I found this book to be fascinating. There are personal philosophies, political aspects and well thought out plans incorporated in every page. Being one who journals, I was intrigued by the notes Twain left behind, things like "publish all of this but not until I am dead." the thought of not publishing his biography until he had been dead for a hundred years was genius, no worries about offending friends and acquaintances because they would also be gone as would likely be there children and potentially grandchildren. It was an interesting glimpse into into the mind of a great writer.

The book was long to say the least, however I was oddly surprised to find that it was very entertaining. I loved his random input on certain things like when he mentioned that his father (John) bought 100 acres of worthless farmland. His life was really interesting to read over, and I especially liked the part when he mentioned his brother Orion. It was super cool to read over their unique relationship play through the book. Overall the book was super good and I'd say that my favorite part was definitely the conclusion, in which he mentioned that he was excited for death in a way, calling it a gift, because he would be able to see all of his loved ones again. I would recommend this book to anyone who's interested in Mark Twain or just down for a good read.

This particular book was an adaption by Ruth B. Murray for English-language students. So, I only read a 5th of the actual book! But, it has certainly whet my appetite and may send me soon to the full volume.

I'm going to start this review by saying I am not a fan of autobiography's nor reading in general and so my review will be significantly affected off of that. This book definitely did not speak to my interests and I found myself daydreaming and wondering what I just read constantly, and while this is common when I read I found it harder to convince myself to go back and reread it because it had no interesting or important details that would've snapped me out of my lack of focus. The only core concept I resolved from this book is that Mark Twain was writing it until his death, to give the fullest account possible. While this fact alone is very unique it didn't convince me to give interest to his life or writing.

Even though I normally daydream while reading just about anything, this book in particular seemed to not try to keep its readers attention. The only part of the book that tries to grab the readers attention is the beginning, which isn't even the beginning of the book but rather a prologue of the books existence. Very obviously I am not the target audience of this book and I accept that the majority of the target audience may hold the opposite opinion of mine but my experience with this book was not enjoyable so I'm giving it the middle ground of 3 stars.

But regardless my favorite quote in the book is the one form the previously mentioned prologue in which Mark Twain writes "In this Autobiography I shall keep in mind the fact that I am speaking from the grave.", It encapsules both his mindset and dedication when writing his autobiography and while I didn't like the general content of the book I found this quote to be full of Twain's purpose for writing this book. Which, in a sentence, is very commendable writing in my opinion.

SPOILERS BELOW
Summary (from the pieces I could get in dips of daydreaming lol): Twain starts by speaking about his early family life as a plantation owners son, who got along with the slaves of the plantation. Along with the composition of his childhood friends and his awareness of the social differences of races of the time. He then talks about his fathers death and jobs he got throughout the years along with more family relationships. After that he talks about how he became a writer for the "Virginia City Enterprise" and married Olivia Langdon. Then his rise to fame through writing and finally the death of his daughter Susy and wife Olivia.

HEADLINE: OLD MAN WRITES RANDOM BORING STORIES ABOUT HIS LIFE WITH ABSOLUTELY NO CONTEXT

The most interesting things that happened to Mark Twain were apparently included in Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, so just read them instead.

1 star for opening with 'if you can read this I'm already DEAD'

I defy anyone to read this book and not to love this man. He is witty beyond measure, but it is a gentle humor in the end. The humor of a man who lived life sincerely and felt things deeply. A man of deep wisdom and deeper compassion. It is a self-deprecating humor (for his wisdom is the wisdom of Socrates -- the kind that recognizes its own limitations, its own folly). It is the humor of a man who loved life well, and saw in it, always, something of majesty and mystery and delight.

I don't know that I would have wanted to read this book, rather than having listened to it, for it is true that there is little of organization or continuity. But what matters that, when you are having a conversation (rambling, disjointed, marvelous), with such a man?

"Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh, and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing that such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed: and that was quite enough for him." -Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol

Mark Twain is a character, literally, invented and maintained by Samuel Clemens. Clemens effectively shared a life with Twain, or at least that’s my view, and the degree to which the identities were intertwined is incalculable but thorough. In writing (or dictating) this autobiography of Mark Twain, it seems understood that the narrator, though irascible and delightful, may also be unreliable, so that it is hard sometimes to discern objective truth from his (their) fertile imagination. Twain scholars may know, but the average reader, like me, is probably inclined to take most of the tales here at face value, even knowing Twain’s reputation for invention and exaggeration.

