Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Abbreviations -- Foreword to the Second Edition -- Introduction to the Second Edition -- I. Introduction to method and form - Clemens family ancestry -- II. Early literary career - "Jumping Frog" - The Innocents Abroad - Playing "Bear" - Louis Stevenson - Mark Twain letter sold -- III. Meets Olivia Langdon - Thirty-sixth wedding anniversary - Marriage and move to Buffalo - Susy's Death - Susy as a child -- IV. Susy's biography - Reviewers and reviews - The Gilded Age - Mark Twain's dullness and temper - Cats - Language - Talk -- V. Language and Temper - Susy on The Prince and the Pauper - The family editing of manuscripts - Mark Twain's early life in Hannibal - Cats - Church - Tom Nash and the Mississippi -- VI. Susy's biography - Mark Twain's visit to U. S. Grant - John Hay - A Visit to Vassar College - Langdon's death - England trip -- VII. Olivia's watchful eye - Mugwumps - An appeal to Ruth Cleveland - A meeting with Grover Cleveland in Albany - Memories of H. B. Stowe -- VIII. Nevada experiences - An aborted duel -- IX. The American monarchy - Influence of circumstances - The mesmerizer -- X. Family history - Orion Clemens - Young Sam's apprenticeship -- XI. Orion and the Hannibal Journal - Sam leaves Hannibal for New York - Return to Keokuk - Finding the 50 bill - Plan to visit the Amazon - A fortune from coca - Meeting Horace Bixby - Trip to Nevada -- XII. Nevada experiences - Orion's political experiences - San Francisco - The Tennessee land - Orion in New York and Hartford - Orion's projects - Orion's autobiography - A conversation with John Hay -- XIII. The Tennessee land - Sam's birth - The Quarles farm -- XIV. Susy's biography - Dinner with Emperor Wilhelm II - A German "porter" - More experiences in Germany - Adventures of Rev. Joseph Harris.

XV. Susy's biography - Cats - The privilege of age - Billiards -- XVI. The truth in Twain's remarks - Jane Clemens' formula for divining truth - Monday Evening Club - Embroidery - Dream of Henry's death -- XVII. Susy's biography - Soap bubbles and life - Bicycle riding - "Jim Wolf and the Cats" -- XVIII. Susy's biography - Punishing children - A letter to the Christian Union - Thoughts of Susy - Mental telegraphy - Mind cure - More than a humorist -- XIX. Susy's biography - George Washington Cable - Livy's editing - Idea of Providence - The children's record - Susy's bout with lying -- XX. The Innocents Abroad - Plagiarizing the "Preface" to The Innocents Abroad - Bowing in San Francisco - Billiards - Playing "Quaker" in Elmira -- XXI. Susy's biography - Difficulty recalling faces - Written out at 50 - Strangers and their "memories" of the past - The real Huckleberry Finn - Repenting in the night - Catalog of old acquaintances - Memory - Railway debate -- XXII. Onteora and Mary Mapes Dodge - Dean Sage - European duelling - Captain Osborne and Bret Harte -- XXIII. Schoolmates - Early loves - First telling of "Jim Wolf and the Cats" - Good boys and girls in fiction - "What is it all for?" - Measles - The Oxford degree ceremonies - A medieval fair -- XXIV. Susy's biography - Onteora - Catalog of dead and living - Jim Wolf and the wasps - More of Susy's biography - James Redpath - Studying the race in himself - Billiards - Bowling -- XXV. Whittier birthday speech - Days in Washington - Newspaper syndicate - Selling a dog to General Nelson Miles -- Appendix A: "The Death of Jean" -- Appendix B: Mark Twain's Experiments in Autobiography -- Appendix C: The Editions and the Chronology of Composition -- Appendix D: A Sample of Letters -- Notes -- Selected Bibliography -- Index.