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Autobiography of Mark Twain: The Complete and Authorized Edition #3
Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 3: The Complete and Authoritative Edition (Volume 12)
The surprising final chapter of a great American life.
When the first volume of Mark Twain’s uncensored Autobiography was published in 2010, it was hailed as an essential addition to the shelf of his works and a crucial document for our understanding of the great humorist’s life and times. This third and final volume crowns and completes his life’s work. Like its companion volumes, it chronicles Twain's inner and outer life through a series of daily dictations that go wherever his fancy leads.
Created from March 1907 to December 1909, these dictations present Mark Twain at the end of his receiving an honorary degree from Oxford University; railing against Theodore Roosevelt; founding numerous clubs; incredulous at an exhibition of the Holy Grail; credulous about the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays; relaxing in Bermuda; observing (and investing in) new technologies. The Autobiography ’s “Closing Words” movingly commemorate his daughter Jean, who died on Christmas Eve 1909. Also included in this volume is the previously unpublished “Ashcroft-Lyon Manuscript,” Mark Twain’s caustic indictment of his “putrescent pair” of secretaries and the havoc that erupted in his house during their residency.
Fitfully published in fragments at intervals throughout the twentieth century, Autobiography of Mark Twain has now been critically reconstructed and made available as it was intended to be read. Fully annotated by the editors of the Mark Twain Project, the complete Autobiography emerges as a landmark publication in American literature.
Benjamin Griffin and Harriet Elinor Smith
Associate Victor Fischer, Michael B. Frank, Amanda Gagel, Sharon K. Goetz, Leslie Diane Myrick, Christopher M. Ohge
When the first volume of Mark Twain’s uncensored Autobiography was published in 2010, it was hailed as an essential addition to the shelf of his works and a crucial document for our understanding of the great humorist’s life and times. This third and final volume crowns and completes his life’s work. Like its companion volumes, it chronicles Twain's inner and outer life through a series of daily dictations that go wherever his fancy leads.
Created from March 1907 to December 1909, these dictations present Mark Twain at the end of his receiving an honorary degree from Oxford University; railing against Theodore Roosevelt; founding numerous clubs; incredulous at an exhibition of the Holy Grail; credulous about the authorship of Shakespeare’s plays; relaxing in Bermuda; observing (and investing in) new technologies. The Autobiography ’s “Closing Words” movingly commemorate his daughter Jean, who died on Christmas Eve 1909. Also included in this volume is the previously unpublished “Ashcroft-Lyon Manuscript,” Mark Twain’s caustic indictment of his “putrescent pair” of secretaries and the havoc that erupted in his house during their residency.
Fitfully published in fragments at intervals throughout the twentieth century, Autobiography of Mark Twain has now been critically reconstructed and made available as it was intended to be read. Fully annotated by the editors of the Mark Twain Project, the complete Autobiography emerges as a landmark publication in American literature.
Benjamin Griffin and Harriet Elinor Smith
Associate Victor Fischer, Michael B. Frank, Amanda Gagel, Sharon K. Goetz, Leslie Diane Myrick, Christopher M. Ohge
792 pages, Hardcover
First published October 15, 2015
42 people are currently reading
1668 people want to read
About the author
Mark Twain
8,811 books18.5k followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Faulkner calling him "the father of American literature." His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), with the latter often called the "Great American Novel." Twain also wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) and Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), and co-wrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) with Charles Dudley Warner.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Faulkner calling him "the father of American literature." His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), with the latter often called the "Great American Novel." Twain also wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) and Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), and co-wrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) with Charles Dudley Warner.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 53 reviews
July 11, 2022
Here, at last, is the final of three volumes in the Complete and Authoritative Edition of Mark Twain's massive autobiography. Earlier editions of The Autobiography ignored the detailed instructions its author left for its posthumous publication, beginning with his stipulation that it not be published until 100 years after his death. This edition followed his instructions to the letter. It is painstakingly edited, formatted, and published according to Mark Twain’s instructions. Much of the material in this edition has never before been published.
I listened to all these volumes on audiobooks. I would highly recommend doing this to others. It first has the advantage of highlighting the story teller feel of the book — it creates the illusion that Mark Twain is telling his stories to you personally. Also, not all the material here is of the same quality — some of his stories simply don't have the same punch or are repetitive. With the audiobook, you can tune out as you listen, catching some details but letting your attention wander until the next story begins which may be a humdinger.
The final section of this last volume of The Autobiography becomes truly painful. Twain had become obsessed that certain of his long time employees were stealing from him and betraying him in various ways. An extensive section at the end of this volume, the Ashcroft/Lyons manuscript, is a detailed, relentless, and viscous harangue against them. It goes on and on, embarrassingly, revealing the angry bitterness that characterized Twain’s final years. It was because of this difficult and unpleasant manuscript that I rated this last volume lower than I did the previous two.
Twain’s Autobiography is as unique as he was. It contains humor, cantankerousness, wisdom, balderdash, and not a little bitterness. No fan of Mark Twain should miss this experience.
I listened to all these volumes on audiobooks. I would highly recommend doing this to others. It first has the advantage of highlighting the story teller feel of the book — it creates the illusion that Mark Twain is telling his stories to you personally. Also, not all the material here is of the same quality — some of his stories simply don't have the same punch or are repetitive. With the audiobook, you can tune out as you listen, catching some details but letting your attention wander until the next story begins which may be a humdinger.
The final section of this last volume of The Autobiography becomes truly painful. Twain had become obsessed that certain of his long time employees were stealing from him and betraying him in various ways. An extensive section at the end of this volume, the Ashcroft/Lyons manuscript, is a detailed, relentless, and viscous harangue against them. It goes on and on, embarrassingly, revealing the angry bitterness that characterized Twain’s final years. It was because of this difficult and unpleasant manuscript that I rated this last volume lower than I did the previous two.
Twain’s Autobiography is as unique as he was. It contains humor, cantankerousness, wisdom, balderdash, and not a little bitterness. No fan of Mark Twain should miss this experience.
February 15, 2016
With this volume the Autobiography of Mark Twain as he intended it - more or less, see below - is fully published, over a hundred years after his death. Many pieces of it had been published before in very different form, often expurgated, always out of order, in bits and pieces.
This third volume is the most consistent one if you look for a linear narrative, not necessarily what Twain started out to produce. It follows the last roughly two years of his dictations, which in turn follow this years relatively closely. There is still the odd older anecdote, usually when Twain tries to give context to people he meets.
Two larger episodes stick out: His visit to England for getting his honorary degree from Oxford, which tends to drag a bit with overblown reverence, almost adoration of the European noble class. An episode with lines upon lines upon lines of boring insubstantial details about long forgotten rich bourgeois.
The second is contained partially in the Autobiography proper but the bulk is in a manuscript not having been published before this volume, the so called Ashcroft-Lyons Manuscript. It deals with a the events surrounding two of Twain's employees/acquaintances, who appear to have skimmed off his riches. With all corrections, false starts, deletions, ramblings etc. kept intact by the editors [details on why and how are found in the editorial notes, introductions, and explanations in the three volumes] it gives a good glimpse of Twain as a man and of his work process.
That brings me to the editorial work.
Some readers have been less than flattering about this edition, particularly when the first volume was published. They don't like that there is anything but genuine Twain between the title and end pages. Sure, an edition without any notes or introduction is conceivable, and was, I think, done for the first volume, the so-called 'reader's edition'. I have not had a looked into it but if it really got rid of all the explanations provided by the proper edition it cannot be much fun.
