Clemens, Samuel

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{{Infobox Writer
 
{{Infobox Writer
 
| name = Samuel Langhorne Clemens
 
| name = Samuel Langhorne Clemens
 
| image = MarkTwain.LOC.jpg
 
| image = MarkTwain.LOC.jpg
 
| pseudonym = Mark Twain
 
| pseudonym = Mark Twain
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| birth_date = [[November 30]], [[1835]]
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| birth_date = November 30, 1835
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| birth_place = [[Florida, Missouri]]
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| birth_place = Florida, Missouri
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| death_date = [[April 21]], [[1910]]
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| death_date = April 21, 1910
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| death_place = [[Redding, Connecticut|Redding]], [[Connecticut]]
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| death_place = Redding, Connecticut
 
| occupation = Humorist, novelist, writer
 
| occupation = Humorist, novelist, writer
 
| nationality = [[United States|American]]
 
| nationality = [[United States|American]]
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}}
  
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'''Samuel Langhorne Clemens''' (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), better known by his pen name '''Mark Twain,''' was an [[United States|American]] humorist, essayist, novelist, and lecturer. The pseudonym "Mark Twain" comes from the river boat term meaning two leagues, or twelve feet. Twain said he loved the sound of the river boat pilot calling out "mark twain" because it meant safe water to a boat finding its way in the dark.
  
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Twain was a colorful figure who arrived on the literary scene during the period of [[Reconstruction]], when America was expanding geographically and coming to terms with a transformed political and social landscape in the aftermath of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. Twain's sharp eye for detail and trenchant good humor were trademarks of his stories and sketches, featured in magazines and newspapers across the United States. A self-educated global traveler, Twain was an "everyman" who worked at sundry occupations, from riverboat pilot to gold miner. All his experiences contributed immensely to his works, as well as to his social critiques.
  
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As a journalist, travel writer, and novelist, Twain, like the poet [[Walt Whitman]], helped fashion a new, distinctly American literature, characterized by realistic vernacular dialog and vivid rendering of everyday rural life. He became a celebrity in both the [[United States]] and [[Europe]], known for his ribald humor, and biting, ironic critiques of social conventions. Many of Twain's novels are read to the present day for their realistic portrait of an earlier rural America, particularly from the often-ignored perspective of children. His best-known work, ''Huckleberry Finn,'' recounted the adventures of a raffish youth and his journey down the [[Mississippi River|Mississippi]] with the escaped slave Jim. Recognized as a world classic for its irony, humor, original narrative voice, and compassionate [[humanism]], the novel has grown increasingly controversial for its racially charged language and unequivocal social realism.
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In many of his novels and essays Twain upheld the inherent dignity of the marginalized—the slave, the impoverished—and wrote scathingly of the prejudice and exploitation of [[colonialism|colonial]] powers. Twain was particularly outspoken in his criticisms of religious dogmatism and missionary [[evangelism]]. As his son, his wife, and two daughters died before him, his treatment of religion became increasingly bitter. His satiric, even mocking essays were so inflammatory that some were suppressed until after his death. Yet few people know that Twain anonymously wrote a long, reverential novel on the life of [[Joan of Arc]], whom he saw as an authentic [[Christ]] figure untainted by the hypocrisies of formalized religion.
  
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'''Samuel Langhorne Clemens''' (November 30 1835 – April 21 1910), better known by his pen name '''Mark Twain''', was an [[United States|American]] humorist, satirist, novelist, writer, and lecturer.
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Twain influenced social critics such as [[H. L. Mencken]] and humorist [[Will Rogers]] as well as novelists such as [[Ernest Hemingway]] and [[William Faulkner]], who said of Twain, "[He] was the first truly American writer, and all of us since are his heirs."
  
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The pseudonym “Mark Twain” comes from the river boat term meaning  two leagues or twelve feet. Twain said he loved the sound of the river boat pilot calling out  ''mark twain'' because it meant safe water as the boat disembarked.
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==Biography==
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===Birth of a literary luminary===
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Samuel L. Clemens, was born in Florida, [[Missouri]], on November 30, 1835, to John Marshall Clemens and Jane Lampton Clemens. He was born the year [[Halley's Comet]] entered earth's orbit and died the year it exited. Like the comet, Twain burst upon the literary world sometimes erratically, destination unknown, sparkling his witticisms like shooting stars on American readers. His most popular novels were the ones told from the perspective of a young boy coming of age in the deep South. Boyhood, marked by innocent but errant ways, was to be a common theme in his stories. From Twain's humble beginnings to his illustrious end dwells a larger-than-life story of an American author.
  
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Twain was a larger-than-life literary figure who arrived on the scene post Civil War when Americans, in the throes of Reconstruction, were seeking a new identity. He was the quintessential American writer, whose sharp eye for detail and trenchant good humor were hallmarks of his stories and “sketches” featured in magazines and newspapers across the United States.
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===Coming of age in Missouri===
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When Clemens was four, his family moved to Hannibal, Missouri, a port town on the [[Mississippi River]] which later served as the inspiration for the fictional town of St. Petersburg in ''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' and ''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.'' Missouri had been admitted as a slave state in 1821 as part of the [[Missouri Compromise]], and from an early age he was exposed to the institution of slavery, a theme which Twain was to later explore in his work. The family was poor and Sam's father failed repeatedly in his business attempts. In 1847, when young Sam was eleven, his father fell ill with [[pneumonia]] and died.  
  
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He was a self-educated man, who had to leave school at age eleven when his father died. He was an inveterate traveller whose journeys took him around the world and he was an "everyman" who worked at sundry occupations, from river boat pilot to gold miner. All his experiences  contributed immensely to his works, as well as to his social critiques.  
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Sam left school with a promise to his Presbyterian mother that he would refrain from "imbibing hard spirits." Like the eponymous Huck Finn, he was a prankster who often found trouble: One story tells of Sam dropping an empty watermelon shell on his brother's head. Remarking on the incident later in life he said, "I have spent the last 50 years trying to regret it."
  
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He was a novelist who helped shape a new landscape in American literature, one that would be characterized by concise narrative and realistic dialogue in contrast to the more formalized style of previous genres. He was a popular American celebrity loved for his ribald humor, yet sometimes criticized for his frankness.
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He went to work as an apprentice typesetter with the ''Missouri Courier'' and for his brother Orion who owned his own newspaper, the ''Hannibal Journal.'' Seeking better wages, he headed East to work as a journeyman printer in [[New York,]] [[Philadelphia]], [[St. Louis]], and [[Cincinnati]]. He wrote humorous articles and newspaper sketches to fill copy space. At the age of 22, Clemens returned to Missouri and worked as a riverboat pilot until trade was interrupted by the [[American Civil War]] in 1861. He once remarked that riverboat piloting was the best time in his life. ''Life on the Mississippi,'' written in 1883, reflects an era when river experiences, simple and carefree, were central to his life.
  
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Fellow American author, William Faulkner said of him, "Twain was the first truly American writer, and all of us since are his heirs."
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===Westward travels, newspaper stories, and first books===
  
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Missouri, although a slave state and considered by many to be part of the South, declined to join the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]] and remained loyal to the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]]. A legendary, if not quite infamous, anecdote tells of Clemens and his friends forming a Confederate militia that disbanded after two weeks, and which he wrote about later in "The Private History of a Campaign That Failed." However, rather than join the [[Confederate Army]], Clemens decided to follow his brother, Orion, who had been appointed secretary to the territorial governor of [[Nevada]]. They traveled on a stagecoach across the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains to the silver-mining town of Virginia City, Nevada. On the way, they visited a [[Mormon]] community in Salt Lake City. Clemens' experiences in the West contributed significantly to his formation as a writer, and became the basis of his second book, ''Roughing It'' (1872), a richly detailed portrait of life on the American frontier.
  
