Form and Content
In The Autobiography of Mark Twain, the famous American author Twain presents young readers with biographical information about his life, insight into how an author thinks and writes, and a description of a young and optimistic United States. The book uses anecdotic forms of recollections to document Twain’s life and shows the influence of a developing nation on this author as well as his influence on the nation. Editor Charles Neider’s 1959 revised edition of Twain’s autobiography contains seventy-nine chapters written by Twain during his earlier years and dictated during his later years. Although the first part of the book begins with his birth and the last tells of the end of his life, The Autobiography of Mark Twain presents events as Twain recollects them, rather than in a chronological format.
While Twain primarily focuses on his own life, he also deals with the lives of friends and relatives as he shows how they affected him and his work. In the preface and in several other places, Twain reminds readers that by speaking “from the grave” he is allowed to write freely when describing the private moments of his life. Twain, claiming his work to be free and frank, tells young readers about his friendships with famous American figures such as Ulysses S. Grant, Bret Harte, and William Dean Howells. Likewise, he discusses the members of his family: his mother and father, brother, wife and children, and even a nephew with whom he began a publishing business. Twain develops a feeling of closeness and rapport with the reader as he tells of the death of his son and his interactions with authors and publishers and as he shares his feelings about people whom he liked and did not like.
Twain provides interesting commentaries concerning the fairness of life, his theological beliefs, and his political opinions. For example, Twain believed that “people’s beliefs and convictions are in almost every case gotten at second-hand, and without examination, from authorities who have not themselves examined the questions at issue.” Near the end of the book, Twain, mixing humor and philosophy, comments on the human race and the way in which people hold on to superstitions.
In the revised edition of The Autobiography of Mark Twain, Neider provides a fourteen-page introduction that gives vital information about Twain’s life, other editions of the autobiography, and the use of anecdotal recollections to tell a life story, as well as an explanation of the reasons for the inclusion or omission of certain material. Twain’s use of his recollections provides some highly interesting information and some that perceptive readers might justifiably question; Neider argues that the book as a whole is an entertaining autobiography. The revised edition also contains fourteen pages of illustrations of Twain, his family, and his friends. Other illustrations reveal two pages from one of Twain’s manuscripts that show corrections and revisions in his own handwriting.
Historical Context
The Autobiography of Mark Twain captivates readers by offering a detailed, firsthand perspective on the historical events of Twain's era. He lived during significant periods in the mid-1800s and early 1900s, as America navigated its growing pains and shaped its national identity.
It's not surprising that Twain and his brother Orion found employment in the burgeoning newspaper industry of the nineteenth century. This expansion was propelled by several factors, including the increased use of advertising to offset printing expenses, a rise in news correspondents using the telegraph to send the latest national stories, and the formation of the Associated Press. The significance of newspapers and other rapid communication forms grew with the onset...
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of the Civil War, as existing publications on both sides of the conflict used print to advocate for their causes.
The Civil War remains the bloodiest conflict in American history. Between 1861 and 1865, over 600,000 Americans perished in a war that often divided families, as loyalties were split between the North and South. Although the secession of southern states from the Union triggered the war, differing opinions on slavery were a primary cause for the South's secession. The South perceived Abraham Lincoln's 1860 presidential election as a threat to its lifestyle, particularly the institution of slavery, which provided the labor force essential for the profitable southern cotton industry.
The leading cause of death during the war was disease, which spread rapidly among soldiers from both sides. Following disease, battlefield injuries and a lack of medical knowledge, experience, and preparedness contributed to the high mortality rate. Medicine in the 1800s was still in its infancy, with medical education lacking regulation. At that time, American doctors had minimal understanding of disease causes and prevention.
Even in urban areas, far from the rough conditions of the battlefield, medicine was mostly speculative, and people frequently fell victim to fatal and debilitating diseases. In his autobiography, Twain shares personal experiences to illustrate this. His father dies from pleurisy, an inflammation caused by a prolonged lung infection, after being caught in a storm. Twain's wife becomes an invalid for life after falling on ice as a teenager. His brother, Henry, dies from a morphine overdose.
