Mark Twain's Best Seller!

[3113]

Apparently, Mark Twain's best seller is his own biography

When editors at the University of California Press pondered the possible demand for “Autobiography of Mark Twain,” a $35, four-pound, 500,000-word doorstopper of a memoir, they kept their expectations modest with a planned print run of 7,500 copies.

Now it is a smash hit across the country, landing on best-seller lists and going back to press six times, for a total print run — so far — of 275,000. The publisher cannot print copies quickly enough, leaving some bookstores and online retailers stranded without copies just as the holiday shopping season begins.

Whoa. Go Samuel Clemens!

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/11/20/arts/TWAIN/TWAIN-popup.jpg

 

[JackLuis]

I wonder who has the copyrights? That's over $9.6 Million!

He wrote a book , "On Writing and Publishing", where he offered solace to those with half finished stories. "Tom Sawyer" as well as other books lay half written for 2 years, while he "refilled his tank", so he could finish the story.

I found it in a used book store, but still $5 in paperback. Very interesting what he had to say about publishers.

 

[jomar]

Quite brilliant of him to pen a tell all bestseller the way he did.

 

[3113]

Quite brilliant of him to pen a tell all bestseller the way he did.

It was even more brilliant of him to wait till his 175th birthday to release it.

Though I have to say, I'm a little annoyed with these old timers. Can't they let some of us new authors have our chance at the best seller's list?

 

[jomar]

It was even more brilliant of him to wait till his 175th birthday to release it.

I know! That's what I meant!

Though I have to say, I'm a little annoyed with these old timers. Can't they let some of us new authors have our chance at the best seller's list?

I agree. I mean, Huck Finn's still selling and now he's hogging space with a new old book. Harumph!

 

[voluptuary_manque]

That damned Chaucer is even worse. He wrote over 500 years ago, you can't hardly figure out what he's saying and it still sells!

 

[jomar]

That damned Chaucer is even worse. He wrote over 500 years ago, you can't hardly figure out what he's saying and it still sells!

...

 

[Xelebes]

That damned Chaucer is even worse. He wrote over 500 years ago, you can't hardly figure out what he's saying and it still sells!

500 years is understating it. Try 700 years. 500 years is more like Spenser, Rabelais and Cervantes.

 

[3113]

500 years is understating it. Try 700 years. 500 years is more like Spenser, Rabelais and Cervantes.

And Shakespeare! Son-of-a-bitch makes it impossible to be a successful playwright. Everyone is always doing his plays over and over again. When do the rest of us get to put on our play?

 

[Bebeslut]

That damned Chaucer is even worse. He wrote over 500 years ago, you can't hardly figure out what he's saying and it still sells!

Norton did annotated excerpts from the Canterbury Tales that made them very easy to follow. That was I think Vol. I of an annotated survey of the English language, or second-semester freshman lit, whatever. Been a long time.

BTW, is anyone else aware of any other "high lit" author who ever told a fart joke?

Back to Twain, I try to read Pudd'nhead Wilson once a year.