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Once in Nevada, Clemens became a miner, hoping to strike it rich discovering silver in the [[Comstock Lode]]. After failing as a miner, Clemens obtained work at a newspaper called the ''Daily Territorial Enterprise'' in Virginia City. It was there he first adopted the pen name "Mark Twain" on February 3, 1863, when he signed a humorous travel account with his new name. In those days authors often chose pen names that were in marked contrast to their own personality. This certainly seemed the case with Samuel Clemens, the person, bound by more traditional conventions, while Mark Twain, the writer, was ever mocking the status quo and societal norms of the day. The contradiction between the private man, Sam Clemens, and the public persona of Mark Twain had begun. His lifelong friend, and literary adviser, [[William Dean Howells]] (then editor of the ''Atlantic Monthly'' and later an author in his own right) would always call him "Clemens." Regardless, his new name became nationally known when newspapers across the country printed his "tall tale," ''Jim Smily and His Jumping Frog'' (1865). This led to publication of his first book of stories ''The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and Other Sketches'' (1867). Throughout his life he would often chafe at being described in the press as a humorist, a "funny man" as he called it, when, in fact, he aspired to much more as a writer.
  
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His next adventure was landing an assignment as a San Francisco correspondent for the ''Sacramento Union,'' writing from the Hawaiian islands, then known as the "[[James Cook|Sandwich Islands]]." When he returned he undertook yet another sideline, that of "platform entertainer." Utilizing his dramatic oratorical skills, Twain regaled audiences with his tales of the frontier and foreign places. He was soon in demand as a speaker at honorary dinners and banquets, something that would become a lifelong calling for him. Twain became the new star of the lyceum lecture circuit after filling the Great Hall of Cooper Union in New York City in 1866. The pen name "Mark Twain" was rapidly becoming a household word.
  
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His next assignment was once again that of a traveling correspondent, this time for the ''Alta California'' newspaper. Twain embarked on a six month cruise to Europe and the [[Israel|Holy Land]] on the boat ''The Quaker City.'' His letters from this trip later became the basis for the book ''The Innocents Abroad'' (1869)—considered the most popular travel book ever written. In it he pokes fun at tourists, the "innocents abroad," and their tendency to be at the mercy of their travel guide—and their prejudices—when encountering new situations. ''The Gilded Age'' (1872), written collaboratively with [[Charles Dudley]] was similarly a satirical treatise on American culture at the turn of the century.
  
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===Biography===
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===Marriage and family life===
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<ref name="singular">{{cite book
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Twain was now a best-selling author and lecturer; tired of his itinerant lifestyle, he was ready to settle down. He said to his friend  from the ''Quaker City'' cruise, Mary Fairbanks "I am going to settle down someday even if I have to do it in a cemetery." He was 31 years old and had been traveling for ten years working at a variety of printing and newspaper jobs. Fairbanks introduced Twain to Olivia Langdon (Livy), who came from a prosperous New York family. Their first outing together was at famed British author [[Charles Dickens]]' reading of his works in New York City. Late in life, Twain would comment, "From that day to this she has never been out of my mind." They were married on February 2, 1870, by Twain's good friend, the minister Joseph Twichell, in the Langdon's parlor.
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  | last = Kaplan
 
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  | first =  Fred
 
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  | title = The Singular Mark Twain
 
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  | year = 2003
 
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  | month = October
 
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  | publisher = Doubleday
 
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  | id = ISBN 0-385-47715-5
 
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  | chapter = Chapter 1: The Best Boy You Had 1835-1847
 
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}}. Cited in {{cite web
 
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  | url = http://classiclit.about.com/library/weekly/aafpr113003b.htm
 
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  | title = "Excerpt: ''The Singular Mark Twain''"
 
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  | publisher = About.com: Literature: Classic
 
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  | accessdate = 2006-10-11
 
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}}</ref>
 
  
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==Early life==
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Livy's wealthy father helped the young couple to establish residence in Buffalo, New York, where Twain, with his father-in-law's backing, became part owner of the ''Buffalo Express'' newspaper. However, tragedy ensued when their first born son, sickly and premature, died at three months of age. They decided to leave Buffalo and moved to [[Hartford]], Connecticut to be closer to Livy's family in Elmira, New York. They built a 19 room house at "Nook Farm" and the birth of their two daughters soon followed; Susy, in 1872, and Clara in 1874.
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Mark Twain was born in [[Florida, Missouri]], on [[November 30]], [[1835]], to John Marshall Clemens and Jane Lampton Clemens.
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Sam Clemens had come a long way from his early beginnings, living in a two room house and acquiring only a grade school education. He was now, partly through marrying well, welcomed into the literary and cultural milieu of the East Coast. Twain was in a comfortable position and ready to reflect on his raucous boyhood experiences in Hannibal, Missouri. His American classic, ''Tom Sawyer,'' was about to be born. He once referred to this novel as a "hymn to boyhood."
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When he was four, his family moved to Hannibal, [[Missouri]], a port town on the Mississippi River which later served as the inspiration for the fictional town of St. Petersburg in [[The Adventures of Tom Sawyer]] and ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn|Huckleberry Finn]]''. Missouri had been admitted as a slave state in 1821 as part of the [[Missouri Compromise]], and from an early age Twain was exposed to the institution of slavery, a theme which Twain was to later explore in his work.  In 1847, when Twain was eleven, his father fell ill with pneumonia and died that March. The young Samuel Clemens left school with a promise to his Presbyterian mother that he would refrain from "imbibing hard spirits."  He found work as a journeyman printer in [[New York]], [[Philadelphia]], [[St. Louis, Missouri|St. Louis]], and [[Cincinnati]]. He wrote humorous articles and newspaper sketches to fill copy space.  At the age of 22, Twain returned to Missouri and worked as a riverboat pilot until trade was interrupted by the [[American Civil War]] in 1861. He once remarked that riverboat piloting was the best time in his life.
 
  
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===Westward travels, newspaper writing and early books===
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By all accounts the Twain's family life was a happy one, spent entertaining in their large home in Connecticut, while summers were spent in Elmira relaxing and writing. The Victorian era, noted for its ornate fashions, was popular with the family, who sometimes dressed in costume when entertaining. Their days of contentment were due to fade, however, when hard times, both with finances and with health concerns, would besiege the family during the next decade.
  
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Missouri, although a slave state and considered by many to be part of the South, declined to join the [[Confederate States of America|Confederacy]] and remained loyal to the [[Union (American Civil War)|Union]]. When the war began, Clemens and his friends formed a Confederate militia (an experience he depicted in his 1885 short story, "[[The Private History of a Campaign That Failed]]"), but he saw no military action and the militia disbanded after two weeks. Rather than join the [[Confederate States Army|Confederate Army]]; Clemens joined his brother, Orion, who had been appointed secretary to the territorial governor of [[Nevada]], and headed west. They traveled for more than two weeks on a stagecoach across the [[Great Plains]] and the [[Rocky Mountains]] to the silver-mining town of [[Virginia City, Nevada]]. On the way, they visited a [[Mormon]] community in [[Salt Lake City]]. Clemens' experiences in the West contributed significantly to his formation as a writer, and became the basis of his second book, ''[[Roughing It]]'' (1872).
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===Classics: Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn===
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[[Image:Mark Twain DLitt.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Mark Twain in his gown for his DLitt degree, awarded to him by Oxford University.]]
  
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Once in Nevada, Clemens became a miner, hoping to strike it rich discovering silver in the [[Comstock Lode]]. After failing as a miner, Clemens obtained work at a newspaper called the ''[[Daily Territorial Enterprise]]'' in Virginia City. It was there he first adopted the pen name "Mark Twain" on February 3, 1863 when he signed a humorous travel account with his new name. In those days authors often chose pen names that were opposite to their own personality. This seemed the case with Samuel Clemens who often had one foot in with what was conventionlly accepted and one foot stepping forward with new ideas. His lifelong friend and literary advisor [[William Dean Howells]] would always call him "Clemens." Regardless, his new name became famous nationally when newspapers across the country printed his short story, written as a favor for a friend's book, "Jim Smily and His Jumping Frog." After this he would chafe as being only thought of as a humorist, a "funny man" when he, in fact aspired to much more as a writer.
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Although ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' received more critical and financial acclaim than did ''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,'' it was also greeted by a storm of controversy due to its explicit vernacular related to the themes of race and slavery. Unlike the stiff and formal prose of the Victorian genre, Huck Finn depicted language and life more realistically as it was in the nineteenth century. In 1885, when a library in Concord, Massachusetts banned the book, Twain commented philosophically to his publisher, "They have expelled Huck from their library as 'trash suitable only for the slums'; that will sell 25,000 copies for us for sure." This literary masterpiece took Twain seven years to complete. Through telling the story of a young boy coming of age during the era of slavery, he combined rich humor and sturdy narrative with social criticism. Twain was a master at rendering colloquial speech, and helped to create and popularize a distinctive American literature built on American themes and language.
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[[Ernest Hemingway]] was quoted as saying, "All modern [[American literature]] comes from one book by Mark Twain called ''Huckleberry Finn.'' …all American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since."
  