In predictably entertaining fashion he reveals the sources of some of his most memorable characters and stories and recounts some new ones. He tells of squandering staggering sums of money on ill-advised commercial ventures and of allowing a succession of agents and publishers to rob him. He complains about copyright laws that still rip off writers to this day, and it’s hard not to share his outrage. He has some interesting comments about the 1876 presidential election, which he accuses the Republicans of stealing (and he considered himself a Republican!). He really didn’t like Bret Harte, a writer and US Consul whom he’d collaborated with, but who’s all but forgotten today. I enjoyed his descriptions of the few other writers he respected, though Dickens and Kipling are the only names that have really endured. And the sections dealing with the deaths of his wife and daughters, over a span of just 13 years, are profoundly and eloquently tragic. I hadn’t known that it was his wife, Livy, who edited virtually every manuscript he published.

Twain’s unconventional concept of his autobiography resulted in three public iterations, all posthumous, the first two of which were reportedly unreadable. This third version, compiled and edited by Charles Neider and released in 1959, is significantly pared back and arranged in a more chronological framework from the other two, and relies very much on content dictated by Twain during the last four years of his life. His tremendous sense of humor, and his glib and razor-edged wit, stay intact right to the end, and might even be seen as a little reckless since he intended that none of this be released until after his death. What a treasure he was, and how lucky we are that this autobiography survives.

Striking: his use of chiasmus (crossing of terms in one sentence). For instance: "When I was younger I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not; but my faculties are decaying now and soon I shall be so I cannot remember any but the things that never happened. It is sad to go to pieces like this but we all have to do it" (p. 4). Well, that's high lit and philosophy, all packaged with one powerful sense of humor, plus a touch of teasing. Worse part is that I do feel that way about not remembering right--so he's able to touch me at a very vulnerable spot as well.
Another is: "Perhaps no bread in the world is quite so good as Southern corn bread and perhaps no bread in the world is quite so bad as the Northern imitation of it" (p. 5). Wow! I read Tom Sawyer (in French...) as a girl, and I see now why I liked it quite a bit. This is good stuff.

I finished this autobiography 2 weeks ago. It was a difficult read, because the format is so chopped up: it takes work to get into a piece, and before you know it, the piece is over and you have to work into a new one. BUT, it was not a finished work, Mark Twain dictated a lot of it toward the end of his life, and it was pieced together after his death. So, lower your expectations if you decide to get intimate with a pretty unusual person. 4 stars because it does not stand as a whole.

There are lots of "jewels" in those pieces: stories of his childhood, like the one of the frozen Mississippi (48-49) and the mesmerizer (66-76) which provides life-long munching material (and great topic to discuss with your teenager during a car drive). Loads of intricate thoughts put into striking forms, like: "As a rule, technicalities of a man's vocation and figures and metaphors drawn from it slip out in his talk and reveal his trade; but if this ever happened in Macfarlane's case I was none the wiser, although I was constantly on the watch during half a year for those very betrayals." This is a great thought: to listen to images used by someone to guess who they are. It's funny too, because it did not work in this case, and Mark Twain is the butt of what has become a joke (isn't it so funny to imagine him working so hard for 6 months with no results?).

Mark Twain ends his autobiography with the death of his daughter Jean (he asked his editor to do so if he thought it appropriate). He also shares the death of his wife and other daughter Suzy. There is little literary value and no humor in those final pieces, and it leaves you with a heavy heart that pain could strip this man of his spirit. Nice though (and reassuring...) that such a vivacious scoundrel could love his wife and their daughters with such dedication until death!

Oh my gosh Mark Twain is hilarious!

Twain's Autobiography was dictated and written around 1906, intended for full publication only after 100 years. This is the mid-century edition from 1958 of a portions of that longer work. Restricted by Twain's surviving daughter, and Twain's own instructions, this is not as complete or as long as the subsequent edition, but longer than the editions from the 1920s and 1940s.

Neider provides an excellent introduction, then stays out of the way.

Favorite quote from Neider's introduction, commenting that the autobiography is maybe too unhinged to really succeed, but the writings it contains are wonderful: "One of the ironies of art is that it is possible to win a war and lose the battles, and that it is more tragic to lose the battles than to lose the war."

A favorite Twain quote from this work: " when I was younger I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not."

I think this is valuable as a shorter version of Twain's autobiography as well as a milestone literary moment. The audio version is excellent.

I read a few pages of this every weekend over the course of a year. I don't know why; it's not remarkable and I didn't retain a single thing from it. It's now a period piece that I'm not sure holds value today.

Charles Neider has assembled, from Mark Twain's jumbled collection of writings, what is currently considered the definitive autobiography. It is a long book, some of which is brilliant and some less so. I particularly enjoyed his lambasting of Bret Harte, which comprises two separate essays. The closing essay about the death of his daughter Jean is particularly touching.