If you don't have anything special you want to do over the next few months you might start on Volume 1 of Mark Twain's autobiography. The first volume (three are planned) is out and it is a prodigious work, according to Lewis H. Lapham, editor emeritus of Harper's Magazine and the editor of Lapham's Quarterly. It runs to 760 pages, or as Lapham notes, 4 pounds. The publishers (University of California Press) promise Volumes II and III will be published sometime during the next ten years. It will probably take that long to read the Volume I.
Twain began writing his autobiography in 1877, but gave up when he realized it was easier and more enjoyable to talk and ramble while a stenographer took it all down. He got serious about this in 1906 and “talked” for the next four years until a few months before he went to meet his maker (about whose existence he had doubts) in 1910. Twain died before he could do any editing and the manuscript runs to some 2,600 pages.
To all of this talking/dictation he attached the caveat that the resulting work not be published until 100 years after his death. In this case Twain out-did the United States and England. It can take up to 30 years for information to be available to the public once it has been classified by the Unites States government. It England, some World War II data was held to be embargoed for 50 years.
Twain did not want to hurt anyone's feelings by revealing the opinions he held of men, their religion, politics and conduct. He believed that a person criticized deserved it and ought to be grateful for the time and attention he spent on developing the criticism. The 100 years quarantine was to ensure no one mentioned in the work would be alive to take offense, and he would be “dead, and unaware and indifferent.”
If you are too otherwise engaged (or for starters) you could do as I have and read Lapham's dissection and analysis which he calls “Democracy 101 Mark Twain's Farewell Address,” in the April 2011 issue of Harper's Magazine. I am only getting around to this now because I am seriously behind in my book and magazine reading. Other things seem to always be getting in the way, including watching foreign films, traveling abroad, a small amount of laziness.
I would probably have connected with Twain had we lived in the same era. He has deep understanding of the Constitution, that it is designed for the people, not the government; that when you protect the other fellow's liberty you are protecting your own. He rejected the idea that anyone should be able to tell him how to vote.
Twain was humorous, insightful and a great observer of the average American citizen. The slave and the common man fell under his gaze as did the rich and famous. He wrote of artisans, tradesmen, entertainers, politicians, government officials, and military heroes. He saw the freedom and good nature of the American spirit. “The scenes of foreign pomp and circumstance serve Twain as occasions to prefer the unpretentiousness of things American.” This benevolence towards his fellow citizens didn't close his eyes to the bad and the ugly he also saw in America. As a true recorder of the American scene he devoted his efforts to recording all he saw and experienced, and the 2,600 pages give testimony to his “authentic and unsuppressed voice, brimming with humor, ideas, and opinions.”
When I finish Lapham's essay, I may buy the 760 page version.
(More blog entries at www.archibaldinsc.blogspot.com)