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Two other books he wrote during these years, [[Life on the Mississippi]](1883) and [[The Innocents Abroad]] (1869) - considered the most popular travel book ever written reflect his experiences.
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Two of his books, ''The Prince and the Pauper,'' written in 1881 and, ''A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889),'' were set in Tudor England. The first is the story of two look alike boys; one is a prince in royal English society and the other a pauper. After an inadvertent meeting, they trade places, and learn that the differences in their lives involve far more than just the trading of robes and rags. The themes of social class and unfairness were favorite ones for Twain. So was the idea of switched identities as in the book, ''The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson and the Comedy of Those Extraordinary Twins'' (1894), an unfolding tale of the mix-up of two babies, one slave and one free. Although not very popular among Twain's contemporaries, it presents, in comparison to his other works, the most sustained treatment of slavery.  
  
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===Career overview===
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The book, ''A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court,'' is about a time traveler from the America of Twain's day, using his knowledge of science to introduce modern technology to Arthurian England. Although generally well received, some Britons flinched at the irreverent tone of the book towards royal monarchy and its traditions.
  
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==Books==
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===Bankruptcy and worldwide lecture tour===
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Twain's greatest contribution to [[Literature of the United States|American literature]] is generally considered to be his novel ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn]]''. As [[Ernest Hemingway]] once said:
 
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:"All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called ''Huckleberry Finn''. ...all American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since."
 
  
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Also popular are ''[[The Adventures of Tom Sawyer]]'', ''[[The Prince and the Pauper]]'', ''[[A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court]]'' and the non-fiction book ''[[Life on the Mississippi]]''.
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Twain, unfortunately, like his father before him, was not an adept businessman. He lost money through his experimentation with new inventions, like the [[Paige typesetting machine]]. A publishing company venture, established to publish the memoirs of [[Ulysses S. Grant]], soon folded. Faced with mounting debt and the specter of bankruptcy, he and Livy were forced to close the house in Connecticut. Twain decided to do what he was best at, lecturing, touring, and writing, in order to pay off his debts. Leaving their daughters in boarding school and college they set sail for Europe. Twain was to live abroad for a long period of time before being able to return home to the United States for good. In 1900, he paid off his debts and returned to the United States, a conquering hero.
  
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Beginning as a writer of light, humorous verse, Twain evolved into a grim, almost profane chronicler of the vanities, hypocrisies and murderous acts of mankind. At mid-career, with ''Huckleberry Finn'', he combined rich humor, sturdy narrative and social criticism in a way that is almost unrivaled in world literature.
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The world lecture tour, in which Twain visited [[India]] and [[Australia]], among other countries, was interrupted by tragedy when their oldest daughter, Susy, died back home in Connecticut of [[spinal meningitis]]. The entire family was overcome by grief. This episode would color Twain's later writings with pathos and dark humor. Soon, other trials ensued. Always in frail health, Livy died in 1904. Jean, their third and youngest daughter, plagued by a lifetime of seizures, died on Christmas day in 1909. Although these were difficult years for Twain he was buoyed by the success of ''Following the Equator and Anti-imperialist Essays'' (1905), based on his world tour, and by his popularity overseas. It was during this time, when the press was speculating constantly of his troubles and failures, that he remarked sardonically, "Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."
  
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Twain was a master at rendering [[Colloquialism|colloquial speech]], and helped to create and popularize a distinctive American literature built on American themes and language.
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===A Connecticut Yankee returns home===
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Twain's biographer has said that the rest of his life was a standing ovation. He was often seen at special events, like daughter Clara's wedding to pianist and composer, [[Ossip Gabrilowitsch]], wearing his ceremonial robes (he received an honorary degree from Oxford University in 1907) or strolling down Fifth Avenue in New York, an enigma in one of his signature white suits. Beset by illness and heart trouble ([[angina pectoris]]), he sought refuge in travel, as he had often done in the past, and spent some of his final days in Bermuda.
  
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[[Image:Twain in Tesla's Lab.jpg|thumb|Twain in the lab of [[Nikola Tesla]], spring of 1894]]
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Samuel L. Clemens—"Mark Twain"—returned from Bermuda to his Connecticut home, "Safe Waters" at last, where he died on April 21, 1910.
  
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Twain also had a fascination with [[science]] and scientific inquiry. He developed a close and lasting friendship with [[Nikola Tesla]], and the two spent quite a bit of time together (in Tesla's laboratory, among other places). Such fascination can be seen in Twain's book ''A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'', which features a [[time travel]]er from the America of Twain's day, using his knowledge of science to introduce modern technology to [[King Arthur|Arthurian]] England.  Twain also patented an improvement in adjustable and detachable [[suspenders|straps for garments]].
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===Post Script===
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The year before his death Mark Twain was quoted as saying: "I came in with [[Halley's Comet]] in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.'"
  
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Some of Twain's writings, suppressed during his lifetime because of their controversial tone and the objections of his family members, were published posthumously. His collection of short stories, ''Letters from the Earth,'' wasn't published until 1962. Twain did not attempt to publish his book, ''What is Man?'' until after his wife Livy died. Both of these books, and other later works, express his iconoclastic views and growing despair towards both [[God]] and man. Despite his often acid reflections on religious orthodoxy and the baleful influence and patronizing attitudes of missionaries, Twain anonymously wrote a long, reverential novel on the life of [[Joan of Arc]], which he considered his greatest and most important work. Twain saw in the slight figure of the untutored French girl, raised from obscurity by the unseen hand of God to lead the French army, an authentic Christ figure untainted by the hypocrisies of formalized religion. "I like Joan of Arc the best of all my books, and it is the best," Twain wrote; "I know it perfectly well. And besides, it furnished me seven times the pleasure afforded me by any of the others; 12 years of preparation, and two years of writing. The others needed no preparation and got none."
  
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==Filmography==
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Many movies, particularly those for television, have been made from Mark Twain's books. An early ''Prince and the Pauper'' movie starred [[Errol Flynn]] and [[Claude Rains]] (1937). ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' has been produced a number of times; one of the most recent is a 1993 movie with Elijah Wood, released on DVD in 2002. A 1995 version of ''A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'' starring [[Keshia Knight Pulliam]] was released on DVD in 2003.
  
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From 1901 until his death in 1910, Twain was vice president of the [[American Anti-Imperialist League]].<ref>''Mark Twain's Weapons of Satire: Anti-Imperialist Writings on the Philippine-American War.'' (1992, Jim Zwick, ed.) ISBN 0-8156-0268-5</ref> The League opposed the annexation of the [[Philippines]] by the United States. Twain wrote ''Incident in the Philippines'', posthumously published in 1924, in response to the [[Moro Crater Massacre]], in which six hundred Moros were killed. Many but not all of Mark Twain's neglected and previously uncollected writings on anti-imperialism appeared for the first time in book form in 1992.
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===Broadway===
  
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From the time of its publication there have been occasional attempts to ban ''[[Adventures of Huckleberry Finn|Huckleberry Finn]]'' from various libraries because Twain's use of [[local color]] is offensive to some people. Although Twain was against [[racism]] and [[imperialism]] far ahead of the public sentiment of his time, those who have only superficial familiarity with his work have sometimes condemned it as racist because it accurately depicts language in common use in the 19th-century United States. Expressions that were used casually and unselfconsciously then are often perceived today as racist (today, such racial [[epithet]]s are far more visible and condemned). Twain himself would probably be amused by these attempts; in 1885, when a [[library]] in Concord, [[Massachusetts]] banned the book, he wrote to his publisher, "They have expelled Huck from their library as 'trash suitable only for the slums'; that will sell 25,000 copies for us for sure."
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Many of Twain's works were turned into plays over the years. The first Broadway production of one of his works was in 1895, when ''Pudd'n-head Wilson'' was performed at the Herald Square Theater.
  