Apart from the fact that Twain all to often bends reality to suit a better tale or because he forgot/mixed up things most of the characters he talks about, many of the then big events are now at best mere footnotes to literary, political, theological history. Even specialists do not necessarily know them. Without the painstaking work of the editors the reader wouldn't know anything about them.
In some cases this may work, in others not so much. Sometimes Twain simply forgets to mention the function of a certain person he mentions - without which their actions doesn't make any sense [or the actions are not even mentioned explicitly but are obvious when we learn the profession]. In other cases, out of narrative choice, Twain introduces details giving a completely false image of the - real! - persons involved, as with ... Ah, but I shouldn't spoil the particular episode I have in mind.
Twain had two goals in mind when he started, in fits, his Autobiography. He wanted a true image of the man in all his glory and all his infamy. He was aware that nobody could honestly write about themselves, especially not when trying their hands on a linear narrative from birth to ... Hence his decision for an anecdotal approach. It is, curiously the Ashcroft-Lyons Manuscript presenting the most honest, to many possibly sobering, even horrifying image of Twain the man. This is more of a very long rant - and intended as such - than a well thought through abstract of events and feelings.
It is still open to debate what really happened between the Clemenses and the Ashcroft-Lyons although I tend to believe the core of Twain's accusations are true but he blew it out of proportion for very personal reasons. He was clearly deeply hurt by what he perceived as treason; it didn't help the accused to drag in his daughters, who he dearly loved.
His second aim was to provide his daughters with income from his books, only feasible by extending copyright on them. Hence, many a piece was intended to be stuck onto new editions of his old books. As a whole his Autobiography was to be published a hundred years after his death as not to tarnish any living person's reputation. In the case of the Ashcroft-Lyons Manuscript no publication seems to have been intended.
The three-volume Autobiography as it now stands is a treasure trove for historians and literary scientists specialised in US American Modernism of the second half of the 19th century. It shows us how not only thought and writing processes of a specific person - Samuel Langhorne Clemens - but gives a picture of the times, of how people lived [mostly prosperous people but Twain and many of his acquaintances weren't always wealthy],and what they thought about current events.
This third volume is the most consistent one if you look for a linear narrative, not necessarily what Twain started out to produce. It follows the last roughly two years of his dictations, which in turn follow this years relatively closely. There is still the odd older anecdote, usually when Twain tries to give context to people he meets.
Two larger episodes stick out: His visit to England for getting his honorary degree from Oxford, which tends to drag a bit with overblown reverence, almost adoration of the European noble class. An episode with lines upon lines upon lines of boring insubstantial details about long forgotten rich bourgeois.
The second is contained partially in the Autobiography proper but the bulk is in a manuscript not having been published before this volume, the so called Ashcroft-Lyons Manuscript. It deals with a the events surrounding two of Twain's employees/acquaintances, who appear to have skimmed off his riches. With all corrections, false starts, deletions, ramblings etc. kept intact by the editors [details on why and how are found in the editorial notes, introductions, and explanations in the three volumes] it gives a good glimpse of Twain as a man and of his work process.
That brings me to the editorial work.
Some readers have been less than flattering about this edition, particularly when the first volume was published. They don't like that there is anything but genuine Twain between the title and end pages. Sure, an edition without any notes or introduction is conceivable, and was, I think, done for the first volume, the so-called 'reader's edition'. I have not had a looked into it but if it really got rid of all the explanations provided by the proper edition it cannot be much fun.
Apart from the fact that Twain all to often bends reality to suit a better tale or because he forgot/mixed up things most of the characters he talks about, many of the then big events are now at best mere footnotes to literary, political, theological history. Even specialists do not necessarily know them. Without the painstaking work of the editors the reader wouldn't know anything about them.
In some cases this may work, in others not so much. Sometimes Twain simply forgets to mention the function of a certain person he mentions - without which their actions doesn't make any sense [or the actions are not even mentioned explicitly but are obvious when we learn the profession]. In other cases, out of narrative choice, Twain introduces details giving a completely false image of the - real! - persons involved, as with ... Ah, but I shouldn't spoil the particular episode I have in mind.
Twain had two goals in mind when he started, in fits, his Autobiography. He wanted a true image of the man in all his glory and all his infamy. He was aware that nobody could honestly write about themselves, especially not when trying their hands on a linear narrative from birth to ... Hence his decision for an anecdotal approach. It is, curiously the Ashcroft-Lyons Manuscript presenting the most honest, to many possibly sobering, even horrifying image of Twain the man. This is more of a very long rant - and intended as such - than a well thought through abstract of events and feelings.
It is still open to debate what really happened between the Clemenses and the Ashcroft-Lyons although I tend to believe the core of Twain's accusations are true but he blew it out of proportion for very personal reasons. He was clearly deeply hurt by what he perceived as treason; it didn't help the accused to drag in his daughters, who he dearly loved.
His second aim was to provide his daughters with income from his books, only feasible by extending copyright on them. Hence, many a piece was intended to be stuck onto new editions of his old books. As a whole his Autobiography was to be published a hundred years after his death as not to tarnish any living person's reputation. In the case of the Ashcroft-Lyons Manuscript no publication seems to have been intended.
The three-volume Autobiography as it now stands is a treasure trove for historians and literary scientists specialised in US American Modernism of the second half of the 19th century. It shows us how not only thought and writing processes of a specific person - Samuel Langhorne Clemens - but gives a picture of the times, of how people lived [mostly prosperous people but Twain and many of his acquaintances weren't always wealthy],and what they thought about current events.
April 9, 2021
Listened after reading, and will do one or the other again at some point. Terribly sad ending, both due to losing yet another child before her time and the manipulation by trusted employees, but we do get to hear him use the phrase “Oh, Hell no!” back in 1909. Sam is never boring.
November 17, 2019
Twain’s Autobiography is just undigested dictated notes of his old age. The best bits appear as self-standing pieces in his books.
November 6, 2015
Holy crap. That was awesome.
If I were stranded on an island with only one book to read, I hope it could be this massive three-parter. The 2000 plus pages are not nearly enough to satisfy wanting to know more about Twain, or at least wanting to hear more about how he saw himself, his family, his friends, the government, and the world.
I liked and respected Twain prior to investing in these books, but now he is otherworldly to me. Good god, did he hate Roosevelt. Remember when Oprah eviscerated the Million Little Pieces guy, or Jon Krakauer took a flame-thrower to Greg Mortenson?
Twain hates Roosevelt way more than that. For that, alone this is a great read.
Highly, highly recommended.
-MP
If I were stranded on an island with only one book to read, I hope it could be this massive three-parter. The 2000 plus pages are not nearly enough to satisfy wanting to know more about Twain, or at least wanting to hear more about how he saw himself, his family, his friends, the government, and the world.
I liked and respected Twain prior to investing in these books, but now he is otherworldly to me. Good god, did he hate Roosevelt. Remember when Oprah eviscerated the Million Little Pieces guy, or Jon Krakauer took a flame-thrower to Greg Mortenson?
Twain hates Roosevelt way more than that. For that, alone this is a great read.
Highly, highly recommended.
