'Mark Twain's Autobiography: With An Introduction by Albert Bigelow Paine - Volume I ' Summary

Twain first started to compose an autobiography in 1870, but proceeded fitfully, abandoning the work and returning to it as the mood took him, amassing around 30–40 of these "false starts" over the next 35 years.

The bulk of the autobiography was dictated rather than written directly—this was described by a 2010 reviewer as "[having] a secretary follow him around and take down his every passing thought". In a 1904 letter to William Dean Howells, he wrote: "I’ve struck it! And I will give it away—to you. You will never know how much enjoyment you have lost until you get to dictating your autobiography." These dictations were made frequently in 1906 and 1907. Twain then seems to have let the book languish; in 1908–9 he hardly added to it at all, and he declared the project concluded in 1909, after the death of his youngest daughter Jean. His innovative notion—to "talk only about the thing which interests you for the moment"—meant that his thoughts could range freely. Twain thought his autobiography would be most entertaining if he went off on whims and tangents in non-sequential order.

Twain's papers, including the autobiographical works, were left as part of a trust for the benefit of his surviving daughter, Clara Clemens. These papers passed through the control of a number of editors, and have, since 1971, been held by the Bancroft Library, at the University of California, Berkeley.