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Many of Mark Twain's works have been suppressed at times for various reasons. 1880 saw the publication of an anonymous slim volume entitled ''[[1601 (Mark Twain)|1601: Conversation, as it was by the Social Fireside, in the Time of the Tudors.]]'' Twain was among those rumored to be the author, but the issue was not settled until 1906, when Twain acknowledged his literary paternity of this scatological masterpiece.
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The Broadway Musical ''Big River'' was based on Twain's ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.'' With a musical score written by country artist Roger Miller, it won the Tony for Best Musical in 1985.
  
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At least Twain saw ''[[1601 (Mark Twain)|1601]]'' published during his lifetime. During the [[Philippine-American War]], Twain wrote an anti-war article entitled ''[[The War Prayer (story)|The War Prayer]]''. Through this internal struggle, Twain expresses his opinions of the absurdity of slavery and the importance of following one's personal conscience before the laws of society. It was submitted to [[Harper's Bazaar]] for publication, but on [[March 22]], [[1905]], the magazine rejected the story as "not quite suited to a woman's magazine." Eight days later, Twain wrote to his friend [[Daniel Carter Beard|Dan Beard]], to whom he had read the story, "I don't think the prayer will be published in my time. None but the dead are permitted to tell the truth." Because he had an exclusive contract with Harper & Brothers, Mark Twain could not publish ''The War Prayer'' elsewhere; it remained unpublished until 1923.
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[[Hal Holbrook]]'s uncanny imitation of the author can be seen on DVD as he performs ''Mark Twain Tonight,'' a one-man stage show he did for many years.
  
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In later years, Twain's family suppressed some of his work which was especially irreverent toward conventional religion, notably ''[[Letters from the Earth]],'' which was not published until 1962. The anti-religious ''[[The Mysterious Stranger]]'' was published in 1916, although there is some scholarly debate as to whether Twain actually wrote the most familiar version of this story. Twain was critical of organized religion and certain elements of the Christian religion through most of the end of his life, though he never renounced [[Presbyterianism]] [http://www.adherents.com/people/pt/Mark_Twain.html].
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==References==
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*Aller, Susan Bivin (2006), ''Mark Twain.'' Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publications Company. ISBN 0822596962
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Perhaps most controversial of all was Mark Twain's 1879 humorous talk at the Stomach Club in [[Paris]], entitled ''[[Some Thoughts on the Science of Onanism]]'', which concluded with the thought, "If you must gamble your lives sexually, don't play a lone hand too much." This talk was not published until 1943, and then only in a limited edition of fifty copies.
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*Kaplan, Fred (2003), ''The Singular Mark Twain.'' Doubleday. ISBN 0385477155
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*Kaplan, Justin (1966), ''Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain.'' New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0671748076
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==Financial matters==
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*Ziff, Larzer (2004), ''Mark Twain.'' New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195170199
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[[Image:Mark Twain DLitt.jpg|thumb|right|250px|Mark Twain in his gown for his [[DLitt]] degree, awarded to him by [[Oxford University]].]]
 
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Although Twain made a substantial amount of money through his writing, he squandered much of it through bad investments, mostly through new inventions. These included the bed clamp for infants, a new type of steam engine that he had to sell for scrap, the kaolatype (a machine designed to engrave printing plates), the Paige typesetting machine (this investment was over $200,000 and while a technical marvel was too complex for wide commercial use), and finally, his publishing house that—while enjoying initial success by selling the memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant—went bust soon after.
 
−
Fortunately, Twain's writings and lectures enabled him to recover financially. <ref> Lauber, John. ''The Inventions of Mark Twain: a Biography''. New York: Hill and Wang, 1990. </ref>
 
−
 
 
−
== Twain today ==
 
−
Visitors still pay homage to Mark Twain by visiting the places he lived.  His birthplace is preserved in [[Florida, Missouri]] , and the [[Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum]] in Hannibal, Missouri is one of the most popular museums because it provided the setting for much of Twain's work.  Visitors can tour the Mark Twain Cave and ride a riverboat on the Mississippi River. In 1874 Twain built a family home in Hartford, Connecticut where he and Livy raised their three daughters.  That home is preserved and open to visitors as the [[Mark Twain House]]. Twain lived in many homes in the U.S. and abroad.
 
−
 
 
−
==Trivia==
 
−
{{toomuchtrivia}}
 
−
<!-- All of this material worth including in the article should be woven into the main narrative.  The remainder should be deleted —>
 
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* Twain was born and died in years in which [[Halley's Comet]] appeared (1835-1910).
 
−
* Twain had a mole above his right pectoral which he dubbed "Mr. Cantankerous".
 
−
* In 1906, his daughter Clara Clemens married the Jewish Russian emigre pianist and conductor [[Ossip Gabrilowitsch]]. Clara was a singer who appeared with her husband in recital. Twain and Gabrilowitsch share a gravestone in Elmira, N.Y.
 
−
* Mark Twain's wife, Olivia Langdon, was known as Livy to her family and friends.
 
−
* Livy's nickname for her husband was "Youth."
 
−
*Twain preferred cats over dogs and owned numerous cats throughout his lifetime.
 
−
*Twain was a member of the secret and powerful [[Bohemian Club]]
 
−
 
 
−
==Epigrams==
 
−
[[Image:MarkTwainatMarkTwainESHouston.JPG|thumb|A statue of Mark Twain at Mark Twain Elementary School in the [[Braeswood Place]] neighborhood of [[Houston]], [[Texas]]]]
 
−
<!--Epigrams without attributions/source may be removed at any time —>
 
−
 
 
−
*"A habit cannot be thrown out the window, it must be coaxed down the stairs one step at a time." -[[Pudd'nhead Wilson]]'s Calendar
 
−
*"A man is never more truthful than when he acknowledges himself a liar." -''Mark Twain and I'' by [[Opie Read]]
 
−
*"'Classic.' A book which people praise and don't read." -[[Following the Equator]], Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar
 
−
*"Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society." -''More Maxims of Mark''
 
−
*"I have been complimented many times and they always embarrass me; I always feel that they have not said enough." -Speech, September 23, 1907
 
−
*"India: Land of religions, cradle of human race, birthplace of human speech, grandmother of legend, great grandmother of tradition." <ref>http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mark_Twain#India</ref>
 
−
*"The lack of money is the root of all evil." -''More Maxims of Mark''
 
−
*"It is by the goodness of God that in our country we have those three unspeakably precious things: freedom of speech, freedom of conscience, and the prudence never to practice either of them." -[[Following the Equator]], Pudd'nhead Wilson's New Calendar
 
−
*"Jesus died to save men — a small thing for an immortal to do, & didn't save many, anyway; but if he had been damned for the race that would have been act of a size proper to a god, & would have saved the whole race. However, why should anybody want to save the human race, or damn it either? Does God want its society? Does Satan?" -Notebook #42
 
−
*"October: This is one of the peculiarly dangerous months to speculate in stocks. The others are July, January, September, April, November, May, March, June, December, August, and February." -[[Pudd'nhead Wilson]]'s Calendar
 
−
*"Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated." (The original quote was "The report of my death was an exaggeration"; cf. Ron Powers, Mark Twain: A Life, p. 585)
 
−
*The saying, "There are three kinds of lies: [[lies, damned lies, and statistics]]," is sometimes attributed to Twain. He did not coin the phrase, but he did popularize it in the United States.
 
