Troutbirder II

Troutbirder II
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Friday, April 1, 2022

Mark Twain autobiography

 


The new Autobiography of Mark Twain is a whopper. It weighs a ton. All 800 pages..... but in any case the subject was known for telling whoppers. And a wonderfully skewed and satirical sense of humor.
As you may know, Twain wanted his writings on his own life to be unpublished for a hundred years after his death. The team of "friends," that published this monster, took numerous pages to explain Twains complicated reasoning for his 'don't publish till death wish." Then, on top of all this, Twain did not believe a chronological life story was the way to go. Another fifty pages by the editors, were required to unravel this convoluted reasoning . Then there were the several authors whose previous biographies of Twain violated his wishes on this subject and using his voluminous notes and discarded autobiographical attempts published anyway. The editors of the current biography required much tut tuting and footnotes to show why the previous authors had screwed up. I figure about half the book is comprised of this kind of editorial gobbledegook. All of that might possibly appeal to those in depth literary experts and analysts who make a career of deciphering hieroglyphics and the like. Not for me though. I ended up skipping thru most of it.
https://barriesummy.blogspot.com/index.html

Now as to what Twain actually wrote himself, it's as you might expect wonderfully interesting. I had to laugh out loud (lol) many times and then read it to my spouse who kept on giving me that "so what’s so funny look." There is much here in the way of little anecdotes and short sketches of people, famous and not so famous, that the author knew. Is the book worth purchasing? For the average reader, like myself, probably not. The parts that I read and really enjoyed I got from the book which was obtained at the public library. I reasons why I skipped about half of this book , I’ve already explained. I think Mark Twain might have chuckled at that.....


7 comments:

  1. I've read some of Twain's "autobiographies." I'd love to tackle another.

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  2. Enjoyed your post. Prompts me to once again visit the bricks and mortar library for another serving of Mark Twain. I would visit via my own Kindle library, but alas,
    I have a new Paperwhite Kindle, a new iPad, and am having difficulty mastering both as well as having difficulty remembering passwords, and creating new ones. What little technical savvy I had is a victim of obsolescence.

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  3. What an amusing review and interesting backstory about his rambling autobiography! That would be a hard book to hold in hand.

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  4. I enjoyed your review, Ray.

    Linda McLaughlin

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  5. I always felt an affinity to Jumping Frog of Calaveras County because my grandparents lived near there in Modesto. Sounds like an interesting way to publish an autobiography, almost like the original person's intent was stolen. - Margy

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  6. Great review. Thanks for reviewing. :)

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