How can anyone review Mark Twain with authority? I will, but not with authority, rather with admiration and envy.
This is a very intimate look into Twain's (Samuel Clemens) life and his personal thoughts about people and the fascinating events of his life. It is not strictly chronological nor does it claim to be comprehensive. Clemens himself states a number of times that his descriptions of some events, conversations, and people were not meant to be an accurate scientific historical record. It was what he choose to remember and relate to his readers whether it happened that way or not.
His assessments of the people in his life is sometimes tender, such as those relating to his wife and children. And sometimes frank to the point of brutality. It is almost always entertaining and allows us to enter his mind and life in a way that not quite possible through his stories and essays.
I love his manner of expression. The way he can turn a phrase is clever, delightful, and often powerful. Of course, modern readers may be a bit put off by his 19th Century manner of speech, but being a former teacher of American and British Literature, I love it. I wish I could write that way whether today's average reader would "get it" or not!
This is not the autobiography that got a lot of attention a few years ago because that more recent collection had honored his request that it would not be published until after a hundred years of his death. He obviously did not want to harm anyone living that would have encountered him or to bring disrepute on his surviving daughter.
This version is edited in 1959 by Charles Neider who worked with the cooperation of Clemens' daughter, Clara Clemens Samossoud. In spite of that, Clemens suffered no fools in this account. But the person he subjects to the most candid and unsympathetic assessment is himself. Someday, I'll scan the newer release to see what was not included in this edition.
This is an excellent read especially for those who appreciate Mark Twain, who, in my opinion, remains the greatest American author of all time. Perhaps the greatest World author of all time. I haven't come across anyone else to match him, except for Shakespeare. Now that would be a tough choice to make, but it's not going to be me that makes it! Enjoy.

Why read anyone else on Mark Twain when you can read his own words? Twain was brutally honest, devoting entire chapters to times of personal loss and failure. He covers one particular night when he bombed at a lecture, showing no particular ego. In another he covers the night his brother died with savage emotional honesty. He explains as many aspects of his own development as he can think of, from growing cold in learning the ways of literature, to growing up on the Mississippi, to his spiritual beliefs, to his extremely critical political beliefs. Most of it is witheringly funny and all of it is worthwhile and insightful, casting out on all possible topics, even ones he wasn't comfortable publishing about in his own day. That's why this book contains chapters only released after his death - some decades after. The best bit is that there are still things he wasn't ready to share, not until a hundred years had gone by. By this manner he gets the last laugh, but by this book you'll know what he's laughing about.

This compilation is very well done. I would love to have sat and had a cup of tea with this man. It is my privledge to be able to visit his only remaining original CT home (The Redding one is rebuilt after a fire destroyed its predecessor). A brilliant tragic life. Read it when you can.

Witty and very revealing of Mark Twain the person, the man

A little rambling, but he did dictate most of it so it makes sense. Fun stories, great humor.

وراء هذا الكاتب الساخر ذو الوجه الذي يوحي بالجدية و الصرامة الكثير و الكثير من الحزن و القلب المحب ، بدءًا من وفاة ثلاثة من أشقاءه الأكبر سنا منه (بنجامين 10 سنوات - مارغريت 9 سنوات - بليزانت 6 أشهر)
ثم توفي والده و هو في عمر الــحادية عشر اضطرّه ذلك لترك المدرسة و مزاولة الأعمال الممكنة لطفل في عمره ، في إحدى رحلاته إلى نيو أورليانز أوحى له قائد السفينة البخارية بالعمل كقائد سفينة بخارية، وهو عمل كان يدر على صاحبه دخلاً مجزياً وصل إلى 250 دولاراً شهرياً
أثناء تدريبه ، استطاع إقناع شقيقه الأصغر "هنري 1838-1858م" بالعمل معه، الذي لقي مصرعه في (21 يونيو 1858م) إثر انفجار السفينة البخارية «بنسلفانيا» التي كان يعمل عليها، ويقول توين في سيرته الذاتية إنه رأى في أثناء نومه تفاصيل مصرع أخيه قبل شهر من وقوعه (لم يُذكر هذا الحادث في النسخة التي عندي)

في فبراير من عام 1870م تزوج من أوليفيا لانغدون ، الذي أُعجب بها و أحبها مُنْذُ أن رأى صورتها مع أخيها تشارلز ، في (1870/11/7م) وضعت طفلا ذكرا توفي ابنهما لانغدون بالدفتيريا و عمره 19 شهراً.
وضعت أوليفيا ثلاث بنات: سوزي (1872م ـ 1896م) و كلارا (1874م ـ 1962م) و جين (1880م ـ 1909م). دام زواج توين و أوليفيا 34 عاماً ، انتهت بوفاة أوليفيا سنة 1904م



دامت كتابته لسيرته عدة سنوات ، كانت بدايتها لطيفة سلسلة تهكمية ساخرة ، لكن بعد ذلك أصابها القليل من الحزن و الإحباط ، حيث توفيت "سوزي 24 عام" ابنته الكبرى بالـسحايا ثم مرضت زوجته لمدة عامين (كانت معلولة الصحة و مريضة منذ كانت في السادسة عشر من عمرها) لقد أثرت وفاتها عليه كثيرا لقد وصف ذلك اليوم بمأساة حياته ، بعد 14 عام على وفاة ابنته الكبرى و خمس أعوام على وفاة زوجته ، صُدِمَ بــوفاة صُغرى بناته "جين 29 عام" , كان يبلغ 74 عام لكنه شعر يومها بأنه هرم لدرجة أنه لم يحضر جنازتها ، لـــ يتوفي بعدها بعام وحيداً.