−
*"To create man was a fine and original idea; but to add the sheep was a tautology." -(St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 30, 1902; cf. Ron Powers, Mark Twain: A Life, p. 611)
 
−
*"When angry count to four, when very angry, swear." -[[Pudd'nhead Wilson]]'s Calendar
 
−
*"[The human] race, in its poverty, has unquestionably one really effective weapon—laughter."<ref>''The Mysterious Stranger'' by Mark Twain. [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3186 full text ebook here] ''The Mysterious Stranger'' is difficult to attribute, as it is an unifinished novel, and exists in at least 4 largely different versions. However, the quote is in the version available at Project Gutenberg.</ref>
 
−
 
 
−
<!--Epigrams without attributions/source may be removed at any time —>
 
  
 
==Bibliography==
 
==Bibliography==
 
*(1867) ''Advice for Little Girls'' (fiction)
 
*(1867) ''Advice for Little Girls'' (fiction)
−
*(1867) ''The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County'' (fiction)
+
*(1867) ''The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County'' (fiction)ISBN 091058463
 
*(1868) ''General Washington's Negro Body-Servant'' (fiction)
 
*(1868) ''General Washington's Negro Body-Servant'' (fiction)
 
*(1868) ''My Late Senatorial Secretaryship'' (fiction)
 
*(1868) ''My Late Senatorial Secretaryship'' (fiction)
−
*(1869) ''The Innocents Abroad'' (non-fiction travel)
+
*(1869) ''The Innocents Abroad'' (non-fiction travel) ISBN 0521300975
 
*(1870-71) ''Memoranda'' (monthly column for ''The Galaxy'' magazine)
 
*(1870-71) ''Memoranda'' (monthly column for ''The Galaxy'' magazine)
 
*(1871) ''Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance'' (fiction)
 
*(1871) ''Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance'' (fiction)
−
*(1872) ''Roughing It'' (non-fiction)
+
*(1872) ''Roughing It'' (non-fiction) ISBN 0195101332
−
*(1873) ''The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today'' (fiction)
+
*(1873) ''The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today'' (fiction) ISBN 0672610280
−
*(1875) ''Sketches New and Old'' (fictional stories)
+
*(1875) ''Sketches New and Old'' (fictional stories) ISBN 0195101359
−
*(1876) ''Old Times on the Mississippi'' (non-fiction)
+
*(1876) ''Old Times on the Mississippi'' (non-fiction) ISBN 1419138189
−
*(1876) ''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' (fiction)
+
*(1876) ''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' (fiction) ISBN 1593080689
−
*(1876) ''A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage'' (fiction); (1945, private edition), (2001, Atlantic Monthly).<ref>{{cite web
+
*(1876) ''A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage'' (fiction); (1945, private edition), (2001, Atlantic Monthly).
−
  | last = Barber
 
−
  | first = Greg
 
−
  | title = A Mysterious Manuscript
 
−
  | work = Mark Twain: Media Watch Special Report
 
−
  | publisher = PBS Online News Hour
 
−
  | date = [[2001-06-25]]
 
−
  | url = http://www.pbs.org/newshour/media/twain/story.html
 
−
  | format = HTML
 
−
  | accessdate = 2006-10-09 }}</ref>
 
 
*(1877) ''A True Story and the Recent Carnival of Crime'' (stories)
 
*(1877) ''A True Story and the Recent Carnival of Crime'' (stories)
 
*(1878) ''Punch, Brothers, Punch! and other Sketches'' (fictional stories)
 
*(1878) ''Punch, Brothers, Punch! and other Sketches'' (fictional stories)
−
*(1880) ''A Tramp Abroad'' (non-fiction travel)
+
*(1880) ''A Tramp Abroad'' (non-fiction travel) ISBN 0195101375
 
*(1880) ''1601 (Mark Twain)|1601: Conversation, as it was by the Social Fireside, in the Time of the Tudors]]'' (fiction)
 
*(1880) ''1601 (Mark Twain)|1601: Conversation, as it was by the Social Fireside, in the Time of the Tudors]]'' (fiction)
−
*(1882) ''The Prince and the Pauper'' (fiction)
+
*(1882) ''The Prince and the Pauper'' (fiction) ISBN 0553210904
−
*(1883) ''Life on the Mississippi'' (non-fiction)
+
*(1883) '' Life on the Mississippi'' (non-fiction) ISBN 0195114078
−
*(1884) ''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' (fiction)
+
*(1884) ''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' (fiction) ISBN 1580495834
−
*(1889) ''A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'' (fiction)
+
*(1889) ''A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'' (fiction) ISBN 159818587
−
*(1892) ''The American Claimant'' (fiction)
+
*(1892) ''The American Claimant'' (fiction) ISBN 1594622531
 
*(1892) ''Merry Tales'' (fictional stories)
 
*(1892) ''Merry Tales'' (fictional stories)
 
*(1893) ''The £1,000,000 Bank Note and Other New Stories'' (fictional stories)
 
*(1893) ''The £1,000,000 Bank Note and Other New Stories'' (fictional stories)
−
*(1894) ''Tom Sawyer Abroad'' (fiction)
+
*(1894) ''Tom Sawyer Abroad'' (fiction) ISBN 0195101480
−
*(1894) ''Pudd'nhead Wilson'' (fiction)
+
*(1894) ''Pudd'nhead Wilson'' (fiction) ISBN 1582871523
−
*(1896) ''Tom Sawyer, Detective'' (fiction)
+
*(1896) ''Tom Sawyer, Detective'' (fiction) ISBN 0486421090
−
*(1896) ''Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc'' (fiction)
+
*(1896) ''Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc'' (fiction) ISBN 0486424596
−
*(1897) ''How to Tell a Story and other Essays'' (non-fictional essays)
+
*(1897) ''How to Tell a Story and other Essays'' (non-fictional essays) ISBN 0-19-510149-9
−
*(1897) ''Following the Equator'' (non-fiction travel)
+
*(1897) ''Following the Equator'' (non-fiction travel) ISBN 0809533197
−
*(1900) ''The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg'' (fiction)
+
*(1900) ''The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg'' (fiction) ISBN 0146001869
−
*(1901) ''Edmund Burke on Croker and Tammany'' (political satire)
+
*(1901) ''Edmund Burke on Croker and Tammany'' (political satire) ISBN 978-0-313-27353-7
−
*(1902) ''A Double Barrelled Detective Story'' (fiction)
+
*(1902) ''A Double Barreled Detective Story'' (fiction) ISBN 1419101013
 
*(1904) ''A Dog's Tale'' (fiction)
 
*(1904) ''A Dog's Tale'' (fiction)
−
*(1905) ''King Leopold's Soliloquy'' (political satire)
+
*(1905) ''King Leopold's Soliloquy'' (political satire) ISBN 0717806871
−
*(1905) ''The War Prayer'' (fiction)
+
*(1905) ''The War Prayer'' (fiction) ISBN 0060911131
−
*(1906) ''The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories'' (fiction)
+
*(1906) ''The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories'' (fiction) ISBN 1598184660
 
*(1906) ''What Is Man?'' (essay)
 
*(1906) ''What Is Man?'' (essay)
 
*(1907) ''Christian Science'' (non-fiction)
 
*(1907) ''Christian Science'' (non-fiction)
Line 186: Line 141:
 
*(1907) ''Is Shakespeare Dead?'' (non-fiction)
 
*(1907) ''Is Shakespeare Dead?'' (non-fiction)
 
*(1909) ''Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven'' (fiction)
 
*(1909) ''Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven'' (fiction)
−
*(1909) ''Letters from the Earth'' (fiction, published posthumously)
+
*(1909) ''Letters from the Earth'' (fiction, published posthumously) ISBN 0060518650
 
*(1910) ''Queen Victoria's Jubilee'' (non-fiction, published posthumously)
 
*(1910) ''Queen Victoria's Jubilee'' (non-fiction, published posthumously)
 
*(1916) ''The Mysterious Stranger'' (fiction, possibly not by Twain, published posthumously)
 
*(1916) ''The Mysterious Stranger'' (fiction, possibly not by Twain, published posthumously)
−
*(1924) ''Mark Twain's Autobiography'' (non-fiction, published posthumously)
+
*(1924) ''Mark Twain's Autobiography'' (non-fiction, published posthumously) ISBN 0060955422
−
*(1935) ''Mark Twain's Notebook'' (published posthumously)
+
*(1935) ''Mark Twain's Notebook'' (published posthumously) ISBN 0520023269
 
*(1969) ''The Mysterious Stranger'' (fiction, published posthumously)
 
*(1969) ''The Mysterious Stranger'' (fiction, published posthumously)
 
*(1992) ''Mark Twain's Weapons of Satire: Anti-Imperialist Writings on the Philippine-American War''. Jim Zwick, ed. (Syracuse University Press) ISBN 0-8156-0268-5 ((previously uncollected, published posthumously)
 
