Biographies

doi:10.1017/9781108617208.006

Chapter 4 - Biographies

from Part I - Life

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 December 2019

Kevin Mac Donnell

Edited by

John Bird

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John Bird: Affiliation:
Winthrop University

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Summary

Mark Twain made several attempts at autobiography over the years, finally arriving in the early 1900s at a very unconventional approach: rather than a chronological memory of his life, he made daily dictations, talking about whatever was on his mind that day, which was only sometimes memories of his life, and more often comments on current events. He stopped in the middle of many memories, sometimes never to come back. The result is a rambling but interesting window into the mind a man, reflecting on his life and his times. Although versions of his autobiography were published, one during his lifetime, the complete autobiography was not published until one hundred years after his death, as he requested. The editing of these autobiographical efforts is one of the great achievements in American literary scholarship.

Keywords

Mark Twain Samuel Clemens biography

Type: Chapter
Information: Mark Twain in Context , pp. 34 - 46

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108617208.006 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2020

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