The Autobiography of Mark Twain, Mark Twain [good summer reads .TXT] 📗

The Autobiography of Mark Twain

By Mark Twain.

Table of Contents Titlepage Imprint Introduction Preface Early Fragments The Autobiography of Mark Twain Volume I The Tennessee Land Early Years in Florida, Missouri The Grant Dictations The Chicago G.A.R. Festival Grant and the Chinese A Call with W. D. Howells on General Grant About General Grant’s “Memoirs” Gerhardt and the Grant Bust The Reverend Doctor N⸺ Visits General Grant The Machine Episode Chapters Begun in Vienna Early Days Jane Lampton Clemens Playing “Bear”—Herrings—Jim Wolf and the Cats Jim Wolf and the Cats Macfarlane Old Lecture Days in Boston Ralph Keeler Beauties of the German Language A Viennese Procession Comment on Tautology and Grammar Private History of a Ms. That Came to Grief The Letter Chapters Added in Florence Author’s Note Villa Quarto Villa Quarto (Continued) A Memory of John Hay Notes on “Innocents Abroad” Stevenson, Aldrich, etc. Henry H. Rogers Henry H. Rogers (Continued) Interval of Two Years January 9, 1906 New York, January 10, 1906 New York, January 12, 1906 New York, January 13, 1906 New York, January 15, 1906 Mrs. Morris’s Illness Takes a Serious Turn New York, January 15th, Continued About General Sickles New York, January 16th, Continued New York, Thursday, January 18, 1906 About Dueling Volume II Mark Twain The Character of Man New York, Wednesday, January 24, 1906 New York, Thursday, February 1, 1906 New York, February 1, 1906 New York, Friday, February 2, 1906 New York, Monday, February 5, 1906 New York, Tuesday, February 6, 1906 Wednesday, February 7, 1906 New York, Thursday, February 8, 1906 New York, Friday, February 9, 1906 New York, Monday, February 12, 1906 New York, Tuesday, February 13, 1906 New York, Wednesday, February 14, 1906 New York, Thursday, February 15, 1906 Friday, February 16, 1906 Tuesday, February 20, 1906 New York, Wednesday, February 21, 1906 New York, Thursday, February 22, 1906 Friday, February 23, 1906 Monday, February 26, 1906 Monday, March 5, 1906 Tuesday, March 6, 1906 Wednesday, March 7, 1906 Thursday, March 8, 1906 Friday, March 9, 1906 Monday, March 12, 1906 Wednesday, March 14, 1906 Monday, March 5, 1906 Friday, March 16, 1906 Wednesday, March 21, 1906 Friday, March 22, 1906 Friday, March 23, 1906 Monday, March 26, 1906 Tuesday, March 27, 1906 Wednesday, March 28, 1906 Thursday, March 29, 1906 Friday, March 30, 1906 Monday, April 2, 1906 Wednesday, April 4, 1906 Thursday, April 5, 1906 Orion Clemens Resumed Friday, April 6, 1906 Orion Resumed Monday, April 9, 1906 Tuesday, April 10, 1906 Wednesday, April 11, 1906 Endnotes Colophon Uncopyright Imprint

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Introduction

Mark Twain had been a celebrity for a good many years before he could be persuaded to regard himself as anything more than an accident, a news-writer to whom distinction had come as a matter of good fortune rather than as a tribute to genius. Sooner or later his “vein” would be worked out, when he would of necessity embark in other pursuits.

He had already owned a newspaper, and experimented more or less casually⁠—and unfortunately⁠—with a variety of other enterprises, when in 1884 he capitalized a publishing concern, primarily to produce his own works, but not without a view to the establishment of something more dependable than authorship. It probably never occurred to him during those years that he had achieved anything like a permanent place in literary history; if the idea of an autobiography had intruded itself now and then, it had not seriously troubled him.1

But a year later, when the publication by his firm of the Memoirs of Gen. U.S. Grant brought him into daily association with the dying conqueror, the thought came that the story of this episode might be worthy of preservation. It was not, for the present, at least, to be an autobiography, but no more than a few chapters, built around a great historic figure. General Grant’s own difficulties in setting down his memories suggested prompt action. Mark Twain’s former lecture agent, James Redpath, was visiting him at this time, and with a knowledge of shorthand became his amanuensis. The work they did together was considerable, covering in detail the story of the Grant publishing venture. Clemens may have planned other chapters of a personal sort, but, unaccustomed to dictation, he found the work tedious, with a result, as it seemed to him, unsatisfactory.

A number of important things happened to Mark Twain during the next dozen years, among them his business failure, which left him with a load of debt, dependent entirely upon authorship and the lecture platform for rehabilitation and support. The story of his splendid victory, the payment to the last dollar of his indebtedness, has been widely told. He was in Vienna when he completed this triumph, and, whatever he had been before, he was now unquestionably a world figure with a recognized place in history. Realization of this may have prompted him to begin, during those busy Vienna winters (1897 to 1899), something