*(1992) ''Mark Twain's Weapons of Satire: Anti-Imperialist Writings on the Philippine-American War''. Jim Zwick, ed. (Syracuse University Press) ISBN 0-8156-0268-5 ((previously uncollected, published posthumously)
 
*(1995) ''The Bible According to Mark Twain: Writings on Heaven, Eden, and the Flood'' (published posthumously)
 
*(1995) ''The Bible According to Mark Twain: Writings on Heaven, Eden, and the Flood'' (published posthumously)
  
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==See also==
 
−
*[[Bernard DeVoto]]
 
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*[[Local color]]
 
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*[[Mark Twain Award]]
 
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*[[Mark Twain House]]
 
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*[[Mark Twain in popular culture]]
 
−
*[[Mark Twain Memorial Bridge]]
 
−
*[[Mark Twain Prize for American Humor]]
 
−
 
−
==References==
 
−
<references />
 
  
−
{{Commons|Mark Twain}}
 
−
{{Wikisource author}}
 
−
{{Wikiquote}}
 
  
−
===External links===
+
==External links==
−
*{{gutenberg author|id=Mark_Twain|name=Mark Twain}}. More than 60 texts are freely available.
+
All links retrieved December 22, 2022.
−
*[http://twainquotes.com/ Mark Twain Quotes, Newspaper Collections and Related Resources]
+
*{{gutenberg author|id=Mark_Twain|name=Mark Twain}}. More than 60 texts are freely available.  
−
*[http://www.crossmyt.com/hc/linghebr/awfgrmlg.html Twain on The Awful German Language]
+
*[http://twainquotes.com/ Mark Twain Quotes, Newspaper Collections and Related Resources].  
−
*[http://www.enotes.com/mysterious-stranger-text/ Complete text of ''No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger'']
+
* Audio book recording with accompanying text of [http://content.loudlit.org/audio/hfinn/pages/01_01_hfinn.htm Adventures of Huckleberry Finn].  
−
* Audio book recording with accompanying text of [http://content.loudlit.org/audio/hfinn/pages/01_01_hfinn.htm Adventures of Huckleberry Finn].
+
*[http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/MTP/ The Mark Twain Papers and Project of the Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley]. Home to the largest archive of Mark Twain's papers and the editors of a critical edition of all of Mark Twain's writings.  
−
* [http://slapcast.com/users/revry Many Twain stories are read in Mister Ron's Basement (Number 431 — Celebrated Jumping Frog, Numbers 195-199, Number 146 — Million Pound Banknote, Nos. 67-71, and Number 6 — The War Prayer)] Podcast
+
*[http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/Exhibits/MTP/mississippi.html Mark Twain and the Mississippi].
−
*[http://bancroft.berkeley.edu/MTP/ The Mark Twain Papers and Project of the Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley]. Home to the largest archive of Mark Twain's papers and the editors of a critical edition of all of Mark Twain's writings.
+
*[http://www.sacred-texts.com/aor/twain/index.htm Mark Twain on Religion].  
−
*[http://www.buffalolib.org/libraries/collections/index.asp?sec=twain Mark Twain Room (Houses original manuscript of Huckleberry Finn)]
+
*[http://atheisme.free.fr/Quotes/Twain.htm Quotations of Mark Twain].
−
*[http://www.ucpress.edu/books/twain.html The University of California Press] Publishers of the critical edition of Mark Twain's writings.
 
−
*[http://www.elmira.edu/academics/ar_marktwain.shtml Elmira College Center for Mark Twain Studies]
 
−
*[http://users.telerama.com/~joseph/mtwain.html Ever the Twain Shall Meet], a guide to Mark Twain on the Web
 
 
*[http://www.marxists.de/culture/twain/noteach.htm "The Mark Twain they didn’t teach us about in school"], by Helen Scott, from ''International Socialist Review'' 10, Winter 2000, pp.61-65.
 
*[http://www.marxists.de/culture/twain/noteach.htm "The Mark Twain they didn’t teach us about in school"], by Helen Scott, from ''International Socialist Review'' 10, Winter 2000, pp.61-65.
−
*Full text of the biography ''[http://www.gutenberg.net/etext/6873 Mark Twain]'' by Archibald Henderson
+
*[http://www.marktwainhouse.org/ The Mark Twain House in Hartford, CT].
−
*[http://www.marktwainhouse.org/ The Mark Twain House in Hartford, CT]
+
*[http://www.marktwainmuseum.org/ The Mark Twain Boyhood Home in Hannibal, MO].  
−
*[http://www.marktwainmuseum.org/ The Mark Twain Boyhood Home in Hannibal, MO]
+
*[http://www.pbs.org/marktwain/ Mark Twain: Known To Everyone—Liked By All], a Ken Burns film shown on PBS.  
−
*[http://www.hannibal.net/twain/ ''The Hannibal Courier Post''] A Look at the Life and Works of Mark Twain
 
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*[http://www.pbs.org/marktwain/ Mark Twain: Known To Everyone—Liked By All], a [[Ken Burns]] film shown on [[PBS]].
 
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*[http://faculty.quinnipiac.edu/libraries/tballard/mtpilgrimages.htm Literary Pilgrimages—Mark Twain sites]
 
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[[Category:Biography|Biography]]
 
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[[Category:Art, Music, Literature, Sports, and Leisure]]
 
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[[Category:History and Biography]]
 
  
  
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[[Category:Writers and poets]]
 
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{{Credit|83021684}}

Latest revision as of 02:57, 23 December 2022


Samuel Langhorne Clemens
MarkTwain.LOC.jpg
Pseudonym(s): Mark Twain
Born: November 30, 1835
Florida, Missouri
Died: April 21, 1910
Redding, Connecticut
Occupation(s): Humorist, novelist, writer
Nationality: American
Literary genre: Historical fiction, non-fiction, satire
Magnum opus: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American humorist, essayist, novelist, and lecturer. The pseudonym "Mark Twain" comes from the river boat term meaning two leagues, or twelve feet. Twain said he loved the sound of the river boat pilot calling out "mark twain" because it meant safe water to a boat finding its way in the dark.

Twain was a colorful figure who arrived on the literary scene during the period of Reconstruction, when America was expanding geographically and coming to terms with a transformed political and social landscape in the aftermath of the Civil War. Twain's sharp eye for detail and trenchant good humor were trademarks of his stories and sketches, featured in magazines and newspapers across the United States. A self-educated global traveler, Twain was an "everyman" who worked at sundry occupations, from riverboat pilot to gold miner. All his experiences contributed immensely to his works, as well as to his social critiques.

As a journalist, travel writer, and novelist, Twain, like the poet Walt Whitman, helped fashion a new, distinctly American literature, characterized by realistic vernacular dialog and vivid rendering of everyday rural life. He became a celebrity in both the United States and Europe, known for his ribald humor, and biting, ironic critiques of social conventions. Many of Twain's novels are read to the present day for their realistic portrait of an earlier rural America, particularly from the often-ignored perspective of children. His best-known work, Huckleberry Finn, recounted the adventures of a raffish youth and his journey down the Mississippi with the escaped slave Jim. Recognized as a world classic for its irony, humor, original narrative voice, and compassionate humanism, the novel has grown increasingly controversial for its racially charged language and unequivocal social realism.

In many of his novels and essays Twain upheld the inherent dignity of the marginalized—the slave, the impoverished—and wrote scathingly of the prejudice and exploitation of colonial powers. Twain was particularly outspoken in his criticisms of religious dogmatism and missionary evangelism. As his son, his wife, and two daughters died before him, his treatment of religion became increasingly bitter. His satiric, even mocking essays were so inflammatory that some were suppressed until after his death. Yet few people know that Twain anonymously wrote a long, reverential novel on the life of Joan of Arc, whom he saw as an authentic Christ figure untainted by the hypocrisies of formalized religion.

Twain influenced social critics such as H. L. Mencken and humorist Will Rogers as well as novelists such as Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner, who said of Twain, "[He] was the first truly American writer, and all of us since are his heirs."

