Not long ago, Tori, my land lady and friend, was reading Mark Twain’s Autobiography (first volume) at her office desk. I recall asking her about the book and she said it was interesting and not the usual biography. I found the audio versions of all three volumes and checked out two of them. I finished volume one and two.
In this review I will comment on both volumes together. I really like the format Twain decided to do his biography in. He talks about different subjects from memory, from written records, letters, and articles. Most of these subjects are similar to each other and do not often change dramatically.
His love for his family shines throughout the book and I really like it when he visits Susy’s diary and the biography she wrote about her father. I laughed hard at his tale of pretending to be a bear and took interest in his stories about his brother Orion, who was the first and only Secretary of the Nevada Territory. When Twain talks about an Italian villa and its owner who will not leave, I got caught up in that too. There is so much in the first two volumes of Twain’s biography to take in. I am enjoying it a lot and look forward to getting into volume three.
