The Complete Diaries of Adam and Eve

EXTRACTS FROM ADAM S DIARY (1904) and EVE S DIARY (1906) are essentially send-ups of the scripture, in which Twain parodied Genesis, the parables of creation and original sin, and Eve s role in the fall of humankind. In EXTRACTS FROM ADAM S DIARY, published with Fred Strothmann s humorous cartoons of supposedly ancient stone carvings on every left-hand page, Twain playfully established Niagara Falls Park as the setting of the Garden of Eden, the honeymoon capital of the world. EVE S DIARY, accompanied by the stunning line drawings of Lester Ralph, was Twain s moving eulogy to his wife, Livy, who died the previous year. The grief-stricken Samuel Clemens, in a letter to his brother-in-law, Charles Langdon, wrote: I am a man without a country. Wherever Livy was that was my country. Similarly Adam s tribute to Eve at the end of Eve s Diary reads, Wheresoever she was, there was Eden. Eve s story is tender throughout and focuses on the more humorous aspects of Adam and Eve s relationship and eventual marriage. Like Adam s story it lacks the darker implications of the other biblical pieces Twain wrote during the last decade of his life.