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Authors: Mark Twain
THE MARK TWAIN PAPERS
AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARK TWAIN
VOLUME 1
The Mark Twain Project is an editorial and publishing program of The Bancroft Library, working since 1967 to create a comprehensive critical edition of everything Mark Twain wrote.
This volume is the first one in that edition to be published simultaneously in print and as an electronic text at
http://www.marktwainproject.org
. The textual commentaries for all Mark Twain texts in this volume are published
only
there.
THE MARK TWAIN PAPERS
Robert H. Hirst,
General EditorBoard of Directors of the Mark Twain Project
Jo Ann Boydston
Laura Cerruti
Don L. Cook
Frederick Crews
Charles B. Faulhaber
Peter E. Hanff
Thomas C. Leonard
Michael Millgate
George A. Starr
G. Thomas Tanselle
Lynne Withey
Contributing Editors for This Volume
Natalia Cecire
Michelle Coleman
George Derk
Christine Hong
Rachel Perez
Leslie Walton
AUTOBIOGRAPHY
OF
MARK
TWAINVOLUME 1
HARRIET ELINOR SMITH, EDITOR
Associate Editors
Benjamin Griffin
Victor Fischer
Michael B. Frank
Sharon K. Goetz
Leslie Diane Myrick
A publication of the Mark Twain Project
of The Bancroft Library
Frontispiece: Photograph by Albert Bigelow Paine, 25 June 1906, Upton House, Dublin, New Hampshire
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.
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1
Copyright© 2010, 2001 by the Mark Twain Foundation. All Rights Reserved. Transcription, reconstruction, and creation of the texts, introduction, notes, and appendixes Copyright© 2010 by The Regents of the University of California. The Mark Twain Foundation expressly reserves to itself, its successors and assigns, all dramatization rights in every medium, including without limitation, stage, radio, television, motion picture, and public reading rights, in and to the
Autobiography of Mark Twain
and all other texts by Mark Twain in copyright to the Mark Twain Foundation.
All texts by Mark Twain in
Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1
have been published previously, by permission of the Mark Twain Foundation, in the Mark Twain Project’s
Microfilm Edition of Mark Twain’s Literary Manuscripts Available in the Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley
(Berkeley: The Bancroft Library, 2001), and some texts have been published previously in one or more of the following: Albert Bigelow Paine, editor,
Mark Twain’s Autobiography
(New York: Harper and Brothers, 1924); Bernard DeVoto, editor,
Mark Twain in Eruption
(New York: Harper and Brothers, 1940); Charles Neider, editor,
The Autobiography of Mark Twain, Including Chapters Now Published for the First Time
(New York: Harper and Brothers, 1959). Unless otherwise noted, all illustrations are reproduced from original documents in the Mark Twain Papers of The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.
MARK TWAIN PROJECT
®
is a registered trademark of The Regents of the University of California in the United States and the European Community.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Twain, Mark, 1835–1910
[Autobiography]
Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1 / editor: Harriet Elinor Smith;
associate editors: Benjamin Griffin, Victor Fischer, Michael B. Frank, Sharon K. Goetz, Leslie Diane Myrick
p. cm. — (The Mark Twain Papers)
“A publication of the Mark Twain Project of The Bancroft Library.”
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
978-0-520-26719-0 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Twain, Mark, 1835–1910. 2. Authors, American—19th century—Biography. I. Smith, Harriet Elinor. II. Griffin, Benjamin, 1968– III. Fischer, Victor, 1942– IV. Frank, Michael B. V. Goetz, Sharon K. VI. Myrick, Leslie Diane. VII. Bancroft Library. VIII. Title.
PS1331.A2 2010
818’.4’0924—dc22 2009047700
Manufactured in the United States of America
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This book is printed on Natures Book, which contains 50% post-consumer waste and meets the minimum requirements of
ANSI/NISO
z39.48–1992 (
R
1997) (
Permanence of Paper
).
Editorial work for this volume has been supported by a generous gift to the Mark Twain Project of The Bancroft Library from the
KORET FOUNDATION
and by matching and outright grants from the
NATIONAL ENDOWMENT
FOR THE HUMANITIES,
an independent federal agency.Without that support, this volume could not
have been produced.
The Mark Twain Project at the University of California, Berkeley, gratefully acknowledges generous support from the following, for editorial work on the
Autobiography of Mark Twain
and for the acquisition of important new documents:The University of California, Berkeley, Class of 1958
Members of the Mark Twain Luncheon Club
The Barkley Fund
The Mark Twain FoundationThe Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public GivingLawrence E. Brooks
Helen Kennedy Cahill
Kimo Campbell
Virginia Robinson Furth
The Herrick Fund
The Hofmann Foundation
The House of Bernstein, Inc.
Robert and Beverly Middlekauff
The Renee B. Fisher Foundation
The Benjamin and Susan Shapell Foundation
Jeanne and Leonard Ware
Patricia Wright, in memory of Timothy J. Fitzgeraldand
The thousands of individual donors over the past fifty years
who have helped sustain the ongoing work
of the Mark Twain Project.
The publication of this volume has been made possible by a gift to the University of California Press Foundation by WILSON GARDNER COMBS in honor of WILSON GIFFORD COMBS MARYANNA GARDNER COMBS |
University of California Press gratefully acknowledges the support of
John G. Davies
and the Humanities Endowment Fund of the UC Press Foundation
CONTENTS
List of Manuscripts and Dictations