"A major publishing venture. . . . Reading these letters is like anticipating Life on the Mississippi, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn—in some ways more enjoyably because of their freshness and spontaneity."—Publishers Weekly

"A record of the coming of age of one of America's most remarkable citizens. One can hear the characteristic Twain voice developing, the tart humor, the keen observation and the propensity to dramatize."—Chicago Sun-Times

"As witty and readable as anything else he ever wrote."—Houston Chronicle

"This edition of letters is a scholarly work of the greatest distinction."—The New Criterion

"No less than splendid . . . one of the most important literary projects to be done in our times, with the happy expectation that it is going to prove a glorious achievement to American letters."—Nineteenth-Century Literature

"deftly annotated"—Stephen Fender, London Review of Books

"Lively and informative . . . the volume as a whole provides welcome insight into the later works, particularly Life on the Mississippi and Roughing It, of a great American writer."—Charles C. Nash, Library Journal

"auspicious beginning of what may come to be regarded as one of the most important collections of letters by an American author . . . admirably organized and set forth as to become a source of wonder to general readers and delight to advanced students of literary history"—Genevieve Stuttaford, Publishers Weekly

"delightful . . . brilliantly annotated"—Stefan Kanfer, Time Magazine

"the reader is privileged to share in the waxing and waning of the writer's moods, and to discover the raw material of his later workæthe molten steel, as it were, before it is bent into narrative shape. The labour that has gone into producing this volume is prodigious. To read it, however, is no labour at all but pure pleasure"—Richard Gray, London Times Higher Education Supplement

"The editing . . . is perfection itself. The notes and commentary . . . are as compelling as the letters themselves."—William Baker, Antioch Review

"the California edition of Mark Twain's works . . . is a model of the best scholarship American universities can produce today in a group enterprise. . . . the editors have filled in the necessary connecting facts so that the whole reads like a good biography. . . . The letters are as witty and readable as anything else he ever wrote. . . . It is hard to imagine any assistance to any reader that this edition does not anticipate."—William S. Hunter, Houston Chronicle

"the Mark Twain Project, based in the Bancroft Library of the University of California at Berkeley, . . . has hit its full, admirably sustained, and now magnificent stride. It is satisfying to be able to report that this first volume of the letters . . . not only represents the project at even more than its previous best but also makes major contributions to the theory and practice of documentary editing."—Michael Millgate, University of Toronto Quarterly

"This edition of letters is a scholarly work of the greatest distinction: the editorial rationale for copy-text is impeccable, the annotations are wonderfully generous and detailed"—James W. Tuttleton, New Criterion

"The enormous labor of the California editors . . . has left remarkably few signs of strain, a circumstance that mirrors Clemens' own conviction that the best humor must appear to transpire effortlessly, no matter how much hard work it takes to bring it about. . . . [T]he prevailing tone of this book is expansive and exhilarating. . . . Readers of all sorts will enjoy this unparalleled chance to eavesdrop on Clemens' accounts of leaving home, of piloting on the Mississippi, of prospecting in the west, and of drifting almost accidentally, almost begrudgingly, into a life's work as a writer."—Jeffrey Steinbrink, American Literature

"no less than splendid . . . before us lies the prospect of one of the most important literary projects to be done in our times, with the happy expectation that it is going to prove a glorious achievement to American letters."—Thomas Wortham, Nineteenth-Century Literature

"a major contribution of American and western American scholarship . . . superbly edited"—Richard W. Etulain, California History

"a wonderful piece of scholarship"—Mark Sargent, Mississippi Quarterly

"At last we are getting superb editions of Mark Twain's writings, in full detail for scholars and libraries and in an accessible but still precise form for students and the public. That, as Twain might have said to the members of his Damned Human Race Luncheon Club, is about the best human beings can do."—Harold H. Kolb, Jr., Virginia Quarterly Review

Mark Twain Project Online