Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 3 by Mark TwainMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Twain at his short essay best. This volume of the autobiography has Twain dictating whatever stories came into his mind while purportedly writing his autobiography over three years of his life. It comes across a lot like a newspaper columnist with free reign to write whatever he wants, knowing the strength of his style and his storytelling capabilities will pull him through with what could well be a gem. There are lots of gems here.
The backstory here is very interesting, and Twain himself tells it near the end of this volume. Throughout this and previous volumes of his autobiography, Twain complains about how the copyright law was taking away the ability for his family to earn revenue off of his work, his writing, after the copyright has expired. He explains in this volume that he wants to provide for daughter Jean. His other living daughter has married and is provided for, but Jean is not. Twain’s way to game the copyright law is to write additions to his autobiography, and to have his daughter release new versions of the autobiography when the copyright is nearing expiration, each new edition containing a few thousand words from this volume of stories. Quite a smart idea. But the bulk of the volume ends when Twain finds his daughter Jean dead, having drowned after an epileptic seizure. He shares his grief in his last dictated sections, his reason for writing the autobiography gone.
There is an addition to the “official” part of the autobiography. In subsequent years, Twain realized that his secretary and his housekeeper had been defrauding him. He writes a story to describe the situation, covering quite a few pages, in the same style and wit he exhibits throughout. The case never went to court, so this story was not released. It contains some interesting details on his life, his finances, and his frame of mind. He was too trusting, and you can feel him just kicking himself on being taken for so long by the people he mindlessly trusted. You learn much of Twain’s character at the twilight of his life from this story.
The essays, or stories themselves are of a wide variety of topics, but all containing Twain wit and style. There are descriptions of investments, including a wireless telephone that takes messages. Twain had a great disdain for President Teddy Roosevelt, pillorying him in a few of his essays. He also took on the media. The writing was fresh, but I found it truly amazing that for a few pages, I would have believed it had been written this week – the topics were how unpresidential the President was acting, followed by a condemnation of the media, printing stories without facts in order to keep advertisers happy. Ripped from today’s headlines, but written 110 years ago!
After listening to the audiobook version of all three volumes of Twain’s autobiography, I got what I was initially looking for – insight into Twain, and a lot of stories told in his style. He was a great writer, and this volume reminds you of this in every section.
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