72220X2 Eighth Printing. University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles: 2010. 760 pages. Hardcover with dustjacket. Brand new book. "I've struck it!" Mark Twain wrote in a 1904 letter to a friend. "And I will give it awayÑto 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 notionÑto "talk only about the thing which interests you for the moment"Ñmeant 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 The strict instruction that many of these texts remain unpublished for 100 years meant that when they came out, he would be "dead, and unaware, and indifferent," and that he was therefore free to speak his "whole frank mind."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. Harriet Elinor Smith is an editor at the Mark Twain Project, which is housed within the Mark Twain Papers, the world's largest archive of primary materials by this major American writer. Under the direction of General Editor Robert H. Hirst, the Project's editors are producing the first comprehensive edition of all of Mark Twain's writings. "There's really nothing sulfurous about this book. Mark Twain is terrific company, plain and simple. He knew everyone, went everywhere, seemed to be interested in everything and is capable of making the reader Ñ in 2010 Ñ laugh on nearly every page. And this is not, strictly speaking, an autobiography. It's an autobiographical miscellany, a collection of Twain's many attempts to write about his extraordinary life. . . . This is a book for dipping, not plunging. Read, as Twain might put it, until interest pales, and then jump. It feels like a form of time travel. One moment you're on horseback in the Hawaiian islands Ñ or recovering from saddle boils with a cigar in your mouth Ñ and the next moment you're meeting the Viennese maid he called, in a private joke, 'Wuthering Heights.' We can hardly wait for Volume 2."ÑNew York Times/The Opinion Pages $35.20USD
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