Classic American Autobiographies

The true diversity of the American experience comes to life in this superlative collection of autobiographies--including those of Benjamin Franklin, Frederick Douglas, Mark Twain, and more...

A True History of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson (1682), perhaps the first American bestseller, recounts this thirty-nine-year-old woman's harrowing months as the captive of Narragansett Indians.

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1771-1789), the most famous of all American autobiographies, gives a lively portrait of a chandler's son who became a scientist, inventor, educator, diplomat, humorist--and a Founding Father of this land.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), the gripping slave narrative that helped change the course of American history, reveals the true nature of the black experience in slavery.

Old Times on the Mississippi (1875), Mark Twain's unforgettable account of a riverboat pilot's life, established his signature style and shows us the metamorphosis of a man into a writer.

Four Autobiographical Narratives (1900-1902), published in the Atlantic Monthly by Zitkala-Sa (Red Bird), also known as Gertrude Bonnin, provide us with a voice too seldom heard: a Native American woman fighting for her culture in the white man's world.

Edited and with an Introduction by William L. Andrews
and an Afterword by Paul John Eakin

About the Author:

William L. Andrews is the Joyce and Elizabeth Hall Professor of American Literature at the University of Kansas. A prizewinning scholar of African-American literature, Andrews is the author of To Tell a Free Story: The First Century of Afro-American Autobiography, 1760-1865. He is the editor of Collected Stories of Charles W. Chesnutt, Three Classic Stories of Charles W. Chesnutt, Three Classic African-American Novels, and The African-American Novel in the Age of Reflection: Three Classics.

Paul John Eakin , Ruth N. Halls Professor Emeritus of English at Indiana University, is the author of several books on autobiography, including Fictions in Autobiography: Studies in the Art of Self-Invention, Touching the World: Reference in Autobiography, How Our Lives Become Stories: Making Selves, and Living Autobiographically: How We Create Identity in Narrative. He is also the editor of American Autobiography: Retrospect and Prospect.