"It will be unparalleled in the history of literature," predicted the Times in 1899 of Mark Twain's autobiography. "A bequest to posterity." Now, 100 years after the author died, his complete memoirs will be made public for the first time.
Twain had specified that his autobiography remain unpublished for a century after his death, to ensure that he felt free to speak his "whole frank mind", knowing that when his "Final (and Right) Plan" for relating the story of his life was eventually published, he would be "dead, and unaware, and indifferent". The author passed away on 21 April 1910, and this November, the University of California Press will publish the first volume in the "complete and authoritative edition" of his autobiography, promising that the book would present Twain's "authentic and unsuppressed voice, brimming with humour, ideas, and opinions, and speaking clearly from the grave as he intended".
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