Mark Twain autobiography is like a long lunch with a man who’s been everywhere

In 2010, Mark Twain, 100 years after his death, became a literary sensation once more with the publication of volume one of his autobiography. It surprised everyone in the bookselling trade when it turned out to be a best-selling holiday-gift choice of the season.

This year, just in time for another Christmas, the University of California Press has released volume two, but with significantly less fanfare.

Chunks of his autobiography have been published before, and Samuel Clemens's jam-packed life is well-documented - his colorful boyhood in Hannibal, Mo., his career as a riverboat pilot, his desertion from the Confederate Army and subsequent dash west to pan for gold and begin writing, his lecture stumps around the world (more than once), his disastrous investment schemes and his many now-famous books and even more famous characters, most notably Huck and Tom. (See, you know whom I mean even without their last names.)

But why would we want to take up such a daunting - by which I mean heavy, at 734 pages - task to read this giant book? Wouldn't it be more rewarding to return to one of his novels or his sort-of-true accounts such as “Roughing It” about his exploits in the Far West, “Innocents Abroad” in which he accompanies the first organized flock of tourists who headed for the Holy Lands, or “Life on the Mississippi” about, well, life on the Mississippi?

For one thing, Mark Twain - “Mark Twain” being the public persona Clemens invented - was one of the deep thinkers of his day, though he could be wildly blind to some social issues but light years ahead of his day on other matters.

Throughout these books, he shows himself to be a scold and a sprite in turns, brimming with anger or sharp observations on life's grace and beauty. He ruminates on anti-Semitism, the Bible, astrology, war, Helen Keller, copyright laws, kings and queens and presidents - just about whatever pops into his head.

Moreover, we're reminded how few can match him for his gentle yet surprising turn of phrase. In one reminiscence, he tells of how one of his daughters was rescued from possibly drowning, and concludes with this: “Clara has had other alarming adventures by water, and if I had been the right kind of father I would have taken out both fire and marine insurance on her long ago.”

Not falling-down funny, certainly, but don't we all wish would could write like that?

And what a talker. The writing style he perfected was designed to be conversational - his stuff reads the way he spoke.

This book is like an extended lunch with a man who's been everywhere, met everyone and done practically everything … except, of course, he does all the talking. (I confess I've tried for years to imitate that splendid style, with nowhere near the success rate.)

Don't let the page count deter you: These editions are almost entirely a collection of Twain's dictations over a period of years, a process intended by him specifically for his autobiography.

So you can skip around, as the author didn't bother with straight chronology, either.

He picks up and discards topics as memory moves him. (“However I am reminded of something that occurred here at dinner last night … .”)

One more reason to take a look and give a listen: Twain remains one of the best writers in the English language, after all this time.

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