larry rohter in his july 9, 2010 review in "the new york times" describes twain as a colonel sanders without the chicken who told stories, whose books "huck finn" and "tom sawyer" he had to read in high school. in writing his autobiography, twain spoke his recollections and opinions to his secretary for a more natural, frank, colloquial tone than if he had written them down. twain died on april 21, 1910. he was 74 years old. the content of his 500,000 word autobiography is being published in the random order he wrote it, and that is the way he wanted it to be. previous editions of the work have put things in chronological order. they have also censored it for interest and propriety. this edition, published over 100 years after his death, has the material in the order he wrote it and uncensored. the university of california press is publishing it in three volumes. five percent of the first volume was never published before, and about fifty percent of all three volumes was never published before. twain claims some shocking things, such as the elder rockefeller paying taxes on only 2.5 million of his fortune and a u.s. army overkill against six hundred philippine savages resisting u.s. imperialism. in twain’s boyhood in missouri, he was not aware there was anything wrong about slavery. when cleveland was u.s. president, twain met him in the white house and got the first lady’s autograph. twain resented his publisher and an inventor for fleecing him, and also a rude landlord, from when he lived in italy in 1904.