-MP
August 21, 2018
Twain at his short essay best. This volume of the autobiography has Twain dictating whatever stories came into his mind while purportedly writing his autobiography over three years of his life. It comes across a lot like a newspaper columnist with free reign to write whatever he wants, knowing the strength of his style and his storytelling capabilities will pull him through with what could well be a gem. There are gems here, but take the stories together and they tell of Twain's life, his worries, his interests, his opinions. He loves his own opinions.
The backstory here is very interesting, and Twain himself tells it near the end of this volume. Throughout this and previous volumes of his autobiography, Twain complains about how the copyright law was taking away the ability for his family to earn revenue off of his work, his writing, after the copyright has expired. He explains in this volume that he wants to provide for daughter Jean. His other living daughter has married and is provided for, but Jean is not. Twain’s way to game the copyright law is to write additions to his autobiography, and to have his daughter release new versions of the autobiography when the copyright is nearing expiration, each new edition containing a few thousand words from this volume of stories. Quite a smart idea. But the bulk of the volume ends when Twain finds his daughter Jean dead, having drowned after an epileptic seizure. He shares his grief in his last dictated sections, his reason for writing the autobiography gone.
There is an addition to the “official” part of the autobiography. In subsequent years, Twain realized that his secretary and his housekeeper had been defrauding him. He writes a story to describe the situation, covering quite a few pages, in the same style and wit he exhibits throughout. The case never went to court, so this story was not released. It contains some interesting details on his life, his finances, and his frame of mind. He was too trusting, and you can feel him just kicking himself on being taken for so long by the people he mindlessly trusted. You learn much of Twain’s character at the twilight of his life from this story.
The essays, or stories themselves are of a wide variety of topics, but all containing Twain wit and style. There are descriptions of investments, including a wireless telephone that takes messages. Twain had a great disdain for President Teddy Roosevelt, pillorying him in a few of his essays. He also took on the media. The writing was fresh, but I found it truly amazing that for a few pages, I would have believed it had been written this week – the topics were how unpresidential the President was acting, followed by a condemnation of the media, printing stories without facts in order to keep advertisers happy. Ripped from today’s headlines, but written 110 years ago!
After listening to the audiobook version of all three volumes of Twain’s autobiography, I got what I was initially looking for – insight into Twain, and a lot of stories told in his style. He was a great writer, and this volume reminds you of this in every section.
The backstory here is very interesting, and Twain himself tells it near the end of this volume. Throughout this and previous volumes of his autobiography, Twain complains about how the copyright law was taking away the ability for his family to earn revenue off of his work, his writing, after the copyright has expired. He explains in this volume that he wants to provide for daughter Jean. His other living daughter has married and is provided for, but Jean is not. Twain’s way to game the copyright law is to write additions to his autobiography, and to have his daughter release new versions of the autobiography when the copyright is nearing expiration, each new edition containing a few thousand words from this volume of stories. Quite a smart idea. But the bulk of the volume ends when Twain finds his daughter Jean dead, having drowned after an epileptic seizure. He shares his grief in his last dictated sections, his reason for writing the autobiography gone.
There is an addition to the “official” part of the autobiography. In subsequent years, Twain realized that his secretary and his housekeeper had been defrauding him. He writes a story to describe the situation, covering quite a few pages, in the same style and wit he exhibits throughout. The case never went to court, so this story was not released. It contains some interesting details on his life, his finances, and his frame of mind. He was too trusting, and you can feel him just kicking himself on being taken for so long by the people he mindlessly trusted. You learn much of Twain’s character at the twilight of his life from this story.
The essays, or stories themselves are of a wide variety of topics, but all containing Twain wit and style. There are descriptions of investments, including a wireless telephone that takes messages. Twain had a great disdain for President Teddy Roosevelt, pillorying him in a few of his essays. He also took on the media. The writing was fresh, but I found it truly amazing that for a few pages, I would have believed it had been written this week – the topics were how unpresidential the President was acting, followed by a condemnation of the media, printing stories without facts in order to keep advertisers happy. Ripped from today’s headlines, but written 110 years ago!
After listening to the audiobook version of all three volumes of Twain’s autobiography, I got what I was initially looking for – insight into Twain, and a lot of stories told in his style. He was a great writer, and this volume reminds you of this in every section.
Want to read
July 29, 2019******************
*The Diaries of Adam and Eve 4 stars
*The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 4 stars
*Joan of Arc 3 stars
*The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 3 stars
*The Innocents Abroad 3 stars
*Life on the Mississippi TBR
*Mark Twain by Ron Powers TBR
or
I think I will read these instead:
*Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1: The Complete and Authoritative Edition
*Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 2: The Complete and Authoritative Edition
*Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 3: The Complete and Authoritative Edition
*The Diaries of Adam and Eve 4 stars
*The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 4 stars
*Joan of Arc 3 stars
*The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 3 stars
*The Innocents Abroad 3 stars
*Life on the Mississippi TBR
*Mark Twain by Ron Powers TBR
or
I think I will read these instead:
*Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1: The Complete and Authoritative Edition
*Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 2: The Complete and Authoritative Edition
*Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 3: The Complete and Authoritative Edition
June 8, 2021
Still a stunning opening of his mind, with both an idiosyncratic and nuanced look at cultural issues witnessed firsthand in Europe as well his thoughts about the last two years of his life.
In fact, his dictation stops 4 months before his death, unknowingly. Although I do suspect he somewhat knew the end was near, as he does sign off in this dictated autobiography. The entries are more sparse, partly due to traveling and partly due to a number of shocking blows in his personal life, dictated here after some reflection.
The death of his daughters and wife haunt this final volume, especially Jean, who died suddenly from the complicated effects of an epileptic seizure (looks like she drowned in the bathtub after suffering such a seizure). For somebody whose reputation was that of a riotous deflater of egos and sartorial dissection of American life, his most savage opinions and unveilings are personal and deeply wounded and very much a vulnerable deflation of his own ego. This third and final volume is probably the bulk of the reason he indicated it should not have been published until the past decade, 100 years after his death.
As noted by others, this volume tends to cover the last years, the most recent years for Clemens, though his does cover his early "cub reporter years" here. A full quarter (the last 100 pages) are the Ashcroft-Lyons betrayal, which perhaps is overblown but certainly wounded and preoccupied Clemens deeply as his wife and daughters began dying. Livia probably was in distinct charge of family finances and led to the blind spot of the Ashcroft-Lyons scam, which were exacerbated and enlarged in Twain's mind. Depending on the reader's stamina, it can or can not be skipped. It is worthwhile certainly for the state of Clemens's mind near the end.
I suppose this is the equivalent of a hidden manuscript discovered after a century, but its existence was known and protected by the author's wishes. An invaluable contribution to Twain studies and probably will lead to a number of new biographies correcting and enlarging the record here. If you have read volumes 1 and 2, this is required reading. Bravo. A last half decade well spent getting these honest thoughts on paper.
And yes, he hates Teddy Roosevelt like some of us hate other recent Presidents. Ouch.
In fact, his dictation stops 4 months before his death, unknowingly. Although I do suspect he somewhat knew the end was near, as he does sign off in this dictated autobiography. The entries are more sparse, partly due to traveling and partly due to a number of shocking blows in his personal life, dictated here after some reflection.
