This article says that Mark Twain wanted to wait 100 years before releasing this material. Why was this? Because he knew that society would be more able to handle something so provocative? Or, was it because he knew the dangers that famous figures posthumously faced when judged without the context of broader history?http://news.discovery.com/history/mark-twain-memoirs-unsealed-after-100-years.html
Following up, according to the article below, Twain's autobiography has been published in a few forms during the mid-20th century, though always incomplete. The forthcoming edition will include much that had been omitted, making it a more authoritative work:
The material in Volume 1 that was omitted from previous editions amounts to ?maybe as little as 5 percent of the dictations,? said Harriet E. Smith, chief editor of the autobiography. ?But there will be a much higher percentage in Volumes 2 and 3,? each expected to be about 600 pages.By the time all three volumes are available, Mr. Hirst said, ?about half will not have ever been in print before.? A digital online edition is also planned, Ms. Smith said, ideally to coincide with publication of Volume 1 of ?the complete and authoritative edition,? as the work is being called.
I too, wonder if there are going to be significant revelations in an unabridged diary. It is generally well known that Twain was an urbane, dilletante with little respect for anything. Will the new diary do much more than confirm what we already know. I have always thought Mark Twain and Robert Heinlein had much in common in their views of the world.
This afternoon I had the privilege of watching Part I of Ken Burns' documentary on Mark Twain. I turned it on just as I sat down for lunch and it turned into a two-hour long affair, but I couldn't stop watching because it was quite interesting. The documentary began with his birth and ended with his publishing of Huckleberry Finn. Quite a fascinating fellow. He got his name from the words that one of the men would call out while on the Mississippi river paddleboats. “Mark twain” (rather than “quarter twain” or “half twain”) meant that the water was just at a suitable depth to navigate (12 feet). On a related note, I have think that the person in modern times who is the most like Mark Twain the social commentator is Garrison Keillor. Even though I'm not a fan of his politics, Keillor definitely has an old school knack for capturing the essence of Americana in its true glory.
I just finished watching Part II of the documentary on Twain's life, which lasted from his life around 1890 until his death around 1909. Sounds like he had a sad, troubled life toward the end, though one in which his fame and popularity went with him wherever he went. His happiest years seem to have been when he and his family lived in the “Hartford house” in Connecticut. Does anyone know what the status of that house is today? Is it a private home or has it been turned into a Twain museum?