge-podge aspect to the flow nonetheless. Taken as is, the benefits far outweigh such a minor complaint.
The opening lines of Charles Neider's 1959 introduction to The Autobiography of Mark Twain read: "In my opinion, Mark Twain's autobiography is a classic of American letters, to be ranked with the autobiographies of Benjamin Franklin and Henry Adams." Perhaps the most succinct and accurate comment this reviewer could make in terms of recommendation are "I could not concur more strongly."
Twain, Mark. The Autobiography of Mark Twain (ed. Neider) 1959 (1917). Harper Collins, 509 pgs.
(ISBN:0-06-095542-2)
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