The death of his daughters and wife haunt this final volume, especially Jean, who died suddenly from the complicated effects of an epileptic seizure (looks like she drowned in the bathtub after suffering such a seizure). For somebody whose reputation was that of a riotous deflater of egos and sartorial dissection of American life, his most savage opinions and unveilings are personal and deeply wounded and very much a vulnerable deflation of his own ego. This third and final volume is probably the bulk of the reason he indicated it should not have been published until the past decade, 100 years after his death.
As noted by others, this volume tends to cover the last years, the most recent years for Clemens, though his does cover his early "cub reporter years" here. A full quarter (the last 100 pages) are the Ashcroft-Lyons betrayal, which perhaps is overblown but certainly wounded and preoccupied Clemens deeply as his wife and daughters began dying. Livia probably was in distinct charge of family finances and led to the blind spot of the Ashcroft-Lyons scam, which were exacerbated and enlarged in Twain's mind. Depending on the reader's stamina, it can or can not be skipped. It is worthwhile certainly for the state of Clemens's mind near the end.
I suppose this is the equivalent of a hidden manuscript discovered after a century, but its existence was known and protected by the author's wishes. An invaluable contribution to Twain studies and probably will lead to a number of new biographies correcting and enlarging the record here. If you have read volumes 1 and 2, this is required reading. Bravo. A last half decade well spent getting these honest thoughts on paper.
And yes, he hates Teddy Roosevelt like some of us hate other recent Presidents. Ouch.
July 14, 2017
Literary historians are certainly indebted to those who made these volumes available.
I was amazed in this volume by how much Twain did not like Theodore Roosevelt. Actually he says he liked him as a person but hated his politics. I could not help but wonder if Twain resented TR being the only man in America with a bigger personality than him and who was even more loved than him.
Perhaps the most interesting thing in all three volumes is the end of this book. Twain had a Secretary and Financial Manager whom the totally trusted. There are a couple of books and a movie that suggest that Twain had an affair with his Secretary. But these came out before this autobiography. When all of this controversy was going on Twain wrote an extended account of everything that happened which was again not to be published until long after all of those involved were dead. Twain's case seems compelling that the villans were his employees. Furthermore it seems doubtful from all that he says that he ever had an "affair" with the Secretary.
I was amazed in this volume by how much Twain did not like Theodore Roosevelt. Actually he says he liked him as a person but hated his politics. I could not help but wonder if Twain resented TR being the only man in America with a bigger personality than him and who was even more loved than him.
Perhaps the most interesting thing in all three volumes is the end of this book. Twain had a Secretary and Financial Manager whom the totally trusted. There are a couple of books and a movie that suggest that Twain had an affair with his Secretary. But these came out before this autobiography. When all of this controversy was going on Twain wrote an extended account of everything that happened which was again not to be published until long after all of those involved were dead. Twain's case seems compelling that the villans were his employees. Furthermore it seems doubtful from all that he says that he ever had an "affair" with the Secretary.
January 7, 2018
Review title: Goodbye, old friend
With this third massive volume, the "Complete and Authoritative Edition" of Twain's autobiographical writings is complete. You can read my reviews of Volume 1 and Volume 2 to learn more about the best autobiography never written. The same praise applies here, as Twain brings his writings to a close within six months of his death in April 1910.
This volume showcases three aspects of Twain's mind:
1. His political concerns
We have already encountered Twain's well-documented deep dislike and distain of Teddy Roosevelt in the first two volumes. But reading this venom expressed in exactly the same tone and language directed against President Trump in his first year is both powerfully prophetic and cautionary. One example of several:
The cautionary part of this tale is that while Roosevelt was almost universally loved by public option of the day, a century removed from the events history has taken a more nuanced view of his legacy. Trump is a similarly larger than life personality and lightning rod for both intense support and distain. How will history record Trump's legacy a century from now? Before you answer, apply study, thought and wisdom, and consider Twain's words here:
Twain has succinctly explained why I believe that voting in a democracy should not be a right, it should be a privilege earned by diligent study, thought, and wisdom applied to people, politics, and religion to prevent their dominance by unthinking followers foreseen by Twain. I know my position is not popular, and not likely to be adopted and enacted into policy, but when I see the news dominated by the same defects Twain documented over a century ago, I am convinced that American democracy is in need of such a radical change.
2. His personal tragedies
Twain is usually remembered as the colloquial storyteller, witty speaker, and avuncular grandpa we all wish we had. But his personal life and personality was shaped by tragedy. We have already read in the earlier volumes of the death of his beloved wife and of his daughter Suzy while Twain and his wife were crossing the ocean from Europe to try to reach her bedside but tragically too late.
In this volume we learn of the sudden death of his best friend H. H. Rogers. And then, just months after that and months after Twain's daughter Jean had returned home to live with Twain after spending most of her recent years under institional care and experimental cures far from home for her life long diagnosis of epilepsy, she died suddenly at home after a seizure. This last tragedy, on Christmas Eve 1909, shook him to the core. He concluded his dictation with a 10-page outpouring of the most intensely personal, deep, and sad writing you will ever read. It begins: "Jean is dead! And so this Autobiography closes here. I had a reason for projecting it, three years ago: that reason perishes with her." (p. 310)
Within months, the heartbroken Twain would join his wife and three of his four children in death. He would leave us as not just humorous, witty, and avuncular, but deeply human. It is why we still read him and he still speaks to us.
3. His surprising final manuscript
The bulk of the three volumes are transcripts of dictation sessions, initially daily but by the last year of his life often separated by week-long gaps. But appended to the end of the dictations is a 100-plus page manuscript written by Twain and lost for decades until first studied in the 1970s and used as the basis for narratives of the last year's of Twain's life that started appearing in the last decade. Known as the Ashcroft-Lyon Manuscript, it is published here in its entirety for the first time, from Twain's handwritten original.
The manuscript is Twain's view of his seven-year relationship with Isabel Lyon, first his wife's and then his personal secretary, and Ralph Ashcroft, his business manager, who later married Lyon. Lyon became an integral part of the Clemens household, and Ashcroft was a trusted business advisor and friend who worked for and accompanied Twain on travels without compensation for much of their relationship. However, at the instigation of Twain's daughter Clara and his close friend H. H. Rogers, Twain began to suspect the pair of working behind the scene to divide the family and defraud him out of thousands of dollars. The manuscript tells Twain's side of first his uncritical belief in the integrity and loyalty of Ashcroft and Lyon, and then his astonished and angry discovery of the truth of the suspicions when he hired an accountant and a lawyer to investigate.
Combined with the final personal tragedy Twain would soon suffer, this manuscript reveals the full range of anger and sadness a man could suffer, and this man puts it on paper like few other writers ever have. Twain was in the end fully human.
Goodbye, old friend.
With this third massive volume, the "Complete and Authoritative Edition" of Twain's autobiographical writings is complete. You can read my reviews of Volume 1 and Volume 2 to learn more about the best autobiography never written. The same praise applies here, as Twain brings his writings to a close within six months of his death in April 1910.