In one of the most poignant sections of the book, Twain recounts feeling responsible for the death of his first-born son, Langdon. On a chilly morning, Twain took Langdon for a drive but neglected to ensure his warmth. "The furs fell away and exposed his bare legs," Twain remembers. Although he and the coachman quickly covered the child again, the exposure to the cold proved deadly. As Resa Willis highlights in her book, Mark and Livy, Langdon's death was due to "diphtheria, a disease that claimed the lives of many children in the nineteenth century, with no available antitoxin until 1890.”
Literary Style
Organization
While Charles Neider's adaptation of The Autobiography of Mark Twain
follows a chronological order, each chapter retains Twain's original intent to
forgo any structured organization beyond his spontaneous dictations. This
absence of formal structure compels readers to focus more on the details, as
they are not neatly arranged. This approach also creates connections between
topics that may not exist in a strictly chronological autobiography, offering
insights into Twain's thought processes.
For instance, in the chapter where Twain first mentions his mother, he highlights her deep compassion, stating, "my mother would not have allowed a rat to be restrained of its liberty." In the following paragraph, he suddenly shifts focus, discussing how, during his childhood in Missouri, "everybody was poor but didn't know it."
What purpose does this sudden narrative shift serve? One might envision Twain dictating this section, with an image of the rat his mother would try to save. This might lead him to think about rats in general and their common association with poverty, thus connecting it to the paragraph about financial hardship.
Examining the text in this way, particularly where Twain abruptly changes topics, allows readers to delve into his mind and better grasp his intentions. If all recollections of Twain's mother were confined to one chapter and all memories of poverty to another, the book would possess a completely different atmosphere.
Humor
Twain was renowned for his humor, which pervades most of his work. This playful
quality is evident throughout the book, where he uses amusing phrases to depict
situations. For example, he describes wasps crawling up the leg of a boy so
overwhelmed by shyness in the presence of girls that he cannot move. Twain
refers to the wasps as "prospecting around" and notes that "one group of
excursionists after another climbed up Jim's legs and resented even the
slightest wince or squirm that he indulged himself with in his misery." By
using words like "excursionists" in unconventional ways, Twain elicits laughter
from his readers.
Twain's humor often takes on a biting quality, especially when directed at others. He uses this approach to criticize individuals he believes have wronged him. For instance, while discussing Webster's business manager at the publishing company, who hailed from the same town as both Webster and his lawyer, Twain remarks, "We got all our talents from that stud farm at Dunkirk." A stud farm is a place where high-quality horses are bred. By calling these three young men, who ultimately ruin the business, "talents" from a "stud farm," Twain is implying quite the opposite—that they lack talent and come from inferior origins.
Compare and Contrast
1860s: The United States is embroiled in the Civil War, a conflict that divides the nation and results in the deaths of over six hundred thousand Americans.
Today: Americans come together in support of the fight against international terrorism, sparked by the tragic events of September 11, 2001, which claimed several thousand lives. This modern warfare heavily relies on covert intelligence operations, alongside the deployment of military ground forces and air strikes.
1860s: Leisure travel in America grows, largely due to the expansion of the railroad system, which leads to a decrease in domestic travel via the slower, steam-powered riverboats.
Today: Many Americans journey to various global destinations for business and leisure. The supersonic Concorde, the fastest mode of commercial air travel, can exceed speeds of two thousand miles per hour.
1860s: James Redpath creates America's first official lecture management agency, taking advantage of the growing popularity of lectures by both famous and lesser-known speakers.
Today: Numerous celebrities share their ideas with large audiences through television talk shows, and most have agents or managers who arrange their public appearances.
Bibliography and Further Reading
Sources
Gay, Robert M., ‘‘The Two Mark Twains,’’ in the Atlantic Monthly, Vol.
166, December 1940, pp. 724-26.