Biography

Birth of a literary luminary

Samuel L. Clemens, was born in Florida, Missouri, on November 30, 1835, to John Marshall Clemens and Jane Lampton Clemens. He was born the year Halley's Comet entered earth's orbit and died the year it exited. Like the comet, Twain burst upon the literary world sometimes erratically, destination unknown, sparkling his witticisms like shooting stars on American readers. His most popular novels were the ones told from the perspective of a young boy coming of age in the deep South. Boyhood, marked by innocent but errant ways, was to be a common theme in his stories. From Twain's humble beginnings to his illustrious end dwells a larger-than-life story of an American author.

Coming of age in Missouri

When Clemens was four, his family moved to Hannibal, Missouri, a port town on the Mississippi River which later served as the inspiration for the fictional town of St. Petersburg in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Missouri had been admitted as a slave state in 1821 as part of the Missouri Compromise, and from an early age he was exposed to the institution of slavery, a theme which Twain was to later explore in his work. The family was poor and Sam's father failed repeatedly in his business attempts. In 1847, when young Sam was eleven, his father fell ill with pneumonia and died.

Sam left school with a promise to his Presbyterian mother that he would refrain from "imbibing hard spirits." Like the eponymous Huck Finn, he was a prankster who often found trouble: One story tells of Sam dropping an empty watermelon shell on his brother's head. Remarking on the incident later in life he said, "I have spent the last 50 years trying to regret it."

He went to work as an apprentice typesetter with the Missouri Courier and for his brother Orion who owned his own newspaper, the Hannibal Journal. Seeking better wages, he headed East to work as a journeyman printer in New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Cincinnati. He wrote humorous articles and newspaper sketches to fill copy space. At the age of 22, Clemens returned to Missouri and worked as a riverboat pilot until trade was interrupted by the American Civil War in 1861. He once remarked that riverboat piloting was the best time in his life. Life on the Mississippi, written in 1883, reflects an era when river experiences, simple and carefree, were central to his life.

Westward travels, newspaper stories, and first books

Missouri, although a slave state and considered by many to be part of the South, declined to join the Confederacy and remained loyal to the Union. A legendary, if not quite infamous, anecdote tells of Clemens and his friends forming a Confederate militia that disbanded after two weeks, and which he wrote about later in "The Private History of a Campaign That Failed." However, rather than join the Confederate Army, Clemens decided to follow his brother, Orion, who had been appointed secretary to the territorial governor of Nevada. They traveled on a stagecoach across the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains to the silver-mining town of Virginia City, Nevada. On the way, they visited a Mormon community in Salt Lake City. Clemens' experiences in the West contributed significantly to his formation as a writer, and became the basis of his second book, Roughing It (1872), a richly detailed portrait of life on the American frontier.

Once in Nevada, Clemens became a miner, hoping to strike it rich discovering silver in the Comstock Lode. After failing as a miner, Clemens obtained work at a newspaper called the Daily Territorial Enterprise in Virginia City. It was there he first adopted the pen name "Mark Twain" on February 3, 1863, when he signed a humorous travel account with his new name. In those days authors often chose pen names that were in marked contrast to their own personality. This certainly seemed the case with Samuel Clemens, the person, bound by more traditional conventions, while Mark Twain, the writer, was ever mocking the status quo and societal norms of the day. The contradiction between the private man, Sam Clemens, and the public persona of Mark Twain had begun. His lifelong friend, and literary adviser, William Dean Howells (then editor of the Atlantic Monthly and later an author in his own right) would always call him "Clemens." Regardless, his new name became nationally known when newspapers across the country printed his "tall tale," Jim Smily and His Jumping Frog (1865). This led to publication of his first book of stories The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and Other Sketches (1867). Throughout his life he would often chafe at being described in the press as a humorist, a "funny man" as he called it, when, in fact, he aspired to much more as a writer.

His next adventure was landing an assignment as a San Francisco correspondent for the Sacramento Union, writing from the Hawaiian islands, then known as the "Sandwich Islands." When he returned he undertook yet another sideline, that of "platform entertainer." Utilizing his dramatic oratorical skills, Twain regaled audiences with his tales of the frontier and foreign places. He was soon in demand as a speaker at honorary dinners and banquets, something that would become a lifelong calling for him. Twain became the new star of the lyceum lecture circuit after filling the Great Hall of Cooper Union in New York City in 1866. The pen name "Mark Twain" was rapidly becoming a household word.

His next assignment was once again that of a traveling correspondent, this time for the Alta California newspaper. Twain embarked on a six month cruise to Europe and the Holy Land on the boat The Quaker City. His letters from this trip later became the basis for the book The Innocents Abroad (1869)—considered the most popular travel book ever written. In it he pokes fun at tourists, the "innocents abroad," and their tendency to be at the mercy of their travel guide—and their prejudices—when encountering new situations. The Gilded Age (1872), written collaboratively with Charles Dudley was similarly a satirical treatise on American culture at the turn of the century.

Marriage and family life

Twain was now a best-selling author and lecturer; tired of his itinerant lifestyle, he was ready to settle down. He said to his friend from the Quaker City cruise, Mary Fairbanks "I am going to settle down someday even if I have to do it in a cemetery." He was 31 years old and had been traveling for ten years working at a variety of printing and newspaper jobs. Fairbanks introduced Twain to Olivia Langdon (Livy), who came from a prosperous New York family. Their first outing together was at famed British author Charles Dickens' reading of his works in New York City. Late in life, Twain would comment, "From that day to this she has never been out of my mind." They were married on February 2, 1870, by Twain's good friend, the minister Joseph Twichell, in the Langdon's parlor.

Livy's wealthy father helped the young couple to establish residence in Buffalo, New York, where Twain, with his father-in-law's backing, became part owner of the Buffalo Express newspaper. However, tragedy ensued when their first born son, sickly and premature, died at three months of age. They decided to leave Buffalo and moved to Hartford, Connecticut to be closer to Livy's family in Elmira, New York. They built a 19 room house at "Nook Farm" and the birth of their two daughters soon followed; Susy, in 1872, and Clara in 1874. Sam Clemens had come a long way from his early beginnings, living in a two room house and acquiring only a grade school education. He was now, partly through marrying well, welcomed into the literary and cultural milieu of the East Coast. Twain was in a comfortable position and ready to reflect on his raucous boyhood experiences in Hannibal, Missouri. His American classic, Tom Sawyer, was about to be born. He once referred to this novel as a "hymn to boyhood."

By all accounts the Twain's family life was a happy one, spent entertaining in their large home in Connecticut, while summers were spent in Elmira relaxing and writing. The Victorian era, noted for its ornate fashions, was popular with the family, who sometimes dressed in costume when entertaining. Their days of contentment were due to fade, however, when hard times, both with finances and with health concerns, would besiege the family during the next decade.

Classics: Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn

Mark Twain in his gown for his DLitt degree, awarded to him by Oxford University.

Although The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn received more critical and financial acclaim than did The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, it was also greeted by a storm of controversy due to its explicit vernacular related to the themes of race and slavery. Unlike the stiff and formal prose of the Victorian genre, Huck Finn depicted language and life more realistically as it was in the nineteenth century. In 1885, when a library in Concord, Massachusetts banned the book, Twain commented philosophically to his publisher, "They have expelled Huck from their library as 'trash suitable only for the slums'; that will sell 25,000 copies for us for sure." This literary masterpiece took Twain seven years to complete. Through telling the story of a young boy coming of age during the era of slavery, he combined rich humor and sturdy narrative with social criticism. Twain was a master at rendering colloquial speech, and helped to create and popularize a distinctive American literature built on American themes and language. Ernest Hemingway was quoted as saying, "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. …all American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since."

Two of his books, The Prince and the Pauper, written in 1881 and, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889), were set in Tudor England. The first is the story of two look alike boys; one is a prince in royal English society and the other a pauper. After an inadvertent meeting, they trade places, and learn that the differences in their lives involve far more than just the trading of robes and rags. The themes of social class and unfairness were favorite ones for Twain. So was the idea of switched identities as in the book, The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson and the Comedy of Those Extraordinary Twins (1894), an unfolding tale of the mix-up of two babies, one slave and one free. Although not very popular among Twain's contemporaries, it presents, in comparison to his other works, the most sustained treatment of slavery.

