Mark Twain's Own Autobiography

The Chapters from the North American Review

Mark Twain, Michael J. Kiskis

• Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
• Year: 2010
• eBook ISBN:
  9780299234737
• Print ISBN:
  9780299234744
• Subtopic: Literary Biographies

Mark Twain's Own Autobiography stands as the last of Twain's great yarns. Here he tells his story in his own way, freely expressing his joys and sorrows, his affections and hatreds, his rages and reverence—ending, as always, tongue-in-cheek: "Now, then, that is the tale. Some of it is true."
    More than the story of a literary career, this memoir is anchored in the writer's relation to his family—what they meant to him as a husband, father, and artist. It also brims with many of Twain's best comic anecdotes about his rambunctious boyhood in Hannibal, his misadventures in the Nevada territory, his notorious Whittier birthday speech, his travels abroad, and more.
    Twain published twenty-five "Chapters from My Autobiography" in the North American Review in 1906 and 1907. "I intend that this autobiography . . . shall be read and admired a good many centuries because of its form and method—form and method whereby the past and the present are constantly brought face to face, resulting in contrasts which newly fire up the interest all along, like contact of flint with steel."
    For this second edition, Michael Kiskis's introduction references a wealth of critical work done on Twain since 1990. He also adds a discussion of literary domesticity, locating the autobiography within the history of Twain's literary work and within Twain's own understanding and experience of domestic concerns. 

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Abbreviations
• Foreword to the Second Edition
• Introduction to the Second Edition
• I. Introduction to method and form – Clemens family ancestry
• II. Early literary career – "Jumping Frog" – The Innocents Abroad – Playing "Bear" – Louis Stevenson – Mark Twain letter sold
• III. Meets Olivia Langdon – Thirty-sixth wedding anniversary – Marriage and move to Buffalo – Susy's Death – Susy as a child
• IV. Susy's biography – Reviewers and reviews – The Gilded Age – Mark Twain's dullness and temper – Cats – Language – Talk
• V. Language and Temper – Susy on The Prince and the Pauper – The family editing of manuscripts – Mark Twain's early life in Hannibal – Cats – Church – Tom Nash and the Mississippi
• VI. Susy's biography – Mark Twain's visit to U. S. Grant – John Hay – A Visit to Vassar College – Langdon's death – England trip
• VII. Olivia's watchful eye – Mugwumps – An appeal to Ruth Cleveland – A meeting with Grover Cleveland in Albany – Memories of H. B. Stowe
• VIII. Nevada experiences – An aborted duel
• IX. The American monarchy – Influence of circumstances – The mesmerizer
• X. Family history – Orion Clemens – Young Sam's apprenticeship
• XI. Orion and the Hannibal Journal – Sam leaves Hannibal for New York – Return to Keokuk – Finding the $50 bill – Plan to visit the Amazon – A fortune from coca – Meeting Horace Bixby – Trip to Nevada
• XII. Nevada experiences – Orion's political experiences – San Francisco – The Tennessee land – Orion in New York and Hartford – Orion's projects – Orion's autobiography – A conversation with John Hay
• XIII. The Tennessee land – Sam's birth – The Quarles farm
• XIV. Susy's biography – Dinner with Emperor Wilhelm II – A German "porter" – More experiences in Germany – Adventures of Rev. Joseph Harris
• XV. Susy's biography – Cats – The privilege of age – Billiards
• XVI. The truth in Twain's remarks – Jane Clemens' formula for divining truth – Monday Evening Club – Embroidery – Dream of Henry's death
• XVII. Susy's biography – Soap bubbles and life – Bicycle riding – "Jim Wolf and the Cats"
• XVIII. Susy's biography – Punishing children – A letter to the Christian Union – Thoughts of Susy – Mental telegraphy – Mind cure – More than a humorist
• XIX. Susy's biography – George Washington Cable – Livy's editing – Idea of Providence – The children's record – Susy's bout with lying
• XX. The Innocents Abroad – Plagiarizing the "Preface" to The Innocents Abroad – Bowing in San Francisco – Billiards – Playing "Quaker" in Elmira
• XXI. Susy's biography – Difficulty recalling faces – Written out at 50 – Strangers and their "memories" of the past – The real Huckleberry Finn – Repenting in the night – Catalog of old acquaintances – Memory – Railway debate
• XXII. Onteora and Mary Mapes Dodge – Dean Sage – European duelling – Captain Osborne and Bret Harte
• XXIII. Schoolmates – Early loves – First telling of "Jim Wolf and the Cats" – Good boys and girls in fiction – "What is it all for?" – Measles – The Oxford degree ceremonies – A medieval fair
• XXIV. Susy's biography – Onteora – Catalog of dead and living – Jim Wolf and the wasps – More of Susy's biography – James Redpath – Studying the race in himself – Billiards – Bowling
• XXV. Whittier birthday speech – Days in Washington – Newspaper syndicate – Selling a dog to General Nelson Miles
• Appendix A: "The Death of Jean"
• Appendix B: Mark Twain's Experiments in Autobiography
• Appendix C: The Editions and the Chronology of Composition
• Appendix D: A Sample of Letters
• Notes
• Selected Bibliography
• Index