This volume showcases three aspects of Twain's mind:
1. His political concerns
We have already encountered Twain's well-documented deep dislike and distain of Teddy Roosevelt in the first two volumes. But reading this venom expressed in exactly the same tone and language directed against President Trump in his first year is both powerfully prophetic and cautionary. One example of several:
Hasn't he kept up such a continual thundering from our Olympus about foot-ball and base ball . . . and all sorts of little nursery matters, that we have come to stand in fear that the first time an exigency of real importance shall arise, our thunders will not be able to attract the world's notice or exert any valuable influence upon ourselves? And so on, and so on--the list of unpresidential things, things hitherto deemed impossible, wholly impossible, measurelessly impossible for a president of the United States to do--is much too long for invoicing here. (P. 62)
The cautionary part of this tale is that while Roosevelt was almost universally loved by public option of the day, a century removed from the events history has taken a more nuanced view of his legacy. Trump is a similarly larger than life personality and lightning rod for both intense support and distain. How will history record Trump's legacy a century from now? Before you answer, apply study, thought and wisdom, and consider Twain's words here:
The bulk of any nation's opinions about its president, or its king, or its emperor, or its politics, or its religion, is without value, and not worth weighing or considering or examining. There is nothing mental in it; it is all feeling, and procured at second-hand without any assistance from the proprietor's reasoning powers. (P. 254)
Twain has succinctly explained why I believe that voting in a democracy should not be a right, it should be a privilege earned by diligent study, thought, and wisdom applied to people, politics, and religion to prevent their dominance by unthinking followers foreseen by Twain. I know my position is not popular, and not likely to be adopted and enacted into policy, but when I see the news dominated by the same defects Twain documented over a century ago, I am convinced that American democracy is in need of such a radical change.
2. His personal tragedies
Twain is usually remembered as the colloquial storyteller, witty speaker, and avuncular grandpa we all wish we had. But his personal life and personality was shaped by tragedy. We have already read in the earlier volumes of the death of his beloved wife and of his daughter Suzy while Twain and his wife were crossing the ocean from Europe to try to reach her bedside but tragically too late.
In this volume we learn of the sudden death of his best friend H. H. Rogers. And then, just months after that and months after Twain's daughter Jean had returned home to live with Twain after spending most of her recent years under institional care and experimental cures far from home for her life long diagnosis of epilepsy, she died suddenly at home after a seizure. This last tragedy, on Christmas Eve 1909, shook him to the core. He concluded his dictation with a 10-page outpouring of the most intensely personal, deep, and sad writing you will ever read. It begins: "Jean is dead! And so this Autobiography closes here. I had a reason for projecting it, three years ago: that reason perishes with her." (p. 310)
Within months, the heartbroken Twain would join his wife and three of his four children in death. He would leave us as not just humorous, witty, and avuncular, but deeply human. It is why we still read him and he still speaks to us.
3. His surprising final manuscript
The bulk of the three volumes are transcripts of dictation sessions, initially daily but by the last year of his life often separated by week-long gaps. But appended to the end of the dictations is a 100-plus page manuscript written by Twain and lost for decades until first studied in the 1970s and used as the basis for narratives of the last year's of Twain's life that started appearing in the last decade. Known as the Ashcroft-Lyon Manuscript, it is published here in its entirety for the first time, from Twain's handwritten original.
The manuscript is Twain's view of his seven-year relationship with Isabel Lyon, first his wife's and then his personal secretary, and Ralph Ashcroft, his business manager, who later married Lyon. Lyon became an integral part of the Clemens household, and Ashcroft was a trusted business advisor and friend who worked for and accompanied Twain on travels without compensation for much of their relationship. However, at the instigation of Twain's daughter Clara and his close friend H. H. Rogers, Twain began to suspect the pair of working behind the scene to divide the family and defraud him out of thousands of dollars. The manuscript tells Twain's side of first his uncritical belief in the integrity and loyalty of Ashcroft and Lyon, and then his astonished and angry discovery of the truth of the suspicions when he hired an accountant and a lawyer to investigate.
Combined with the final personal tragedy Twain would soon suffer, this manuscript reveals the full range of anger and sadness a man could suffer, and this man puts it on paper like few other writers ever have. Twain was in the end fully human.
Goodbye, old friend.
June 10, 2020
A fascinating and often hilarious series of anecdotes and observations...and Twain HATED Teddy Roosevelt.
The third volume of Twain's autobiography continues in its unorthodox style as less a narrative of his life than a series of random asides that he decided to dictate between 1907 and 1909. The almost cynical way Twain decided to "write" is autobiography is continuously amusing. Ultimately it was a scheme to extend the copyright on his written works so he'd as the copyright was about to expire, he'd append 20,000 or so words of "autobiography" to the book and therefore extend the copyright another 24 years. It was so blindingly cynical as to be commendable.
The combincaiton of irascibility, self-deprecation, and egotism prevails throughout this work as Twain rails against everything from banquet speeches (hates them), honorary degrees (loves them because he didn't do anything to earn it), and his own laziness (unsurpassed in his eye). This book is like sitting at the feet of a crotchety old man who keep hitting you with "...and another thing..."
The venom Twain has for Teddy Roosevelt is both substantial and quaint in hindsight. Example: "Mr. Roosevelt is the most formidable disaster that has befallen the country since the Civil War -- but the vast mass of the nation loves him, is frantically fond of him, even idolizes him. This is the simple truth. It sounds like a libel upon the intelligence of the human race, but it isn't; there isn't anyway to libel the intelligence of the human race."
The autobiography ends with the tragic death of his daughter Jean who drowned in a bathtub following an epileptic seizure. His reminiscences after that point are heartbreaking as he recounts all the little things throughout the house that, now without an agent behind them, feel so empty. It's quite moving and an understandable, if sad, way to end the work.
The third volume of Twain's autobiography continues in its unorthodox style as less a narrative of his life than a series of random asides that he decided to dictate between 1907 and 1909. The almost cynical way Twain decided to "write" is autobiography is continuously amusing. Ultimately it was a scheme to extend the copyright on his written works so he'd as the copyright was about to expire, he'd append 20,000 or so words of "autobiography" to the book and therefore extend the copyright another 24 years. It was so blindingly cynical as to be commendable.
The combincaiton of irascibility, self-deprecation, and egotism prevails throughout this work as Twain rails against everything from banquet speeches (hates them), honorary degrees (loves them because he didn't do anything to earn it), and his own laziness (unsurpassed in his eye). This book is like sitting at the feet of a crotchety old man who keep hitting you with "...and another thing..."
The venom Twain has for Teddy Roosevelt is both substantial and quaint in hindsight. Example: "Mr. Roosevelt is the most formidable disaster that has befallen the country since the Civil War -- but the vast mass of the nation loves him, is frantically fond of him, even idolizes him. This is the simple truth. It sounds like a libel upon the intelligence of the human race, but it isn't; there isn't anyway to libel the intelligence of the human race."
The autobiography ends with the tragic death of his daughter Jean who drowned in a bathtub following an epileptic seizure. His reminiscences after that point are heartbreaking as he recounts all the little things throughout the house that, now without an agent behind them, feel so empty. It's quite moving and an understandable, if sad, way to end the work.
Read
April 25, 2025Wow. All three volumes of the Autobiography done. I feel as if I've been hanging out with Mr. Clemens my whole life.
Now I'm ready for Ron Chernow's biography of Mark Twain, which comes out next month on May 13, 2025.
Now I'm ready for Ron Chernow's biography of Mark Twain, which comes out next month on May 13, 2025.
