News & Reviews

WORD: After 100-year wait, Mark Twain’s autobiography already a best seller
 
Mark Twain, the late humorist who is widely considered among America’s greatest authors of the 20th century, is poised to reach post-Millenium audiences with the first volume of his autobiography.

Twain, whose birthname was Samuel L. Clemens, forbade publication of the book until 100 years after his death. Now that a century has passed, on Nov. 15 University of California Press will launch the first autobiography of Twain, who died at age 75 in 1910.
 
Pent up demand for his work has already sent "Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 1" to No. 1 on Amazon in both the biography/memoir and literary fiction categories due to heavy pre-orders.
 
Robert Hirst led a team of editors at UC Berekely along with Harriet Elinor Smith, an editor at the Mark Twain Project that is housed within the Mark Twain Papers -- the world’s largest archive of primary materials by Twain -- to compile his official biography.
 
Mark Twain created iconic American characters such as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, protagonists of his novels "The Adventures of..." and penned many other famous books including our favorite, "The Innocents Abroad." His autobiography will get published over three volumes in hardcover and e-book.
 
Check out the UC Press website to read excerpts from Twain’s long-awaited autobiography. Click here for an audio interview with Harriet Elinor.
 

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