The Project Gutenberg EBook of Chapters from My Autobiography, by Mark Twain

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Title: Chapters from My Autobiography

Author: Mark Twain

Release Date: December 1, 2006 [EBook #19987]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW

No. DXCVIII.

SEPTEMBER 7, 1906

CHAPTERS FROM MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY.--I.[1]

BY MARK TWAIN.

PREFATORY NOTE.--Mr. Clemens began to write his autobiography many
years ago, and he continues to add to it day by day. It was his
original intention to permit no publication of his memoirs until
after his death; but, after leaving "Pier No. 70," he concluded
that a considerable portion might now suitably be given to the
public. It is that portion, garnered from the quarter-million of
words already written, which will appear in this REVIEW during the
coming year. No part of the autobiography will be published in book
form during the lifetime of the author.--EDITOR N. A. R.

INTRODUCTION.

I intend that this autobiography shall become a model for all future
autobiographies when it is published, after my death, and I also intend
that it shall be read and admired a good many centuries because of its
form and method--a 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. Moreover,
this autobiography of mine does not select from my life its showy
episodes, but deals mainly in the common experiences which go to make up
the life of the average human being, because these episodes are of a
sort which he is familiar with in his own life, and in which he sees his
own life reflected and set down in print. The usual, conventional
autobiographer seems to particularly hunt out those occasions in his
career when he came into contact with celebrated persons, whereas his
contacts with the uncelebrated were just as interest