November 2010

New in November! Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1 At the time of his death in 1910, Mark Twain left his last major literary work—an autobiography—unpublished and stipulated that the entire unexpurgated work should not be issued for at least a hundred years after his death. In November 2010, the year that marks the centenary of Twain's death, UC Press has issued the first volume of a complete three-volume critical edition of the autobiography, edited by the staff of the Mark Twain Project. A digital edition with a complete textual apparatus—not included in the print version—is available at the Mark Twain Project Online. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is 125! To celebrate, the University of California Press is issuing a new Mark Twain Library edition. Available June 2010, this 125th anniversary edition of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is expanded with updated notes and references, and images of original documents—letters, advertisements, playbills—some never before published, from Twain's first book tour. Edited by Victor Fischer and Lin Salamo with Harriet Elinor Smith and the late Walter Blair. With the original illustrations by E. W. Kemble and John Harley. Who Is Mark Twain? Published by Harper Studio in cooperation with the Mark Twain Project, Who Is Mark Twain? is a collection of 24 previously unpublished pieces written by Mark Twain on such diverse topics as Jane Austen, free speech, undertaking as a profession, and more—all but three from the Mark Twain Papers. To read more about Who Is Mark Twain?, please visit whoismarktwain.com. Who Is Mark Twain? is available in stores and through online vendors. University of California launches Mark Twain Project Online The University of California is pleased to announce the launch of the beta version of Mark Twain Project Online (MTPO), a digital critical edition of the writings of Mark Twain. MTPO is a joint undertaking of the Mark Twain Papers and Project, the California Digital Library, and University of California Press. It is funded in part by a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to the Mark Twain Project, and is supported by a number of institutions and individuals. The Mark Twain Foundation, a perpetual charitable trust that owns the publication rights to all of Mark Twain’s writings still protected by copyright, has given UC Press and Mark Twain Project Online exclusive rights to publish that work both in print and electronically. At beta launch, the site includes more than twenty-three hundred letters written between 1853 and 1880, including nearly 100 facsimiles of originals. Users can also search for information about Mark Twain’s complete correspondence across his life, including letters to him and his family. In future years, the site will release more of the nearly ten thousand known letters, including many never-before published; electronic editions of many of Mark Twain’s most famous literary works; the most complete catalog of Mark Twain’s writings currently available; and, in 2010, Mark Twain’s Autobiography, one of the most eagerly-awaited posthumous publications in literary history. We invite you to view Mark Twain Project Online and read more about the making of this landmark online publication. Recent Print Editions Available in bookstores or by order from the University of California Press. BESTSELLER! Mark Twain's Helpful Hints for Good Living: A Handbook for the Damned Human Race. Edited by Lin Salamo, Victor Fischer, and Michael B. Frank. "This wonderful book illustrates precisely why we can never have enough Twain. His humor is timeless, his wisdom about all things without equal." — Ken Burns "Masterfully edited." — Dave Eggers BESTSELLER! Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Edited by Victor Fischer and Lin Salamo. The text of the new edition is based on Mark Twain's complete, original manuscript--including its first 665 pages, which had been lost for over a hundred years when they turned up in 1990 in a Los Angeles attic. A new introduction spells out in detail the effect of the newly discovered manuscript on the text. The acclaimed 2001 Mark Twain Library edition was drawn from this comprehensive scholarly edition in the Works of Mark Twain series. Is He Dead?: A Comedy in Three Acts. Edited by Shelley Fisher Fishkin. The play is from the Mark Twain Papers collection. It was written in 1898 but had not been previously published or produced on stage. This edition of Is He Dead? is the first in a new series originated by UC Press entitled Jumping Frogs: Undiscovered, Rediscovered, and Celebrated Writings of Mark Twain. Mark Twain's Letters, Volume 6: 1874-1875. Edited by Michael B. Frank and Harriet Elinor Smith. During these two years, Clemens finished writing The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, published Mark Twain's Sketches, New and Old, became a prized contributor to the Atlantic Monthly, and turned The Gilded Age, the novel he had co-authored with Charles Dudley Warner, into one of the most popular comedies of the nineteenth-century American stage. This exemplary volume has been awarded the Modern Language Association's Morton N. Cohen Award for a Distinguished Edition of Letters: it is "a book that can be read as a work of literature in its own right."

Frequently Asked Questions Answers to Correspondents from the MTP Staff We often hear from Mark Twain fans who are understandably excited to have found an early edition with a signature and inscription that look genuine. Alas, for many the excitement is short lived, because when it comes to Twain's collected works, a signature is not always what it seems. The confusion arises because there are several multi-volume sets of Twain's works which contain a steel-engraved facsimile of a handwritten statement and signature. The statement reads: "This is the authorized Uniform Edition of all my books. Mark Twain." It appears in popular series such as the American Publishing Company's Riverdale and Underwood Editions, and Harper and Brother Publishers' Hillcrest and Author's National Editions. The Charles L. Webster & Company's Mark Twain's Library of Humor also has a stamped facsimile of Clemens's handwritten ... [Full Response]	Mark Twain Luncheon Club The Mark Twain Luncheon Club, established in early 2001, hopes to attract Twainophiles, who, by contributing $1500 annually, will support the work of the Mark Twain Project. Members are invited to two luncheons a year, to hear guest speakers expatiate on the life and work of Mark Twain. Previous Luncheon Club speakers and performers include the San Francisco Choral Artists, McAvoy Layne, Shelley Fisher-Fishkin, Ron Powers, Karen Lystra, Dayton Duncan, Ken Burns, Hal Holbrook, and a dramatic and musical performance drawn from Mark Twain's earliest professional writing of journalism, letters, and tall tales. For more information about the Mark Twain Luncheon Club, please write to the Mark Twain Project address on our contact page.