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Sign up todayAutobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 2
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Learn moreMark Twain's complete, uncensored Autobiography was an instant bestseller when the first volume was published in 2010, on the centennial of the author's death, as he requested. Published to rave reviews, the Autobiography was hailed as the capstone of Twain's career. It captures his authentic and unsuppressed voice, speaking clearly from the grave and brimming with humor, ideas, and opinions.
The eagerly awaited second volume delves deeper into Twain's life, uncovering the many roles he played in his private and public worlds. Filled with his characteristic blend of humor and ire, the narrative ranges effortlessly across the contemporary scene. He shares his views on writing and speaking, his preoccupation with money, and his contempt for the politics and politicians of his day. Affectionate and scathing by turns, his intractable curiosity and candor are everywhere on view.
Mark Twain, pseudonym of Samuel L. Clemens (1835–1910), was born in Florida, Missouri, and grew up in Hannibal on the west bank of the Mississippi River. He attended school briefly and then at age thirteen became a full-time apprentice to a local printer. When his older brother Orion established the Hannibal Journal, Samuel became a compositor for that paper and then, for a time, an itinerant printer. With a commission to write comic travel letters, he traveled down the Mississippi. Smitten with the riverboat life, he signed on as an apprentice to a steamboat pilot. After 1859, he became a licensed pilot, but two years later the Civil War put an end to the steam-boat traffic.
In 1861, he and his brother traveled to the Nevada Territory where Samuel became a writer for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, and there, on February 3, 1863, he signed a humorous account with the pseudonym Mark Twain. The name was a river man’s term for water “two fathoms deep” and thus just barely safe for navigation.
In 1870 Twain married and moved with his wife to Hartford, Connecticut. He became a highly successful lecturer in the United States and England, and he continued to write.
Alexander Adams is an award-winning audiobook narrator. He is best known for his reading of the novelization of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. He has also narrated numerous books by Jonathan Kellerman and John Grisham.
Reviews
“To most general readers, the first volume of the Autobiography of Mark Twain arrived in 2010 as an unexpected centennial surprise…This mammoth, singular autobiography became a bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic. Now, as the second volume arrives, the surprise is abated, but the pleasure remains.This thousand-page opus contains Twain’s accounts, memories, and musings on his beloved wife Clara and his daughter Susy; his old friend, then rival Bret Harte; publishers, politicians, and imperialists. At times, the nakedness of his strong opinions helps explain why he wanted these reflections to remain secret for so long.”
“If you surrender yourself to the sound of his voice, the pleasure of Twain’s company proves pretty hard to resist. His narrative may be loose, but at least it never loses sight of its subject.”
“Set aside all ideas of starting at the beginning and reading through to the end. This is a book to keep on your bedside table, or in the kitchen, or the garage, or anyplace else you might want to pick it up. Follow Clemens’ own advice in reading it, as he did in writing it: Start reading at no particular point; wander at your free will all over it; read only about the thing that interests you for the moment; drop it the moment its interest threatens to pale; and turn your eye upon the new and more interesting thing that has intruded itself into your gaze meantime. Believe me, there are plenty of these in this wonderful volume.”
“In case you had any doubt about it, the new book demonstrates that Twain dictated as well as he wrote.”
“The publishing sensation of the year.”
“Another delightful round of humor and candor, reminiscence and insider sketches of the people and politics of Twain’s day.”
“Twain is frequently sad and cynical in these late-in-life writings (just a few years before his death) but his devastating wit and sharp-eyed commentary are on full display as well.”
“One sees a mind bubbling and hears a uniquely American voice.”
“One of the more marvelous literary projects of our time.”
“The great American author, aided by his scholarly editors, continues to spin out a great yarn covering his long life…Twain admirers will find this volume indispensable and will eagerly await the third volume.”
“His autobiography, Twain explains, serves not as a window but as ‘a mirror, and I am looking at myself in it all the time’…Griffin and Smith’s careful annotations clarify the chronology running through Twain’s reflections about the face looking back at him from his mirror—now set in the perfect deadpan of a master humorist, now contorted with the acute anguish of a distressed soul. A treasure deserving shelf space next to Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer.”
“Twain traveled extensively and befriended many luminaries, and his colorful experiences give the book the same Dickensian scope as the first volume and present a vivid picture of America in the nineteenth century and Twain’s indelible mark on it.”
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