Here is young Sam Clemens—in the world, getting famous, making love—in 155 magnificently edited letters that trace his remarkable self-transformation from a footloose, irreverent West Coast journalist to a popular lecturer and author of The Jumping Frog, soon to be a national and international celebrity. And on the move he was—from San Francisco to New York, to St. Louis, and then to Paris, Naples, Rome, Athens, Constantinople, Yalta, and the Holy Land; back to New York and on to Washington; back to San Francisco and Virginia City; and on to lecturing in Ohio, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New York. Resplendent with wit, love of life, ambition, and literary craft, this new volume in the wonderful Bancroft Library edition of Mark Twain's Letters will delight and inform both scholars and general readers.



This volume has been supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Mark Twain Foundation, Jane Newhall, and The Friends of The Bancroft Library.

"The magnificent University of California Press edition of everything that Mark Twain wrote continues."—William B. Hunter, Houston Chronicle

"We don't read letters much anymore, to say nothing of writing them, and that's a loss. How much of a loss is readily apparent at every turn in this handsome and meticulously edited volume. . . . The book is great fun, and it gives us as intimate a glimpse of Mark Twain as we are likely to have."—Charles H. Gold, Chicago Sun-Times

"distinguished by meticulous editorial standards and exacting scholarship. The letters of few other authors have been handled with such exhaustive and intelligent care. . . When completed, Mark Twain's Letters will constitute a comprehensive autobiography of a major American author."—M. T. Inge, Choice

"scrupulously annotated, richly illustrated, definitive"—Charles C. Nash, Library Journal

"a splendidly conceived and brilliantly achieved edition of Clemens's letters"—Nineteenth-Century Literature

"Few things, as Pudd'nhead observed, are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example, and this building collection of the letters is horribly, excruciatingly good. It sets standards of diligence that will cause future editors of writers' letters to weep."—Jonathan Raban, Times Literary Supplement

"In all, Mark Twain's Letters is scholarship at its best—charming and readable texts, informative and accessible commentary, all at a reasonable price."—Gary Scharnhorst, California History

"the first two volumes of Mark Twain's Letters that have now been published by the University of California Press . . . are models of scrupulous scholarship, containing everything the reader could conceivably want to know."—Geoffrey C. Ward, American Heritage

"a magisterial accomplishment"—Robert E. Gunderson, The Californians

"In the tradition established by volume I, the letters are meticulously annotated, providing a virtual documentary biography of Mark Twain for this period. This has the makings of a magnificent edition."—Robert Sattelmeyer, American Literary Scholarship

"anyone who studies the life and career of Sam Clemens will be grateful for the effort the Mark Twain Project demonstrates in this volumeæand in all its work. . . . Altogether the editorial effort is truly astonishing."—James E. Caron, Biography

"the attempt to present Twain's correspondence chronologically and in its entirety is a completely new undertaking that should be expected to have its own impact on Twain studies. It may at least be conjectured, for instance, that the obsession of many scholars with Twain's 'fragmented' personality may in part be an effect of the piecemeal fashion in which his personal papers and unpublished works have been released. . . This volume adheres immaculately to the high standards set by previous production of the Mark Twain Project and carries on the tradition of intelligent and compelling footnotes."—David Barrow, Nineteenth-Century Prose

"handsome, meticulously edited and annotated"—A. Robert Lee, Modern Language Review

"The editors of this series have enriched the literary history of the United States with the publishing of these letters. We look forward to the next volume."—Barbara W. Rippey, Western American Literature

Mark Twain Project Online