Into the Archive: The Burning Stub-End of July

The Gulag Archipelago Three: Katorga, Exile, Stalin is No More by Alexandr I. Solzhenitsyn (Harper and Row, Hardcover)

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago is a monumental work, a "literary investigation" of the Soviet forced labor camp system (the Gulag), and Volume 3, "Katorga and Exile," focuses on resistance and the experience of exile after imprisonment. 

• Readers who have endured the "darkness and suffering" of the first two volumes will find a shift in focus in the third volume, which explores attempts at resistance within the camps.
• The text continues to detail the brutal realities of Gulag life, including starvation, torture, executions, and the dehumanization of prisoners.
• Conditions, if anything, worsened during World War II, with increased work, reduced rations, and stricter discipline,
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• – An AI generated summation.
• I was a little reluctant to buy this book at first as it was the third volume of a three-volume work, but I figured what the heck. It was available HERE and NOW, and I might be able to get the others as circumstances allowed. I had already found Solzhenitsyn to be a very worthwhile author from reading Cancer Ward back in December; in fact, looking into it I saw from the bookplate that this volume too had been owned by the C. R. Spences.
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Autobiography of Mark Twain: Volume 1, Reader’s Edition (Mark Twain Papers) Paperback – March 26, 2012

by Mark Twain (Author), Harriet E. Smith (Editor), & 5 more

The year 2010 marked the 100th anniversary of Mark Twain’s death. In celebration of this important milestone and in honor of the cherished tradition of publishing Mark Twain’s works, UC Press published Autobiography of Mark Twain, Volume 1, the first of a three-volume edition of the complete, uncensored autobiography. The book became an immediate bestseller and was hailed as the capstone of the life’s work of America’s favorite author.
This Reader’s Edition, a portable paperback in larger type, republishes the text of the hardcover Autobiography in a form that is convenient for the general reader, without the editorial explanatory notes. It includes a brief introduction describing the evolution of Mark Twain’s ideas about writing his autobiography, as well as a chronology of his life, and brief family biographies. – Amazon

I had seen this book at the store before, too, back when I bought Life on the Mississippi in June. I dipped into it while I was resting outside the house from my trek to the library, and I can already see that it will easily repay the pains of my journey. “Garrulous” and “beguiling”, the frankness of the author’s address (Twain did not want it published until long after his death) gives the impression that he is sitting by the parlor fire after supper, weaving his memory tales right to you. I may have to seek out the other two volumes when I am done. The book fits in well with the ‘Twainery’ that has been haunting me recently.

I am even now not quite completely recovered from my expedition, but at least I can rest easy for a while with my compulsions mollified. Bring on August. I am quite ready.