When Mark Twain stipulated that his autobiography should not be published until 100 years after his death in 1910, he could not have predicted that his life story would still resonate with Americans in 2010 when the first installment of his three-volume autobiography was officially released to bookshelves Monday, published by UC Press at U. California-Berkeley.

While versions of Twain’s autobiography have been published previously, this edition offers, for the first time, the complete, uncensored version of Twain’s life, which includes a separate section of annotations produced by editors from the Mark Twain Papers and Project, who edited the book.

Following the first article announcing the autobiography last May in the British newspaper The Independent, interest in the book has snowballed, attracting a much wider audience, according to Alex Dahne, publicity director at UC Press.

The excitement surrounding the book’s publication has led to an increase in the number of copies printed, from 75,000 to over 250,000 – one of the largest print runs in UC Press’ history.

“(The response) was really surprising,” Dahne said. “What we’ve seen with this book, which we don’t normally see with other texts, is interest from a mix of high brow and low brow literary outlets from The New York Times to Perez Hilton.”

Despite the length of time that has transpired between Twain’s death and the publication of his full autobiography, the impact of it will still deeply resonate with its readers, according to Benjamin Griffin, an editor at the Mark Twain Papers and Project.

“Everyone I’ve talked to is having the reaction that the book is surprisingly timely,” Griffin said.

Twain’s opinions remain relevant to American society as his views on, for example, the Philippine-American War are seen by some to mirror many modern Americans’ feelings on the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, according to Sharon Goetz, the digital publications manager at the Mark Twain Papers and Project.

At University Press Books, 39 copies of the first volume of Twain’s autobiography have already been sold in one month according to Sorayya Carr, co-manager of the Bancroft Way bookstore.

“A lot of our scholarly books sell only two or three copies a year, so this is definitely very different,” Carr said.