Robert Hirst, general editor and official curator of the Mark Twain Papers and Project at the University of California – Berkeley, discusses the release of Twain’s unexpurgated autobiography on Wednesday, November 10, 2010, at 6:30 p.m. at the Central Library, 14 W. 10th St.

Georganne Wheeler Nixon, first lady of the State of Missouri, will offer opening remarks on Twain and his importance to the state.

April 21, 2010, marked the 100th anniversary of the death of Mark Twain and the pre-scheduled birth of his uncensored, 5,000-page autobiography. Twain left instructions that some of the most controversial and inflammatory sections not be published until 100 years after his death.

Autobiography of Mark Twain: The Complete and Authoritative Edition will be released in three volumes. The 760-page first volume includes Twain’s thoughts on many of his contemporaries, including those expressed in the following excerpt:

“(Financier and railroad developer) Jay Gould was the mightiest disaster which has ever befallen this country. The people had desired money before his day, but he taught them to fall down and worship it. They had respected men of means before his day, but along with this respect was joined the respect due to the character and industry which had accumulated it. But Jay Gould taught the entire nation to make a god of the money and the man, no matter how the money might have been acquired.”

Autobiography of Mark Twain will not be officially released until Nov. 15, but copies will be available for sale at the event.