Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1
The Complete and Authoritative Edition
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Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1
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Narrated by:
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Grover Gardner
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By:
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Mark Twain
About this listen
“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 The strict instruction that many of these texts remain unpublished for 100 years meant that when they came out, he would be “dead, and unaware, and indifferent” and that he was therefore free to speak his “whole frank mind”.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, here, for the first time, is Mark Twain’s uncensored autobiography, in its entirety, exactly as he left it. This major literary event offers 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.
Edited by Harriet Elinor Smith and other editors of the Mark Twain Project.
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910) was born Samuel L. Clemens in the town of Florida, Missouri. One of the most popular and influential authors our nation has ever produced, his keen wit and incisive satire earned him praise from both critics and peers. He has been called not only the greatest humorist of his age but the father of American literature.
©2010 2001 by the Mark Twain Foundation. All Rights Reserved. Transcription, reconstruction, and creation of the texts, introduction, notes, and appendixes copyright 2010 by the Regents of the University of California (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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What listeners say about Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
- Mr. M. C. F.
- 05-08-11
Skip the start
It has 2h 15 of talk about writing the book at the start, Frustrating in audio book form as it is hard to know where to skip to.
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9 people found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
- Karen
- 16-08-11
very unhappy with this purchase
I am very disappointed to have to wade through so much commentary instead of getting down to just what Mark Twain wrote. It is intrusive and prevents any form of flow, it seems to be impossible to isolate the sections so that I just hear Mark Twain's words. It is a very annoying way to have chapters which are a mixture of commentary and actual autobiography. Very frustrating to read this book. I am deeply unhappy with it, what a waste of money. I gave it one star because there wasn't an option for no stars
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5 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mike Clarke
- 24-09-17
The American Shakespeare
His amusing and equally entertaining accounts of the momentous and seemingly inconsequential make him alive today in this splendidly narrated autobiography.
Way ahead of his time in his methods and subject matter. He states it his right to recall whatever is his in his mind at any given time and to talk about what interests him 'on the fly' and this predates what we now know as 'blogging'. he dictated most of this from the comfort of his bed, raising laziness to a sublimely effective level.
The volume 'heats up' in entertainment towards the end in my mind. His uncanny recounting of his young daughter Susy's innocent sayings and doings as a young child -spoken after her death - are recalled unsentimentally and with such clarity that they can't fail to move the listener. He was as equally as outspoken as Einstein on political matters and many of his observations on the corporate world of presidents and banks ring true today too. His anecdotes of the irreverent are irrepressible and joyous. Thank you to the foundation for their marvellous collation of these writings. it's a must read or in this Audible form - 'A must listen-to' !
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
- Jean
- 10-12-10
Wrong medium
Sadly I think that audio is the wrong medium for this book. I found it incredibly frustrating that a large portion of the first part was spent describing how the autobiography was put together and how many times he started it and how it was done ie dictated. There was such minutiae that I was thoroughly bored and just wanted to get on and listen to the book. In fact I think it said somewhere that the introduction was something like 200 pages long. If I had had the book in my hands I could have skipped those pages and gone straight to the autobiography itself. It would have been better to have the academic analysis as a separate item at the end. Similarly there are interjections by the editor that interrupt the flow of the book. I really wasn't interested in the fact that a certain date was considered to be wrong and the incident described was thought to have taken place six months earlier than the author indicated. It would have been better to have a different voice reading those to differentiate between them and the author's words. Having said that the actual autobiography is very entertaining but I think I will buy the book if I want to 'read' it again.
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15 people found this helpful
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
- Christopher
- 30-06-11
Loved his Books much more....
The most intriguing aspect of this book is that Twain pulls you back to the mid-1800's and provides a picture into what society was like then, what people were thinking about, how they interacted, and the major issues of the day and their impact on his own life. The reason I threw out only two stars is that I just haven't gotten through it - I continue to receive monthly credits then use those credits on audiobooks that just interest me more - I have it on my iPhone (as a backup) still but, to tell you the truth, I never seem to be in the mood to push play on it.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- david cornish
- 15-07-22
A lot of waffle.
This is the worst book I’ve heard from audible I thought I was buying an autobiography, When does the autobiography actually start? I feel I’ve been ripped off.
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Overall2 out of 5 stars
- Garethman
- 11-06-11
Frustrating
I must admit I looked forward to this but gave up on it after a couple of hours. It’s not really an autobiography, it’s more an academic commentary on an autobiography. It has short stretches of the autobiography itself, interspersed with long stretches on analysis and lists of individuals who carried out the project. Very frustrating and slightly misleading to call it an autobiography.
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2 people found this helpful