“Autobiography of Mark Twain,” the Mark Twain Project, University of California Press edition: Psychological Mindedness of the Editor’s Introduction.

Equates Name and Pseudonym

The editor’s Introduction to the “Autobiography of Mark Twain” (the author’s own title), makes no distinction between “Mark Twain” and “Samuel L. Clemens.”

Throughout the Introduction, he is mostly called “Clemens,” but sometimes called “Mark Twain,” and which name is used, at any given point, appears arbitrary.

Indeed, the first sentence of the Introduction refers to the author as “Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens),” suggesting that the names are synonymous and interchangeable.

Alternate Personalities Collaborate

Clemens eventually decided to dictate his autobiography to a stenographer, and to discuss his life in no particular order: whatever happened to interest him at that particular moment. At least, that was his cover story. He was probably allowing various alternate personalities to tell their stories, and he couldn’t control the order in which they came forward or the part of his life they wanted to discuss.

On April 6, 1906, he said, “I have thought of fifteen hundred or two thousand incidents in my life which I am ashamed of, but I have not gotten one of them to consent to go on paper yet…I believe that if I should put in all or any of those incidents I should be sure to strike them out when I came to revise this book.”

He is probably describing conflicts among his various personalities: Many of the alternate personalities didn’t want to publish what they knew; some of their memories were true, but too embarrassing to publish; while other alleged memories were not true and were “merely literature.”

This Edition Not Psychologically Minded

Judging by the editor’s Introduction, it appears that this edition of the autobiography is, as it claims, “complete and authoritative,” but is not psychologically minded. It does not address the psychological distinction between the author’s name and pseudonym or wonder why he chose the title that he did. It does not wonder about the psychological implications of the way it was written. If it had wondered about these things, it might have become even more complete and authoritative.

Harriet Elinor Smith et al (Editors). Editor’s Introduction, pp. 1-58, in Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1. A publication of the Mark Twain Project of The Bancroft Library. Berkeley Los Angeles London, University of California Press, 2010.

Note: This is the sixteenth post on Samuel Clemens. To read the previous ones, search “Mark Twain.”