Kaplan, Justin, Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain: A Biography, Simon & Schuster, 1983, pp. 233-34, 272, 292, 378.
Kiskis, Michael, ‘‘Mark Twain and the Collaborative Autobiography,’’ in Studies in the Literary Imagination, Vol. 29, Fall 1996, pp. 27–40.
Krauth, Leland, "Mark Twain Fights Sam Clemens' Duel,’’ in Mississippi Quarterly, Vol. 33, Spring 1980, pp. 144-53.
Long, E. Hudson, Mark Twain Handbook, Hendricks House, 1957, p. 23.
Neider, Charles, "Introduction," in The Autobiography of Mark Twain, Perennial Classics, 1959, pp. ix—xxviii.
Rexroth, Kenneth, ‘‘Humor in a Tough Age,’’ in Nation, Vol. 188, March 7, 1959, pp. 211-13.
Sanoff, Alvin P., ‘‘Autobiography and the Craft of Embellishment," in U.S. News and World Report, Vol. 107, No. 16, October 23, 1989, p. 64.
Willis, Resa, Mark and Livy: The Love Story of Mark Twain and the Woman Who (Almost) Tamed Him, TV Books Inc., 2000, p. 73.
Further Reading
Budd, Louis J., Critical Essays on Mark Twain, 1867—1910, G. K. Hall
& Co., 1982.
This collection compiles significant critiques of Twain's literary works during
his lifetime.
Davis, David Brion, The Problem of Slavery in Western Culture,
Oxford University Press, 1988.
This Pulitzer Prize-winning classic investigates slavery from both historical
and sociological viewpoints.
DeVoto, Bernard, Mark Twain's America, The Riverside Press,
1951.
Authored by the editor of the second version of Twain's autobiography, this
book explores Twain's life within his historical context and addresses some
critical opinions.
Gandy, Joan W., and Thomas H. Gandy, The Mississippi Steamboat Era in
Historic Photographs: Natchez to New Orleans 1870-1920, Dover
Publications, 1989.
This book documents steamboat culture with photographs and essays from the
Civil War to the early twentieth century.
Meinig, D. W., The Shaping of America: A Geographical Perspective on 500
Years of History, Vol. 3, Transcontinental America, 1850-1915,
Yale University Press, 2000.
This volume provides a thorough analysis of the nation's geographical evolution
from the mid-1800s to the onset of World War I.
Powers, Ron, Dangerous Water: A Biography of the Boy Who Became Mark
Twain, Basic Books, 1999.
This biography, written by a fellow Missouri native, examines the life of
Clemens alongside the Twain persona, highlighting Twain's rise as America's
first media superstar.
Turner, Frederick Jackson, The Frontier in American History, Dover
Publications, 1996.
Originally released in 1920, this seminal work on the American frontier
explores how and why the United States developed into its current form.
Bibliography
Burns, Ken, Dayton Duncan, and Geoffrey C. Ward. Mark Twain: An Illustrated Biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001.
Camfield, Gregg. The Oxford Companion to Mark Twain. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Emerson, Everett. Mark Twain: A Literary Life. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000.
Fishkin, Shelley Fisher. Lighting Out for the Territory: Reflections on Mark Twain and American Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.
Fishkin, Shelley Fisher. Was Huck Black? Mark Twain and African-American Voices. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Fishkin, Shelley Fisher, ed. A Historical Guide to Mark Twain. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
Horn, Jason Gary. Mark Twain: A Descriptive Guide to Biographical Sources. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press, 1999.
Kaplan, Fred. The Singular Mark Twain: A Biography. New York: Doubleday, 2003.
Kaplan, Justin. Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain: A Biography. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1966.
LeMaster, J. R., and James D. Wilson, eds. The Mark Twain Encyclopedia. New York: Garland, 1993.
Ober, K. Patrick. Mark Twain and Medicine: “Any Mummery Will Cure.” Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2003.
Rasmussen, R. Kent. Mark Twain A to Z. New York: Facts On File, 1995.