April 29, 2017
This compendium of autobiographical material, like the other volumes available freely for online reading, is an entertaining and in insightful view into the wit and world of the great American humorist. For me, this concluding volume (I don't know that more are planned by O of C Press), is in two parts. The first part is the wit and worldview of Twain, from a detailed examination of “Wapping Alice” and the case of the supposed cross-dressing, to his considered views of the deficiencies of Teddy Roosevelt as president, his opinions on simplified spelling, and even considering the buying into the Baconian theory of Shakespeare authorship due to the paucity of biographical details for William Shakespeare. The second half is a saddening look into the twilight of his life: he the The Autobiography was wasted and had to defend himself from a married servant couple from drinking, theft of property and wealth, and the cruel confinement of his epileptic daughter Jean Clemens beyond what was humane.
July 30, 2019
The long poem for his daughter Olivia and his parting thoughts on his daughter Jean are each worth the price of this volume.
February 5, 2016
The third and final volume of Mark Twain's idiosyncratic autobiography is more of the same, a diatribe, a diary, a rambling collection of thoughts, anecdotes and reminiscences, a work that stretches the meaning of “autobiography” well past breaking point and yet as a work that gets to crux of just who and what Samuel L. Clemens was it is unbeatable, better and more interesting than any other of the myriad biographies of the great man. In this final volume however, as well as the pieces on everything from his trip to England (to receive an honorary doctorate from Oxford) to his loathing of Teddy Roosevelt, to the death of his youngest daughter, that make up the autobiography proper, there is a long piece; The Ashcroft-Lyon manuscript, that is a vicious, cruel, libellous and more than slightly mad account of the alleged swindling of him by both his secretary and business manager. A fascinating, strange piece that exposes a side of Clemens rarely met before.
When I first read Twain of course I started with Tom and Huck and instantly put him on a pedestal as one of the greatest of American writers, a funny, wise, human writer, who couldn't do plots, but whose works could amuse, captivate and move. I was shocked to discover another side entirely to the genial humorist when I first read his Letters From The Earth, What Is Man and other of the dark, vicious and sarcastic writings from his last decade. This final decade 1900-1910, the period when he also wrote his autobiography, contains some of his most intriguing and remarkable writings, writings that to my mind put Twain in another sphere entirely, as a much more complex, difficult to define and frankly more interesting writer and human being. I feel privileged that I live at a time 100 years plus after his death when at last these writing have been published. Another reviewer here on Goodreads said that he would like this book (all three volumes) if he were stranded on a desert island, I heartily concur, there is so much in it and if I couldn't be stranded on a desert island with Twain himself this is the next best thing!
Mark Twain may be essentially a nineteenth century figure, but writing in the early years of the twentieth century, he has written what may well be the greatest book of the twenty-first century.
When I first read Twain of course I started with Tom and Huck and instantly put him on a pedestal as one of the greatest of American writers, a funny, wise, human writer, who couldn't do plots, but whose works could amuse, captivate and move. I was shocked to discover another side entirely to the genial humorist when I first read his Letters From The Earth, What Is Man and other of the dark, vicious and sarcastic writings from his last decade. This final decade 1900-1910, the period when he also wrote his autobiography, contains some of his most intriguing and remarkable writings, writings that to my mind put Twain in another sphere entirely, as a much more complex, difficult to define and frankly more interesting writer and human being. I feel privileged that I live at a time 100 years plus after his death when at last these writing have been published. Another reviewer here on Goodreads said that he would like this book (all three volumes) if he were stranded on a desert island, I heartily concur, there is so much in it and if I couldn't be stranded on a desert island with Twain himself this is the next best thing!
Mark Twain may be essentially a nineteenth century figure, but writing in the early years of the twentieth century, he has written what may well be the greatest book of the twenty-first century.
April 1, 2016
This volume differs slightly from the first two in that portions of those works were to be the "additional material" which would extend the copyright of Clemens earlier books. Consequently volume 3, reads more like a straight day-to-day chronology of his remaining years. It begins with his trip to Oxford to receive an honorary degree (the many laudatory speeches by others that were reprinted made this section drag a little bit) and ends with the death of his daughter Jean, an epileptic who was found dead in the bathtub on Christmas day 1909. Along the way are his usual diatribes against the likes of Andrew Carnegie (who exasperatingly told the same stories repeatedly -- in the same exact words -- of his meetings with the Prince of Wales and other dignitaries that paid him honors) and Teddy Roosevelt ("It seems curious that I should have been dreaming dreams about a future Monarchy, and never suspecting that the monarchy was already present..."). If he thought Teddy was a blowhard, what on earth would he make of Donald Trump?
We also learn the trade secrets of less lofty personages like "The Feather Duster Man" who, despite being taken for a homeless bum, is a wealthy con-artist who goes on extended jaunts to the country with a supply of five-cent wedding rings (which he engraves with random initials to make them appear to be worth more like $16.00).
However, the real piece-de-resistance in this volume is the 200 page "Ashcroft-Lyon Manuscript" which detail the attempt of Clemens' former business manager and secretary (who later married to silence each other's role in the conspiracy), not only to embezzle money, but to trick their boss into signing his company, his house and all his stocks over to the pair so that they would inherit the estate. Holy Cow, what a crazy story! If someone has not made a movie out of this they should. Clemens was a lot more generous to them than most people would have been. Most people would have sent them to prison, but because Miss Lyons (even her husband still called her that after they were married) was a woman, he hadn't the heart to do it.
This is the same secretary who, as an elderly lady living in Greenwich Village, met with Hal Holbrook and and critiqued his delivery of his famous one-man show, giving the actor pointers on how to impersonate Twain better.
We also learn the trade secrets of less lofty personages like "The Feather Duster Man" who, despite being taken for a homeless bum, is a wealthy con-artist who goes on extended jaunts to the country with a supply of five-cent wedding rings (which he engraves with random initials to make them appear to be worth more like $16.00).
However, the real piece-de-resistance in this volume is the 200 page "Ashcroft-Lyon Manuscript" which detail the attempt of Clemens' former business manager and secretary (who later married to silence each other's role in the conspiracy), not only to embezzle money, but to trick their boss into signing his company, his house and all his stocks over to the pair so that they would inherit the estate. Holy Cow, what a crazy story! If someone has not made a movie out of this they should. Clemens was a lot more generous to them than most people would have been. Most people would have sent them to prison, but because Miss Lyons (even her husband still called her that after they were married) was a woman, he hadn't the heart to do it.
This is the same secretary who, as an elderly lady living in Greenwich Village, met with Hal Holbrook and and critiqued his delivery of his famous one-man show, giving the actor pointers on how to impersonate Twain better.
April 15, 2016
The third and final volume of Mark Twain's autobiography is his most personal and soul searching. The first volume was more of a linear story of his life, the second was focused on random memory exposition and criticism. Now, closer to the end of his life, he wants us to share his highest moments and his darkest hours. The highs include his trip to England to receive an honorary degree from Oxford, his vacations in Bermuda and his daughter Clara's achievements as a singer. His lows include the death of his daughter Jean and the discovery that his most trusted staff had been stealing from him ("The Ashcroft-Lyon Manuscript" which is included after the end of the official autobiography). Throughout it all we get to know and love Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain as the kind but grumpy elderly relative we all want in our families. Now, more than ever, I am determined to read everything he ever wrote.
February 4, 2016
This volume covers the later decade of Mark Twain's life, so there is a lot of sadness within the pages. Twain wrote his Autobiography in non linear manner, he pick out memories that are triggered by current events, so Twain goes back and forth in time, while commenting on the present. This volume reveals his dislike for Teddy Roosevelt, his disbelieve that Shakespeare was Shakespeare and the sad affair of Ashford/Lyons. Grover Gardner is the narrator for all three volumes and does a great job sounding very Twain like. If you are a fan of Twain, then these three volumes are a must read or listen.
