Shortly before he died, having finished the three volumes that make up his autobiography, Twain left specific instructions that it was not to be published until 100 years after the date of his death. He made this request so that when it was published he would be “dead, and unaware and indifferent.”
Another thing that strikes you when you look at the book is its sheer heft—it is over 700 pages and this is just volume one of three. The first 75 pages or so are an introduction by editors; the final 200 pages include explanatory notes (which are very interesting in themselves), references, and indexes.
But the most important thing to realize is that this is not written chronologically. Twain tells the tale of his life in myriad vignettes, each one disconnected from the next. One could be something that happened the previous week, another a memory from when he was four years old—and then next could be the story of meeting someone famous 25 years before. Arranged this way, the book is more like a fascinating reference book that can be picked up at leisure.
Twain organized his autobiography in such a haphazard manner because his plan was to “talk only about the thing which interests him at the moment”—meaning that his thoughts were given a free rein. And he literally talked the book into completion.
Twain tried writing his autobiography numerous times between 1870 and 1905. He had dozens of false starts and wrote hundreds of pages but could not get into the “groove” of completing it until he decided to dictate his story to a stenographer. The stenographer ended up working with him for three years to finish the autobiography in December 1909. Twain then declared the work done, and gave the direction for the book to not be published until 100 years after his death—which occurred less than four months later on April 21, 1910.
It may be tempting to bypass the introduction, but don’t give into that temptation. It contains a world of interesting facts and background about the writing of his autobiography and what occurred in the years especially leading up to Twain finally starting the final task in 1906.
And what do you find once you delve into the pages of these eagerly awaited stories? You find the same wit, wisdom, and creativity that you find in Mark Twain’s novels. The humor is there, of course—no matter whether he’s talking about a family member, a world leader (he met many of them), someone he couldn’t stand the sight of, or a close friend. He was a very political person and had opinions aplenty about just about every subject related to politics and politicians.
The details in Twain’s memories are truly amazing. He gives examples of what someone was wearing, or the amount of a check he received for a particular story he wrote (before he became famous and wrote his well-known novels), and even what the weather was like on a particular day 40 years ago.
One of the first chapters deals with his relationship with General Ulysses Grant—who surprisingly was a close friend of Twain’s. When Twain was writing his autobiography, Grant was extremely ill with cancer and didn’t have long to live. In reading the chapters about Grant, it becomes clear that one of the reasons Twain asked to delay the publication of this autobiography was to protect his friends and their families from details and secrets that might hurt them.
Yet when he speaks about someone he disagrees with or dislikes (and there are quite a few of those!), he does not hesitate to barbecue them—often using humor to blunt the affect of his words. Even with his gruff-old-man persona, his compassion and love for his friends and family come through strongly in the book.
