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´I´ve struck it!´ Mark Twain wrote in a 1904 letter to a friend. ´And I will give it away - to you. You will never know how much enjoyment you have lost until you get to dictating your autobiography.´ Thus, after dozens of false starts and hundreds of pages, Twain embarked on his ´Final (and Right) Plan´ for telling the story of his life. His innovative notion - to ´talk only about the thing which interests you for the moment´ - meant that his thoughts could range freely. The strict instruction that many of these texts remain unpublished for 100 years meant that when they came out, he would be ´dead, and unaware, and indifferent,´ and that he was therefore free to speak his ´whole frank mind.´ The year 2010 marks the 100th anniversary of Twain´s death. In celebration of this important milestone and in honor of the cherished tradition of publishing Mark Twain´s works, "UC Press" is proud to offer for the first time Mark Twain´s uncensored autobiography in its entirety and exactly as he left it. This major literary event brings to readers, admirers, and scholars the first of three volumes and presents Mark Twain´s authentic and unsuppressed voice, brimming with humor, ideas, and opinions, and speaking clearly from the grave as he intended.forthcoming "Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 2" - a controversial but characteristically humorous attack on Christian doctrine.

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Mark Twain, geb. am 30.11.1835 in Florida (Missouri). Sein eigentlicher Name ist Samuel Longhorne Clemens. Der Vater starb 1847 und Twain musste im Alter von zwölf Jahren die Schule abbrechen und begann eine Lehre als Schriftsetzer. Mit 17 Jahren ging er nach New York, dann nach Philadelphia, wo er die ersten Reiseskizzen schrieb. Von 1857-60 war er Lotse auf dem Mississippi, nahm am Sezessionskrieg auf der Seite der Konföderierten teil und war 1861 Silbersucher in Nevada. 1864 lebte er in San Francisco, 1866 als Reporter auf Hawaii und 1867 als Reisender in Europa und Palästina. Er gründete einen Verlag, musste aber 1894 Konkurs anmelden und ging auf Weltreise, um mit Vorträgen seine Schulden abzutragen. Mark Twain starb am 21.4.1910 in Redding (Connecticut).

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