February 24, 2016
Such an amazing read. As was the case with volumes 1 and 2, the book was timeless and felt like it could have been written yesterday. Only context clues date the book (45 states, 80 million people in the US, etc)
There is also a laugh on virtually every page.
The poignant passages around the passing of his daughter are simultaneously painful and full of joy.
Can't recommend this enough.
This Twain guy could go places.
There is also a laugh on virtually every page.
The poignant passages around the passing of his daughter are simultaneously painful and full of joy.
Can't recommend this enough.
This Twain guy could go places.
June 20, 2016
The Autobiography of Mark Twain Volume 3 published in 2015 concludes Samuel Clemens life story. He finished the work in 1909 shortly after the tragic death of his daughter Jean. The writing is mostly oral narration edited by Clemens and wonderfully referenced by an expert team of Mark Twain historians. With the exception of Clemens "Ascroft-Lyons Notes", I found the work full of insight and humor. This is an important book for Twain fans.
February 4, 2017
4 stars because of the unfortunate decision to include the awful ashcroft-lyon manuscript and many of the stories weren't as interesting as the previous volumes
August 5, 2025
In Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 3, the expansive journey through Samuel Clemens’ intricate mind reaches a captivating culmination. With Twain’s intended autobiography now fully unveiled, readers experience a work as revealing as it is complex, crafted with the irreverent wit and insightful candor for which Twain is celebrated.
This final volume maintains a more linear coherence, tracing roughly the last two years of Twain’s dictations. At its core are two significant episodes: Twain’s voyage to England to accept an honorary degree from Oxford, a segment dense with exhaustive details and reverential descriptions of aristocracy, and the compelling Ashcroft-Lyons Manuscript. Previously unpublished, this manuscript exposes a raw, deeply personal dispute involving alleged betrayal by Twain’s employees, laying bare his vulnerabilities, fears, and deeply felt hurt.
Through Twain’s fragmented, anecdotal style, readers glimpse his meticulous yet chaotic creative process, replete with false starts, revisions, and unguarded ramblings. Such authenticity, preserved meticulously by the editors, offers a rare transparency into the author’s emotional landscape and daily realities. This transparency, however, demands diligent editorial work to decode context and correct historical inaccuracies inherent in Twain’s storytelling, a necessary guidance to fully appreciate the gravity of Twain’s anecdotes and reflections.
The Ashcroft-Lyons episode, particularly striking in its candidness and intensity, paints Twain not merely as an icon but as a man profoundly impacted by perceived treachery. His narrative, at times obsessive, is nonetheless poignant, capturing the stark humanity behind his humor and satire.
Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 3 serves not only as an essential historical and literary document but as an intimate portrait of Twain himself, a man navigating the complexities of betrayal, legacy, and mortality. It is a fitting, compelling conclusion to a groundbreaking literary venture, affirming Twain’s enduring place in American literary history.
This final volume maintains a more linear coherence, tracing roughly the last two years of Twain’s dictations. At its core are two significant episodes: Twain’s voyage to England to accept an honorary degree from Oxford, a segment dense with exhaustive details and reverential descriptions of aristocracy, and the compelling Ashcroft-Lyons Manuscript. Previously unpublished, this manuscript exposes a raw, deeply personal dispute involving alleged betrayal by Twain’s employees, laying bare his vulnerabilities, fears, and deeply felt hurt.
Through Twain’s fragmented, anecdotal style, readers glimpse his meticulous yet chaotic creative process, replete with false starts, revisions, and unguarded ramblings. Such authenticity, preserved meticulously by the editors, offers a rare transparency into the author’s emotional landscape and daily realities. This transparency, however, demands diligent editorial work to decode context and correct historical inaccuracies inherent in Twain’s storytelling, a necessary guidance to fully appreciate the gravity of Twain’s anecdotes and reflections.
The Ashcroft-Lyons episode, particularly striking in its candidness and intensity, paints Twain not merely as an icon but as a man profoundly impacted by perceived treachery. His narrative, at times obsessive, is nonetheless poignant, capturing the stark humanity behind his humor and satire.
Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 3 serves not only as an essential historical and literary document but as an intimate portrait of Twain himself, a man navigating the complexities of betrayal, legacy, and mortality. It is a fitting, compelling conclusion to a groundbreaking literary venture, affirming Twain’s enduring place in American literary history.
January 17, 2022
It is as his meant it. A time capsule of the day to day in the nascent beginning of the 1900s by a man known to have artfully shared the later 1800s. He was experimenting with the copyright laws of 42 years to the enjoyment of own literary experience. Giving the nation a view into how he thought, how he treasured family, how he wrote, and how he perceived the life. He was stoic.
A found it a pleasure to listen to his first experience with the telegraph, telephone, and eventual wireless. His many failed business opportunities. His strutting thought that wireless was somehow more secure as it avoided the interconnections is enduring now.
The thrifty debaucheries at selling back a man’s dog or documenting the trade craft of selling high priced costume jewelry. His moral divide was strangle, but appropriate wobbly and humorous.
The forced marriage of his kitchen staff to the Dutch repair man likewise amusing in context.
In the times before radio, tv, and social media there was the speaker circuit. Many cities had a council and would coordinate and schedule the events. It was fascinating to hear of the forums rise and flailing from one of the benefactors of the fad.
Samuel Clemens also delves into the subtle difference between a story presented in oratory or written. How he had to adjust the pauses and speak to a person in the room.
Having listened to the prattles of the man regarding who he met or their complimentary of Mark Twain through the other two books - it caused grins to hear him critical of Andrew Carnegie for same foibles. But, that is as Samuel Clemens shared that he is an average man. His cynicisms of others are often hardest on his own marks of character.
A found it a pleasure to listen to his first experience with the telegraph, telephone, and eventual wireless. His many failed business opportunities. His strutting thought that wireless was somehow more secure as it avoided the interconnections is enduring now.
The thrifty debaucheries at selling back a man’s dog or documenting the trade craft of selling high priced costume jewelry. His moral divide was strangle, but appropriate wobbly and humorous.
The forced marriage of his kitchen staff to the Dutch repair man likewise amusing in context.
In the times before radio, tv, and social media there was the speaker circuit. Many cities had a council and would coordinate and schedule the events. It was fascinating to hear of the forums rise and flailing from one of the benefactors of the fad.
Samuel Clemens also delves into the subtle difference between a story presented in oratory or written. How he had to adjust the pauses and speak to a person in the room.
Having listened to the prattles of the man regarding who he met or their complimentary of Mark Twain through the other two books - it caused grins to hear him critical of Andrew Carnegie for same foibles. But, that is as Samuel Clemens shared that he is an average man. His cynicisms of others are often hardest on his own marks of character.
July 26, 2022
The final installment of the autobiography by one of America’s greatest writers is chock full of irony that he surely would have appreciated had it not meant so much personal tragedy for him. His stated purpose for writing it in the first place was so his children wouldn’t lose out on his writing royalties after his death. It was mainly for his daughter, Jean, who was single and could have used the income to support herself. She had epilepsy and died tragically from a seizure in the bathtub on Christmas Eve 1909. Mr. Clemons died just a few short months after and his only surviving child Claire, who was married to a well to do man and lived in Europe was left with what remained of his estate.
