Bücher der Reihe Mark Twain Library

o Includes the authoritative texts for eleven pieces written between 1868 and 1902o Publishes, for the first time, the complete text of "e;Villagers of 1840-3,"e; Mark Twain's astounding feat of memoryo Features a biographical directory and notes that reflect extensive new research on Mark Twain's early life in MissouriThroughout his career, Mark Twain frequently turned for inspiration to memories of his youth in the Mississippi River town of Hannibal, Missouri. What has come to be known as the Matter of Hannibal inspired two of his most famous books, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, and provided the basis for the eleven pieces reprinted here. Most of these selections (eight of them fiction and three of them autobiographical) were never completed, and all were left unpublished. Written between 1868 and 1902, they include a diverse assortment of adventures, satires, and reminiscences in which the characters of his own childhood and of his best-loved fiction, particularly Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer, come alive again. The autobiographical recollections culminate in an astounding feat of memory titled "e;Villagers of 1840-3"e; in which the author, writing for himself alone at the age of sixty-one, recalls with humor and pathos the characters of some one hundred and fifty people from his childhood. Accompanied by notes that reflect extensive new research on Mark Twain's early life in Missouri, the selections in this volume offer a revealing view of Mark Twain's varied and repeated attempts to give literary expression to the Matter of Hannibal.

"This definitive edition of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, one of the world's best-loved books, was the first version since the original publication to be based directly on the author's manuscript. It includes all of the '200 rattling pictures' Mark Twain commissioned from one of his favorite illustrators, True W. Williams. Prepared by the Mark Twain Papers, the official archive of Sam Clemens's papers at the University of California, Berkeley, this volume also contains a wealth of helpful explanatory notes, along with a selection of original documents by Mark Twain, including several letters in his inimitable voice about writing Tom Sawyer and about its original publication--everything the discerning reader needs to enjoy this classic of American literature again and again"--Back cover.