SERIALIZATION OF “REBEL WITH A CAUSE: MARK TWAIN’S HIDDEN MEMOIRS” -- CHAPTER 57 (of 78)
Susy’s Truncated Biography (1885)
Chapter 57
Susy’s Truncated Biography (1885)
Susy was very observant, and a deep thinker and feeler. In 1885 she was observing me in particular. So at the age of thirteen she began a biography of me that was discovered by her mother and shared with me. I was flattered to be the subject of her loving but clear-sighted and -minded portrait. Susy soon found out that we knew about her writing project.
It was quite evident that several times, at breakfast and dinner, in those long-past days, I was posing for the biography. In fact, I clearly remember that I was doing that—and I also remember that Susy detected it. I recall saying a very smart thing, with a good deal of an air, at the breakfast table one morning and that Susy observed to her mother privately a little later that “papa was doing that for the biography”; she was right—I was.
Her charming biography of me described her impressions not only of me but also our family life. I had had compliments before, it is true, but none that touched me like that one did; none that could approach it for value in my eyes.
EDITOR’S NOTES: Twain included Susy’s biography of him in its entirety while dictating his autobiography, providing running commentary on her observations as he doled it out piecemeal for the reader to absorb.
You can listen to this chapter here.
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Blackbird Crow Raven’s “Rebel With A Cause: Mark Twain’s Hidden Memoirs” is being serialized in this space on substack every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday; it is also available in its entirety from here.