The Autobiography of Mark Twain

This is a great time travel book, and by the end it is also one of the most heartfelt intimate memoirs I've read. It has an open direct intimate feel to it all through, like reading letters from an unselfconscious old friend. He seems to have written a few pages at a time as stories occurred to him, which makes it a good book for dipping into. I read it as a bedside book, and it always kept me awake a little too long. Stories about his youthful adventures with crazy friends and business partners;his fairly barbaric Tom Sawyer childhood with reflection on his character development as he aged; stories about his absolutely adored wife and 3 daughters; his intense guilt over the death of his baby son; transcribed comments on his personality show more from his young daughter who clearly took after him; Why I Loved Minstrel Shows (well, it's some insight); his adventures in publishing; his investments; and his final losses. The last piece was written four months before his death. show less

Ok, I have decided to mete out the 5 stars sparingly. The rating wouldn't mean much if it was given to just any old book that I happened to like.
This book though, is without a doubt, one of those few that actually deserves more than 5 stars and it is therefore one of my favorite books of all time.

Why?

Well, I think there are some books that you read and you think, upon closing the last page, "Hmmm, that was a pretty good book", but then if asked about it a few days later you might be hard pressed to remember much if anything about it. Other books you read, they affect you, they touch your life, your heart, your soul, and you are changed, a different person afterwards. I have not read too many of those books.

When people are asked to show more name the books that have changed their lives, I'm always amused at those whose lists are long. My list is short and this one is on the short list.

I absolutely fell in love with Mark Twain and his autobiography. It is even more interesting when you realize that Mark Twain never actually wrote an autobiography. What he did write were a grab bag assortment of small books and personal anecdotes, with the intention of someone else compiling it after his death into an autobiography. That is why each version will be slightly different. This is not the version that I read, but Amazon did not have a photo of it, so I chose this one.

I was just so taken in by the humanity of Mark Twain, his was an American life to be sure, but it was more than that. He was a living human being,much more than just one of America's, the world's, most beloved authors. He was also a son, a brother, a husband, a father, a friend. He was all of those and more. He lived the ups and downs of life. He lived through more than his fair share of tragedy and yet in the end, he was never beaten by life's circumstances. He stayed true to who he was. He stayed forever and inimitably, Mark Twain. He laughed, he cried, he was happy, and he was sad. In the end he was supremely human, not a perfect human being, and his flaws are readily apparent.
This was one of the few books that I have read where I actually had tears streaming down my face when I closed the last page.

From his early boyhood, to the many tragedies in his life, all the way up to the end when he lost his daughter and his wife, this book was incredibly poignant. You couldn't help loving this man even more and being sad that we have no equivalent of Mark Twain today. He died himself the following year after his daughter Jean died and the world has been the worse off ever since. show less

I'd give this 4.5 stars if I could.

Incredibly humorous and charming, as is natural of Twain. Very many interesting anecdotes about his life and encounters with the figures of his time. Many timeless observations throughout. Also a refreshing format for a biography, he just talks about whatever pleases him at the time. The only problem is for such an enormous book, I was expecting a lot more which was devoted to the actual autobiography. The scraps and notes are still worth looking at, though.

This is the great American humorist in his own words; and also in the words of Albert B. Paine. The text includes a biography written by the latter. Twain's contribution consists of a series of stories from his life, without a clear direction, but just sort of roaming around in his life choosing at random. The portraits of himself and others he draws are entertaining, his characteristic wit shining through clearly, but it's a little hard to put together a picture of his life from the format. As a freethinker, I find it interesting the very toned down way in which he addresses his lack of belief, simply through a short vignette about a goose, which never really says anything, but hints at his non-belief in a deity. The biography which show more follows it is interesting, and fleshes out his life nicely, so you can put his stories into context better, and delivers a very intriguing picture of an adventurous life well suited to Tom Sawyer. The book lost in my opinion by including a long, rambling, and excessively dull essay at the tail end, an essay that is philosophical, and with which I agreed in large part, but which was not compelling and was marred by constant repetitiveness and the excessive use of capital letters. This should have been excised by the editor, but I suspect few people in the modern world are willing to cut the great masters (unless they should use "the n word", as Twain did in Huckleberry Finn. Political correctness wins out over literary history every time). This book also suffered from formatting problems which I suspect are the direct result of being converted to electronic format, and which can be very distracting and at times hard to read. show less

While the Autobiography is certainly not Clemens's best or most humorous effort, it is the one work that I consistently return to, year after year. His writing here at the end of his life can be tangential and fractured, yes, but there is a maturity and wisdom that shines through in this book.

This is primarily a collection of anecdotes: some hilarious, some heartbreaking, some brilliant, and some dull. But the nonlinear style in which it has been organized allows the reader to skim or skip the not-so-inspired narration. (Although I would recommend that the Autobiography be read in its entirety upon first being taken up.)

It is in this book, spanning from the late 19th century to his death, that Samuel Clemens the man is most fully and show more nakedly revealed. show less

Twain arranged for his autobiography to appear after his death – he wanted it to be “fresh and free and unembarrassed as a love letter.” The resulting account is unblinkingly candid, heartbreaking and funny. By the end, I loved Twain. Maybe you will too.

Sono partito molto carico, e Twain non mi ha deluso.
Poi, nell'ordine (a) le digressioni economiche (b) la villa di Quarto e le sue funeste nostalgie (c) il fatto che e' uscita in questi giorni l'autobiografia *completa* con alcune parti qui non comprese (d) il fatto che anche l'ultima discendente di Twain sia scomparsa da questa terra 50 anni fa circa, con un cocktail di pillole ed alcool (e) alcuni passaggi sentimentali.

Tutto cio', dicevo, ha appesantito la lettura, e me ne dispiaccio, perche' ho apprezzato la traduzione, gli argomenti, il narratore. Quest'ultimo, seppur prolisso, mi induce sempre un lieto e costante sorriso, indimenticabile.
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Aggiornamento 28/09/14

E poi oggi mi accorgo che in casa ho un'altra copia del libro, letto show more nell'aprile del 2000. show less