The first of two new hardcover volumes collecting the major nonfiction writings of the "father of American literature": more than 150 letters, essays, and speeches selected to showcase the dazzling range of his interests and passions. An Everyman's Library Original. Politics, religion, culture, travel, family life: nothing escaped the eye and pen of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, the "Lincoln of our literature." Beloved for his classic fiction, he was equally if not more prolific in writing nonfiction. Among the vast array of texts included in this first of two volumes, which span Twain's nearly eighty extraordinary years, are excerpts from the autobiography he dictated near the end of his life; letters he sent to family, friends, and colleagues; and essays and speeches. Whether moving between his childhood homes in Florida and Missouri, navigating the waters of the Mississippi River and Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, or blazing through Europe and the Americas, Twain lent his trademark wit, candor, and acerbic sarcasm to all he experienced. Here are adventures often too outrageous not to be true, tracing the growth of the legendary writer who came to define a country and an age--and of the man whose keen awareness of humanity has provided an unmatched blend of entertainment and moral integrity for generations.