الكتاب سلس ، بأسلوب جميل ساحر ، رغم أن نيتي كانت تصفحه فقط لكنني لم استطع أن اتركه من يدي حتى أنهيته في جلسة واحده.
أحسست بالكاتب في جميع مراحله، كان الجزء الأول هو الألطف و الأكثر تهكمية ، ثم مال للجد و الحزن عندما ذكر زوجته ، ثم عاد لتاريخ لقائهما الأول، كيف كانت حياتهما،
كيف أثرت وفاة ابنتهما الكبرى على حياتهما و على صحتها على وجه الخصوص ، و كيف أثر عليه فقد ابنته الصغرى التي بقيت معه في البيت بعد زواج ابنته الوسطى "كلارا" و رحيلها مع زوجها .






"مارك توين" اسمه الحقيقي «صمويل لانغهورن كليمنس» (30 نوفمبر 1835م ـ 21 أبريل 1910م) كاتب أمريكي ساخر كتب القصص القصيرة و المقالات و المحتوى غير الخيالي. اشتُهر برواياته مغامرات "توم سوير" «1876م» و تكملتها "مغامرات هكلبيري فين" «1884م» التي وُصِفَت بأنها «الرواية الأمريكية العظيمة».





⭐️⭐️⭐️1/2 لــ الكتاب التاسع من كُتُبْ 2024

I started crying from happiness at about page two. When I finished this book, Joe and I got in the car and drove directly to his house in Hartford CT and I cried all the way through that too. He is wonderful, brilliant, genius. Learning about his life from his own pen felt like a gift. From him, I've gleaned tiny informative bits to add to my mental notes on "how to write."

I ought to have read through this much faster and less thoroughly since I was looking specifically for musical references while researching a Twain-themed library music program, but I couldn't help but read through most of it, especially towards the beginning. Yes, Twain constantly rambles into miscellaneous musings but those musings are often pure gold, skillfully rendered with often gut-splittingly hilarity.

He was an international celebrity at this point who didn't have to write anything except exactly what he wanted to and what seems to have fascinated him most were individuals from his past, both the obscure (such as citizens of Hannibal) and the great (such as Ulysees S. Grant, who Twain admired and Bret Hart, who he despised).

The descriptions of his boyhood held the most appeal for me and he waxes incredibly lyrical when describing scenes and people from this epoch of his life.

After reading this autobiography I have gained new insights into the genius of Clemens. It has given me a better perspective and understanding of his work. If you like his stuff, this will increase your appreciation for it. If you are curious about why people make such a big deal about Twain, this will help you answer that question too.

I very much enjoyed the long section about Twain's childhood - interesting and evocative of a very different time. It was harder to get through the long sections on various jobs, publishing issues, speaking engagements, etc., and the last part, which is a series of family deaths, was very sad. Overall an interesting look into Twain's thoughts and activities, but a lot to read.

Painful and wonderful.

Read the full review:
http://classiclit.about.com/od//fl/Th...

Twain has deconstructed the idea of an autobiography with the same vivid trickery he used to deconstruct so many aspects of society.

There is a lot of chatter I have seen in reviews about the "meandering" and "tangents" in the book. Twian will labor over minute details in one instance and gloss over entire episodes in the next. In the edition I read, the editor's notes even all but apologized for this aspect.

Yet, if you are an alert reader, it is exactly this element that tells you who twain truly was as a person, and therefore makes these tangents not just relevant but actually essential to his autobiography. The meandering is style, not glitch; it is perspective into a mind, not distraction from a tale.

As such I found the entire book rather tight and concise, rather than meandering and bloated. I thin if you approach it with a stiff realism about "how an autobiography ought to operate" then you will be frustrated.Then again, I would caution you in general if you hold these ideas and then choose Twain to read; after all, when had that man ever done well beneath a saddle? Honestly, at that point, it's the reader's fault for climbing on top of such an unreliable pony whose reputation for bucking and tottering already is so universally known.

As with most Twain, there were the points where I guffawd and laughed out loud. His ability to seduce you into the stakes of a tale to a point of investment that a joke seems alive and vivid in spite of how many years ago it was written is truly astonishing.

Meanwhile, I finished this book with a very wet shirt. Seems there was a spot of local rain around me as I finished the final chapters. It's odd that my own shirt and lap experienced the drops, because there was nothing in the forecast, nor were any others nearby experiencing any precipitation. It was all the more confusing because I was inside. But indeed, at the end, my shirt was damp with a small drizzle that seemed to be seeping down from somewhere.

Well worth it.