The book, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, is about a time traveler from the America of Twain's day, using his knowledge of science to introduce modern technology to Arthurian England. Although generally well received, some Britons flinched at the irreverent tone of the book towards royal monarchy and its traditions.

Bankruptcy and worldwide lecture tour

Twain, unfortunately, like his father before him, was not an adept businessman. He lost money through his experimentation with new inventions, like the Paige typesetting machine. A publishing company venture, established to publish the memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, soon folded. Faced with mounting debt and the specter of bankruptcy, he and Livy were forced to close the house in Connecticut. Twain decided to do what he was best at, lecturing, touring, and writing, in order to pay off his debts. Leaving their daughters in boarding school and college they set sail for Europe. Twain was to live abroad for a long period of time before being able to return home to the United States for good. In 1900, he paid off his debts and returned to the United States, a conquering hero.

The world lecture tour, in which Twain visited India and Australia, among other countries, was interrupted by tragedy when their oldest daughter, Susy, died back home in Connecticut of spinal meningitis. The entire family was overcome by grief. This episode would color Twain's later writings with pathos and dark humor. Soon, other trials ensued. Always in frail health, Livy died in 1904. Jean, their third and youngest daughter, plagued by a lifetime of seizures, died on Christmas day in 1909. Although these were difficult years for Twain he was buoyed by the success of Following the Equator and Anti-imperialist Essays (1905), based on his world tour, and by his popularity overseas. It was during this time, when the press was speculating constantly of his troubles and failures, that he remarked sardonically, "Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated."

A Connecticut Yankee returns home

Twain's biographer has said that the rest of his life was a standing ovation. He was often seen at special events, like daughter Clara's wedding to pianist and composer, Ossip Gabrilowitsch, wearing his ceremonial robes (he received an honorary degree from Oxford University in 1907) or strolling down Fifth Avenue in New York, an enigma in one of his signature white suits. Beset by illness and heart trouble (angina pectoris), he sought refuge in travel, as he had often done in the past, and spent some of his final days in Bermuda.

Samuel L. Clemens—"Mark Twain"—returned from Bermuda to his Connecticut home, "Safe Waters" at last, where he died on April 21, 1910.

Post Script

The year before his death Mark Twain was quoted as saying: "I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.'"

Some of Twain's writings, suppressed during his lifetime because of their controversial tone and the objections of his family members, were published posthumously. His collection of short stories, Letters from the Earth, wasn't published until 1962. Twain did not attempt to publish his book, What is Man? until after his wife Livy died. Both of these books, and other later works, express his iconoclastic views and growing despair towards both God and man. Despite his often acid reflections on religious orthodoxy and the baleful influence and patronizing attitudes of missionaries, Twain anonymously wrote a long, reverential novel on the life of Joan of Arc, which he considered his greatest and most important work. Twain saw in the slight figure of the untutored French girl, raised from obscurity by the unseen hand of God to lead the French army, an authentic Christ figure untainted by the hypocrisies of formalized religion. "I like Joan of Arc the best of all my books, and it is the best," Twain wrote; "I know it perfectly well. And besides, it furnished me seven times the pleasure afforded me by any of the others; 12 years of preparation, and two years of writing. The others needed no preparation and got none."

Filmography

Many movies, particularly those for television, have been made from Mark Twain's books. An early Prince and the Pauper movie starred Errol Flynn and Claude Rains (1937). The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been produced a number of times; one of the most recent is a 1993 movie with Elijah Wood, released on DVD in 2002. A 1995 version of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court starring Keshia Knight Pulliam was released on DVD in 2003.

Broadway

Many of Twain's works were turned into plays over the years. The first Broadway production of one of his works was in 1895, when Pudd'n-head Wilson was performed at the Herald Square Theater.

The Broadway Musical Big River was based on Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. With a musical score written by country artist Roger Miller, it won the Tony for Best Musical in 1985.

Hal Holbrook's uncanny imitation of the author can be seen on DVD as he performs Mark Twain Tonight, a one-man stage show he did for many years.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

  • Aller, Susan Bivin (2006), Mark Twain. Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publications Company. ISBN 0822596962
  • Kaplan, Fred (2003), The Singular Mark Twain. Doubleday. ISBN 0385477155
  • Kaplan, Justin (1966), Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain. New York: Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0671748076
  • Ziff, Larzer (2004), Mark Twain. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0195170199

Bibliography

  • (1867) Advice for Little Girls (fiction)
  • (1867) The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County (fiction)ISBN 091058463
  • (1868) General Washington's Negro Body-Servant (fiction)
  • (1868) My Late Senatorial Secretaryship (fiction)
  • (1869) The Innocents Abroad (non-fiction travel) ISBN 0521300975
  • (1870-71) Memoranda (monthly column for The Galaxy magazine)
  • (1871) Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance (fiction)
  • (1872) Roughing It (non-fiction) ISBN 0195101332
  • (1873) The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (fiction) ISBN 0672610280
  • (1875) Sketches New and Old (fictional stories) ISBN 0195101359
  • (1876) Old Times on the Mississippi (non-fiction) ISBN 1419138189
  • (1876) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (fiction) ISBN 1593080689
  • (1876) A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage (fiction); (1945, private edition), (2001, Atlantic Monthly).
  • (1877) A True Story and the Recent Carnival of Crime (stories)
  • (1878) Punch, Brothers, Punch! and other Sketches (fictional stories)
  • (1880) A Tramp Abroad (non-fiction travel) ISBN 0195101375
  • (1880) 1601 (Mark Twain)|1601: Conversation, as it was by the Social Fireside, in the Time of the Tudors]] (fiction)
  • (1882) The Prince and the Pauper (fiction) ISBN 0553210904
  • (1883) Life on the Mississippi (non-fiction) ISBN 0195114078
  • (1884) Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (fiction) ISBN 1580495834
  • (1889) A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (fiction) ISBN 159818587
  • (1892) The American Claimant (fiction) ISBN 1594622531
  • (1892) Merry Tales (fictional stories)
  • (1893) The £1,000,000 Bank Note and Other New Stories (fictional stories)
  • (1894) Tom Sawyer Abroad (fiction) ISBN 0195101480
  • (1894) Pudd'nhead Wilson (fiction) ISBN 1582871523
  • (1896) Tom Sawyer, Detective (fiction) ISBN 0486421090
  • (1896) Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (fiction) ISBN 0486424596
  • (1897) How to Tell a Story and other Essays (non-fictional essays) ISBN 0-19-510149-9
  • (1897) Following the Equator (non-fiction travel) ISBN 0809533197
  • (1900) The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg (fiction) ISBN 0146001869
  • (1901) Edmund Burke on Croker and Tammany (political satire) ISBN 978-0-313-27353-7
  • (1902) A Double Barreled Detective Story (fiction) ISBN 1419101013
  • (1904) A Dog's Tale (fiction)
  • (1905) King Leopold's Soliloquy (political satire) ISBN 0717806871
  • (1905) The War Prayer (fiction) ISBN 0060911131
  • (1906) The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories (fiction) ISBN 1598184660
  • (1906) What Is Man? (essay)
  • (1907) Christian Science (non-fiction)
  • (1907) A Horse's Tale (fiction)
  • (1907) Is Shakespeare Dead? (non-fiction)
  • (1909) Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven (fiction)
  • (1909) Letters from the Earth (fiction, published posthumously) ISBN 0060518650
  • (1910) Queen Victoria's Jubilee (non-fiction, published posthumously)
  • (1916) The Mysterious Stranger (fiction, possibly not by Twain, published posthumously)
  • (1924) Mark Twain's Autobiography (non-fiction, published posthumously) ISBN 0060955422
  • (1935) Mark Twain's Notebook (published posthumously) ISBN 0520023269
  • (1969) The Mysterious Stranger (fiction, published posthumously)
  • (1992) Mark Twain's Weapons of Satire: Anti-Imperialist Writings on the Philippine-American War. Jim Zwick, ed. (Syracuse University Press) ISBN 0-8156-0268-5 ((previously uncollected, published posthumously)
  • (1995) The Bible According to Mark Twain: Writings on Heaven, Eden, and the Flood (published posthumously)


External links

All links retrieved December 22, 2022.

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