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In the summer of 1855, when the nineteen-year-old Sam Clements traveled from Saint Louis to Hannibal, Paris, and Florida, Missouri, and then to Keokuk, Iowa, he carried with him a notebook in which he entered French lessons, phrenological information, miscellaneous observations, and reminders about errands to be performed. This first notebook thus took the random form which would characterize most of those to follow. About the text: In order to avoid editorial misrepresentation and to preserve the texture of autograph documents, the entries are presented in their original, often unfinished, form with most of Clemens' irregularities, inconsistencies, errors, and cancellations unchanged. Clemens' cancellations are included in the text enclosed in angle brackets, thus ; editorially-supplied conjectural readings are in square brackets, thus [word]; hyphens within square brackets stand for unreadable letters, thus [--]; and editorial remarks are italicized and enclosed in square brackets, thus [blank page}- A slash separates alternative readings which Clemens left unresolved, thus word/word. The separation of entries is indicated on the printed page by extra space between lines; when the end of a manuscript entry coincides with the end of a page of the printed text, the symbol [#] follows the entry. A full discussion of textual procedures accompanies the tables of emendation and details of inscription in the Textual Apparatus at the end of each volume; specific textual problems are explained in headnotes or footnotes when unusual situations warrant. CONTENTS -- ABBREVIATIONS -- CALENDAR -- INTRODUCTION -- I. "What I Was at 19-20" (June-July 1855) -- II. "Get a Little Memorandum-Book" (April-July 1857) -- III. "A Pilot Now, Full Fledged" (November 1860-March 1861) -- IV. "By Way of Angel's . . . to Jackass Hill" (January-February 1865) -- V. "Drifting About the Outskirts of the World" (March, June-September 1866) -- VI. "The Loveliest Fleet of Islands" (March-April 1866) -- VII. "A Doomed Voyage" (December 1866-January 1867) -- VIII. "The Great Pleasure Excursion to Europe and the Holy Land" (May-July 1867) -- IX. "A Funeral Excursion Without a Corpse" (August-October 1867) -- X. "The Camping Grounds of the Patriarchs" (August-December 1867) -- XI. "Left San Francisco for New York . . . July 6, 1868" (July 1868) -- XII. "My First Experience in Dictating" (June-July 1873) -- TEXTUAL APPARATUS -- INDEX -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U -- V -- W -- X -- Y -- Z.
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