Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1 (2010) (edit title/settings)

Ridiculously Simplified Synopsis edit see section history

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Characters/People edit see section history

• Mark Twain: What can I say it's Mark at his best.
• Olivia Louise Langdon Clemens: Wife of Samuel Langhorne Clemens. They were married in Elmira, New York in 1870.
• Olivia Susan "Susy" Clemens: Oldest daughter of Sam and Olivia Clemens, 1872-1896.
• Gen. Ulysses S. Grant: Civil War general for the north, then President of the United States. Sam Clemens later befriended him and assisted him with the publication of his memoir.
• Reverend Joseph Hopkins Twichell: Sam Clemens's best friend, reverend of the Asylum Hill Congregational Church in Hartford, Connecticut.
• William Dean Howells: American author and literary critic, another friend of Sam Clemens
• Jeanne: Add a description of this character.
• Henry H. Rogers
• Moros
• Tom Sawyer
• Karl Gerhardt: Sculptor of German descent whose education in Florence was funded by a loan from Sam Clemens.
• John Malone
• Jervis Langdon: Father of Olivia Langdon Clemens, very wealthy. He died six months into the Clemens's marriage.
• Redpath
• Joseph
• Harper
• Mason
• Huckleberry Finn
• Joe
• Charles L. Webster
• Roosevelt
• Brown
• Higbie
• Goodman
• Fred Grant
• Badeau
• Harvey
• Patrick
• Mary
• Sam
• George Griffin: The Clemens family butler, who lived and worked with the family for 17 years while they lived in Hartford, Connecticut.
• James W. Paige: Inventor of the Paige Compositor, an invention in which Sam Clemens invested a great deal of money. He lost everything that he invested into it and this led to his financial ruin.
• John Hay
• Osgood
• Moffett
• Johnson
• Keeler
• Holmes

Quotes edit see section history

• “I know the taste of the watermelon which has been honestly comeby, and I know the taste of the watermelon which has been acquired by art. Both taste good, but the experienced know which tastes best.”

  Mark Twain

• “When I was younger I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not; but my faculties are decaying, now and soon I shall be so I cannot remember any but the latter. It is sad to go to pieces like this, but we all have to do it.”

  Mark Twain

• “"I know the taste of the watermelon which has been honestly come by, and I know the taste of the watermelon which has been acquired by art. Both taste good, but the experienced know which taste best"”

  Samuel Clemens aka Mark Twain

• “I thoroughly disapprove of duels. I consider them unwise, and I know they are dangerous. Also, sinful. If a man should challenge me now, I would go to that man and take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet retired spot, and kill him.”

  Mark Twain

• Popular Highlights from Kindle Customers

• What a wee little part of a person’s life are his acts and his words! His real life is led in his head, and is known to none but himself.

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• whenever a man preferred being fed by any other man to starving in independence he ought to be shot.

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• “right way to do an Autobiography” was to “start it at no particular time of your life; wander at your free will all over your life; talk only about the thing which interests you for the moment; drop it the moment its interest threatens to pale, and turn your talk upon the new and more interesting thing that has intruded itself into your mind meantime.”1

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• When I was younger I could remember anything, whether it had happened or not; but my faculties are decaying, now, and soon I shall be so I cannot remember any but the latter. It is sad to go to pieces like this, but we all have to do it.

  Highlighted by 282 Kindle customers

• “There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics.”

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• “We suppress an unpopular opinion because we cannot afford the bitter cost of putting it forth,”

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• It seems a pity that the world should throw away so many good things merely because they are unwholesome. I doubt if God has given us any refreshment which, taken in moderation, is unwholesome, except microbes. Yet there are people who strictly deprive themselves of each and every eatable, drinkable and smokable which has in any way acquired a shady reputation. They pay this price for health. And health is all they get for it. How strange it is; it is like paying out your whole fortune for a cow that has gone dry.

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• Biographies are but the clothes and buttons of the man—the biography of the man himself cannot be written.

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• For we were little Christian children, and had early been taught the value of forbidden fruit.

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• Every man feels that his experience is unlike that of anybody else and therefore he should write it down—he finds also that everybody else has thought and felt on some points precisely as he has done, and therefore he should write it down.18

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Setting & Locations edit see section history

• New York City
• Hartford
• San Francisco
• London
• Washington
• United States
• Mississippi
• Elmira
• California
• America
• Europe
• Boston
• Missouri
• Nevada
• St. Louis
• New England
• Vienna
• France
• Florence
• White House
• China
• Paris
• Chicago
• Virginia City
• Hannibal
• Italy
• Buffalo
• Florida
• Tennessee
• Iowa
• Cu-mark
• Germany
• Providence
• Dublin
• Pennsylvania
• Philadelphia
• Sandwich Islands
• Wales
• Connecticut
• Russia
• Atlantic Monthly
• Massachusetts
• Scotland
• Edinburgh
• Kentucky
• Jamestown
• Hhr

First Sentence edit see section history

Table of Contents edit see section history

Series & Lists edit see section history

First Edition edit see section history

Awards edit see section history

• Publishers Weekly's Best Books of the Year (2010: Nonfiction)
• California Book Award (2010: Contribution to Publishing, Gold)

Classification edit see section history

• Library of Congress: PS1331 .A2 2010
• Dewey: 818.40924

Notes for Parents edit see section history

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Subjects edit see section history

• Books › Literature & Fiction › Authors, A-Z › ( T ) › Twain, Mark
• Books › Literature & Fiction › World Literature › United States › 19th Century
• Books › Biographies & Memoirs › Arts & Literature › Authors

Links to Supplemental Material edit see section history

• This is Mark Twain: University of California Press website for the book.

More Books Like This edit see section history