The bulk of this part of the biography deals with his final trip to England to receive his honorary Doctor of Letters from Oxford University, and he describes the pageantry of the whole affair in his own inimitable style. He talks about his book What is Man, which is considered to be the only philosophy book he ever wrote. One of my favorite sections is where he discusses his “ little Angels” the young girls he would seek out on his travels to be his “ granddaughters by proxy” since he hadn’t been blessed with any of his own.
It is remarkable how popular he was in his day, and how popular he still is. He is an American Treasure and all of his wit and charm come alive in these three volumes, not only a great writer, but a great man as well.
The bulk of this part of the biography deals with his final trip to England to receive his honorary Doctor of Letters from Oxford University, and he describes the pageantry of the whole affair in his own inimitable style. He talks about his book What is Man, which is considered to be the only philosophy book he ever wrote. One of my favorite sections is where he discusses his “ little Angels” the young girls he would seek out on his travels to be his “ granddaughters by proxy” since he hadn’t been blessed with any of his own.
It is remarkable how popular he was in his day, and how popular he still is. He is an American Treasure and all of his wit and charm come alive in these three volumes, not only a great writer, but a great man as well.
September 21, 2021
While Twain has some brilliant writing and some hilarious takes on himself, Teddy Roosevelt and other current events of the 1907-1910 era, I found this peak into the early 20th century to be a fascinating way to travel back in time. Reading all three volumes is not a quick process, but I found reading the section and the editors discussion at the same time really a nice way to do it. The editor sections highlighted Twain's errors (inadvertent or otherwise) but also clarified many historic points. The Lyons Ashcroft controversy at the end was unknown to me, and frankly dragged on more than I desired.
Some passages I found particularly funny (for my future reference more than anything:
July 7, 1908 discussion of work is hilarious, pages 244-245
August 23, 2021 – page 267 "dogs and burglars"
Some passages I found particularly funny (for my future reference more than anything:
July 7, 1908 discussion of work is hilarious, pages 244-245
August 23, 2021 – page 267 "dogs and burglars"
April 28, 2020
Not quite as good as Volume 2, but still brimming with golden gems of wit, insight, and wordsmithing. Twain is a bit more critical of people and things, especially Teddy Roosevelt, whom Twain humorously savages multiple times.
Perhaps the most curious item is a 100+ page manuscript called “The Ashcroft-Lyon Manuscript “. Clemens recounts the embezzlement of funds by his business manager and secretary. Historians are split on whether his accusations are true, but the weight of evidence seems to tilt in Clemens favor.
I find it incredible that someone with such insight into human nature and sensitivity to the fraudulent could be so careless about personal financial management and investments.
Perhaps the most curious item is a 100+ page manuscript called “The Ashcroft-Lyon Manuscript “. Clemens recounts the embezzlement of funds by his business manager and secretary. Historians are split on whether his accusations are true, but the weight of evidence seems to tilt in Clemens favor.
I find it incredible that someone with such insight into human nature and sensitivity to the fraudulent could be so careless about personal financial management and investments.
January 10, 2025
As I explained in my reviews of the previous volumes, this is hundreds of pages of Twain that you haven't read before, which makes it a treasure.
It was triply sad to near the end of this volume, since there wouldn't be another, and his death is looming near the end, though it also records his triumphant return to England to accept an honorary doctorate from Oxford (including his sneaking off across the quad for a forbidden smoke with Rudyard Kipling, Sir Norman Lockyer, and Sir William Ramsay) and many other honors that came to him in his last decade. First, it was sad to be nearing the end. Second there is the tragedy of Jean's death on Christmas Eve, just a few months after she was allowed to return to the family. Clemens himself only survived her by four months, and he stopped working on the Autobiography when she died, because he no longer saw the point. He had undertaken the project so as to provide for his daughters after he was gone, but now one was married into reasonable wealth, and Jean was gone. His agonized epitaph for Jean is the last part of the linear text.
The third sadness is that, for logical reasons, the scholars put the so-called "Ashcroft-Lyon Manuscript" after the main dictation, so it's the tawdry tale of betrayal and staff corruption -- 112 pages' worth, plus half that in footnotes -- that closes the whole project. It's the usual story of folks who have powers-of-attorney and the right to sign checks helping themselves to everything they can get away with. It's an ugly story, and Twain doesn't come out of it shining, so it's doubly sad.
Am I at four sadnesses now?
Still, I am so very glad to have had the opportunity to spend so much time listening to Samuel Clemens and his Twain persona as they tell their own fascinating tale.
One erratum: At the bottom of page 484, a line seems to have been dropped from the footnote identifying Ramsay (a Scottish chemist) and Lockyer (a British chemist), conflating the two.
It was triply sad to near the end of this volume, since there wouldn't be another, and his death is looming near the end, though it also records his triumphant return to England to accept an honorary doctorate from Oxford (including his sneaking off across the quad for a forbidden smoke with Rudyard Kipling, Sir Norman Lockyer, and Sir William Ramsay) and many other honors that came to him in his last decade. First, it was sad to be nearing the end. Second there is the tragedy of Jean's death on Christmas Eve, just a few months after she was allowed to return to the family. Clemens himself only survived her by four months, and he stopped working on the Autobiography when she died, because he no longer saw the point. He had undertaken the project so as to provide for his daughters after he was gone, but now one was married into reasonable wealth, and Jean was gone. His agonized epitaph for Jean is the last part of the linear text.
The third sadness is that, for logical reasons, the scholars put the so-called "Ashcroft-Lyon Manuscript" after the main dictation, so it's the tawdry tale of betrayal and staff corruption -- 112 pages' worth, plus half that in footnotes -- that closes the whole project. It's the usual story of folks who have powers-of-attorney and the right to sign checks helping themselves to everything they can get away with. It's an ugly story, and Twain doesn't come out of it shining, so it's doubly sad.
Am I at four sadnesses now?
Still, I am so very glad to have had the opportunity to spend so much time listening to Samuel Clemens and his Twain persona as they tell their own fascinating tale.
One erratum: At the bottom of page 484, a line seems to have been dropped from the footnote identifying Ramsay (a Scottish chemist) and Lockyer (a British chemist), conflating the two.
May 15, 2017
While it's always a treat to get a tour of the inner workings of Twain's mind, Volume 3 of the Autobiography ends on such a downward trajectory that I found it a bit taxing. At the end of his life he was so consumed with accusations against his personal household staff that his entries just trail off, ending abruptly. There's no attempt to tie up loose ends or create a satisfactory conclusion; he seems to lose interest or hope and just ... stop.
January 2, 2018
Fascinating look at the last few years of Twain’s life as seen through his dictated and written reminiscences and views on current events. As he intended that these would not be published until a hundred years after his death, they contain the scathing and acerbic observations of famous contemporaries that he couldn’t have published in his lifetime, along with details of his private life that he couldn’t have shared at the time. A wonderful treat for fans of Twain! Thanks, Colin!
January 5, 2019
Heard a story from the ghosts who haunt Washington's Willard Hotel. When Mark Twain would walk the hotel's long promenade--the hallway where the term "lobbyist" emanated--he would troll for adulation. If he reached the end of the hall fetching no praise, he would turn and slowly walk back until he was discovered. The autobiography of this great writer leaves clues that this tale might not be far-fetched.
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