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SPECIAL FEATURE
by Barbara Schmidt

MARK TWAIN'S ILLUSTRATED AUTOBIOGRAPHY by Barbara Schmidt Original SUNDAY MAGAZINE from the Dave Thomson collection

 

Scholars have estimated that Mark Twain wrote and dictated about 500,000 words of autobiography. As of the year 2005, the entire body of work known as Twain's autobiography has still not been published. Various portions of the autobiography have appeared as follows:

NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW, about 100,000 words in 25 installments published from September 1906 - December 1907.

MARK TWAIN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY, edited by Albert Bigelow Paine in two volumes, about 195,000 words, published by Harper's in 1924. This work included passages from the NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW as well as a few chapters that Paine had published in HARPER'S MAGAZINE in early 1922.

MARK TWAIN IN ERUPTION, edited by Bernard DeVoto, published by Harper's in 1940. This edition included 150,000 words from the original manuscripts and NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW articles that were not included in Paine's MARK TWAIN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY.

THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MARK TWAIN, edited by Charles Neider, published by Harper & Row in 1959. This edition included text from earlier editions plus 30,000 words that had not yet appeared previously.

MARK TWAIN'S OWN AUTOBIOGRAPHY: THE CHAPTERS FROM THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. With Introduction and Notes by Michael J. Kiskis, published in 1990 by University of Wisconsin Press, reprinted the earlier NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW articles and provided a detailed comparison list of the earlier editions.

None of the earlier editions of Twain's autobiography were illustrated and none of the previous works make note of the wide distribution the AUTOBIOGRAPHY received as it was published nationwide via Sunday newspaper supplements during Twain's lifetime. The following list is an attempt to document the illustrations that were used in conjunction with the Twain's autobiography.

MARK TWAIN'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY with illustations appeared in SUNDAY MAGAZINE supplements beginning in October 27, 1907 and running until September 27, 1908 in the following newspapers:

New York Tribune
Pittsburg Post
Philadelphia Press
Washington Star
Boston Post
Baltimore Herald
Chicago Record-Herald
St. Louis Republic
Rocky Mountain News and Denver Times
Minneapolis Journal

These installments followed the unillustrated serialized edition of AUTOBIOGRAPHY that appeared in NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW although the segments were not identical. The following descriptions of the illustrations are those that appeared in:

SUNDAY MAGAZINE supplements in the
ROCKY MOUNTAIN NEWS AND DENVER TIMES

p. 3 - Mark Twain with his characters by F. Luis Mora -- online at:
http://www.twainquotes.com/Library.html

p. 4 - "Ascending the Pyramid" from Innocents Abroad
"Colonel Sellers Feeding His Family on Expectations" from Gilded Age
"Street Cars of Damascus" from Innocents Abroad

p. 4 - photo of the birthplace at Florida, MO.;
photo of the boyhood home in Hannibal, copyright 1899, Harper's

p. 6 - "The Inspiring Library Mantel" - looks like photo or illustration from photo;
Josh Billings, Mark Twain, Petroleum Nasby - illustration from the known photo;
Mark Twain's home at Hartford - looks like photo or illustration from photo

p. 6 - 3 ea. illustrations by True Williams from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

p. 6 - Illustration by Emlen McConnell titled "Here Is a Boy Seven Years Old Who Can't Chaw Tobacco!" Looks like Sam being following by little girl in a bonnet.

Illustration by Emlen McConnell titled "There! I Have Found It Out!" He said.
Illustration depicts Twain with German portier with Twain leaning down and looking over a translation of one of his own books.

p. 6 - Photo by Underwood & Underwood dated 1907 titled "I Always Had a Fondness for Kittens."
Known photo of Twain sitting on large rock holding kitten.

Illustration by Emlen McConnell titled "I Had Never Seen a Member of the Family Kiss Another - Except Once." Illustration features Pamela bending over John Marshall Clemens on his death bed. Online at:
http://www.twainquotes.com/ClemensJM.html

p. 6 - Unsigned illustration (probably by Emlen McConnell) titled "Almost Precisely as in My Dream of Several Weeks Before." Illustration features Sam kneeling beside a wounded Henry as a tall man looks on. Online at:
http://www.twainquotes.com/Steamboats/HenryClemens.html

Illustration by Emlen McConnell titled "He Wept, and We All Wept with Him." Illustration of young American con artist, Sam Clemens, Charles Warren Stoddard and George Dolby.

Illustration by Emlen McConnell titled "Papa Blew His Soap Bubbles and Filled Them with Tobacco Smoke." Features Susy, Clara, and Sam blowing bubbles. Online at:
http://www.twainquotes.com/Clemens_Susy.html

Illustration titled "Jean Was Kept Busy Signing Death Warrants" features girls dressed in roles for Prince and Pauper with little Jean sitting at a table writing.

Illustration of Clemens with daughter Jean looking at ducks titled "I Don't See Why God Gives Us so Much Ducks."

Ilustration by Emlen McConnell titled "The Trouble Began When I Found Myself in Front of My First Audience" features Clemens full length standing beside a podium

Photo of Clemens bowling titled "I Never Started a Ball That Didn't Score a Ten-Strike"

Illustration titled: The Man Burst in. "Now I Don't Want Any More Out of You!" -- to illustrate passage about a practical joke Dean Sage played on Joseph Twichell. Illustration features two men on a porch arguing -- one standing, one seated.

Illustration titled "Then His Melancholy Eyes Fell Upon Captain Osborn, and a Light of Glad Recognition Flashed From Them" - depicts four men standing around a table. Used to illustrate anecdote of Burton Sanders and two waiters playing a con game on Captain Osborn.

Illustration by Emlen McConnell titled "I Was Drowned Nine Times Before I Learned to Swim." features black slave woman pulling young Sam from the water. Online at:
http://www.twainquotes.com/Drowning.html

p. 8 - 3 photos -- one each of Charles Dudley Warner, Joel Chandler Harris, and Frank R. Stockton

Illustration by Emlen McConnell titled: He Said, "Do You Mean to Tell Me That You Were Selling Another Man's Dog?" -- illustrates the story of Sam selling General Miles a dog. Online at:
http://www.twainquotes.com/Deceit.html

One illustration from a photo titled "William Winter in 1877."

One illustration from a photo titled "W. D. Howells in 1877."

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