Autobiography of Mark Twain: The Complete and Authoritative Edition, Volume 1

by Mark Twain

Meredith—His three o’clock a.m. call on young lady—Death of Mr. Clemens’s father, just after having been made County Judge— Mr. Clemens’s small income after having become bankrupt through maladministration of Charles L. Webster. My brother’s experience was another conspicuous example of my scheme’s efficiency. I will talk about

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antedated me ten years. Between him and me came a sister, Margaret, who died, aged ten, in 1837 in that village of Florida, Missouri, where I was born; and Pamela, mother of Samuel E. Moffett, who was an invalid all her life and died in the neighborhood of New York a year ago, aged about seventy-five, after experimenting with every malady known to the human race and with every medicine and method of healing known to that race, and enjoying each malady in its turn and

hamlet of Jamestown up there among the “knobs”—so called—of east Tennessee, among a very sparse population of primitives who were as ignorant of the outside world and as unconscious of it as were the other wild animals that inhabited the forest around. The family migrated to Florida, Missouri, then moved to Hannibal, Missouri, when Orion was twelve and a half years old. When he was fifteen or sixteen he was sent to St. Louis and there he learned the printer’s trade. One of his characteristics was eagerness.

ADOBE GARAMOND DISPLAY: AKZIDENZ GROTESK COMPOSITOR: INTEGRATED COMPOSITION SYSTEMS, INC. PRINTER AND BINDER: THOMSON-SHORE,