Chapters from My Autobiography (Oxford Mark Twain) - Hardcover

Twain, Mark

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195101561 ISBN 13: 9780195101560

Publisher: Oxford Univ Pr, 1996

Synopsis

Beginning in January 1906, Clemens dictated in some 242 sittings a long and complex autobiographical manuscript. He published selected chapters from this extensive dictation in the North American Review, in 26 installments, and it is this version that is published here. "Reading along, one
becomes aware of being spoken to by this book, that it is really a chat," Arthur Miller writes in his introduction. "It is wonderfully visual, full of recollected pictures, the best kind of listening. You can just about hear him laughing, or his voice growing husky in the sad parts. Clearly there
are long rambles with no particular thematic relevance beyond the simple pleasure of the telling, like rummaging through cabinets and closets and trying on discarded shoes, old gloves and a half-remembered jacket or two." In this volume, Miller writes, "the author who more than any other was the
surveyor who marked the boundaries of American literature" reflects on his childhood, ponders his career as a writer, and recalls the joy and the pain of being a husband and a father.

About this title

About the Author

Mark Twain began his career in letters as a printer's apprentice at the age of 12. He worked as a typesetter and hack writer until a trip down the Mississippi inspired him to become a steamboat pilot. Twain was a popular humorist, a failed silver miner, an inventor, a pacifist anti-imperialist, and a vegetarian. He had a strong interest in the paranormal. Twain's novel "Huckleberry Finn" has profoundly influenced the development of American storytelling.

Synopsis

Originally published in 25 instalments in "North American Review", these memoirs describe Mark Twain's view of himself.

Edition details

• Publisher: Oxford Univ Pr
• Publication date: 1996
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0195101561
• ISBN 13: 9780195101560
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 494
• Editor: Fishkin Shelley Fisher