Samuel Clemens

Samuel Langhorne Clemens

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, satirist, novelist, writer, 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 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.

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. 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.

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 controversial opinions.

Fellow American author, William Faulkner said of him, "Twain was the first truly American writer, and all of us since are his heirs."

Biography

Birth of a luminary

Samuel Clemens, "Mark Twain" 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. He was not always quite sure where he was going but he knew he was going quickly and that he wanted to write about it all. His most gratifying stories were the ones told from the perspective of a young boy in the deep South. The boyhood of his youth, marked by innocent, but errant behavior, 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 - an American heroe.

Coming of age in Missouri

When Sam 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 in 1847, when young Sam was eleven, his father fell ill with pneumonia and died that March. A prankster who was often in trouble, he left school with a promise to his Presbyterian mother that he would refrain from "imbibing hard spirits." He worked as an apprentice typesetter with the Missouri Courier and later for his brother Orion who owned his own newspaper. However, he earned little money and soon grew restless so 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, 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. Life on the Mississippi written in (1883) reflects an era when river experiences were so 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. 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 Army; Clemens joined his brother, Orion, who had been appointed secretary to the territorial governor of Nevada, and headed west. 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 seemed the case with Samuel Clemens, bound by more traditional conventions, while Mark Twain mocked the status quo and inspired new way of thinking about life and society. His lifelong friend, literary advisor, and editor of the Atlantic Monthly William Dean Howells would always call him "Clemens." Regardless, his new name became famous nationally when newspapers across the country printed his short story, "Jim Smily and His Jumping Frog." (1865) This led to publication of his first books 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" when he, in fact, aspired to much more as a writer.

His next adventure was landing an assignment as a San Francisco correspondent for the Sacremento Union writing from the Hawaiian islands, then known as the "Sandwich Islands" before Hawaii was admitted as a state. When he returned he undertook yet another sideline, that of lecturer. His exuberant rhetoric and stories of the frontier and foreign places intrigued his audiences. Over the years he would be much in demand as a speaker at honorary dinners and banquets. (year here) He became the new star of the lecture circuit after filling the Great Hall of Cooper Union in New York City. "Mark Twain" was becoming a household word in American homes.

His next assignment was once again that of a traveling correspondent. This time he embarked on a six month cruise to Europe and the Holy Land. 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 - "innocents abroad" - and their tendency to be at the mercy of their travel guides - and their prejudices - when encountering new situations. The Gilded Age (1872) written collaboratively with Charles Dudley, was similiarly 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 with his itenerant lifestyle he was ready to settle down and start a family. He was 31 years old and had been travelling for ten years working at variety of printing and newspaper jobs. His future seemed assured when he was introduced by shipmates from his Holy Land cruise to Olivia Langdon (Livy), who came from a prosperous New York family. Their first "date" was attending 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."

Livy's wealthy father help 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 in Nook Farm and the birth of their two daughters soon followed; Susy, in 1872, and Clara in 1874. Sam Clemens, "Mark Twain" 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 mileu 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. Add funny watermelon story somewhere

Classics: Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn

Twain's greatest contribution to American literature is generally considered to be his novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. As Ernest Hemingway once said:

"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."

He combined rich humor, sturdy narrative and social criticism in a way that is almost unrivaled in world literature.Twain was a master at rendering colloquial speech, and helped to create and popularize a distinctive American literature built on American themes and language.

Twain in the lab of Nikola Tesla, spring of 1894

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 traveler from the America of Twain's day, using his knowledge of science to introduce modern technology to Arthurian England.

World Wide lecture tour and bankruptcy

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.

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

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.

Mention Hal Halbrook, films, etc.

Trivia

• 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.
• 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

File:MarkTwainatMarkTwainESHouston.JPG

A statue of Mark Twain at Mark Twain Elementary School in the Braeswood Place neighborhood of Houston, Texas

• "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."
• "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."

Bibliography

• (1867) Advice for Little Girls (fiction)
• (1867) The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County (fiction)
• (1868) General Washington's Negro Body-Servant (fiction)
• (1868) My Late Senatorial Secretaryship (fiction)
• (1869) The Innocents Abroad (non-fiction travel)
• (1870-71) Memoranda (monthly column for The Galaxy magazine)
• (1871) Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance (fiction)
• (1872) Roughing It (non-fiction)
• (1873) The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (fiction)
• (1875) Sketches New and Old (fictional stories)
• (1876) Old Times on the Mississippi (non-fiction)
• (1876) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (fiction)
• (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)
• (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)
• (1883) Life on the Mississippi (non-fiction)
• (1884) Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (fiction)
• (1889) A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (fiction)
• (1892) The American Claimant (fiction)
• (1892) Merry Tales (fictional stories)
• (1893) The £1,000,000 Bank Note and Other New Stories (fictional stories)
• (1894) Tom Sawyer Abroad (fiction)
• (1894) Pudd'nhead Wilson (fiction)
• (1896) Tom Sawyer, Detective (fiction)
• (1896) Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (fiction)
• (1897) How to Tell a Story and other Essays (non-fictional essays)
• (1897) Following the Equator (non-fiction travel)
• (1900) The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg (fiction)
• (1901) Edmund Burke on Croker and Tammany (political satire)
• (1902) A Double Barrelled Detective Story (fiction)
• (1904) A Dog's Tale (fiction)
• (1905) King Leopold's Soliloquy (political satire)
• (1905) The War Prayer (fiction)
• (1906) The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories (fiction)
• (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)
• (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)
• (1935) Mark Twain's Notebook (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)
• (1995) The Bible According to Mark Twain: Writings on Heaven, Eden, and the Flood (published posthumously)

See also

• Bernard DeVoto
• Local color
• Mark Twain Award
• Mark Twain House
• Mark Twain in popular culture
• Mark Twain Memorial Bridge
• Mark Twain Prize for American Humor

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

External links

• Works by Mark Twain. Project Gutenberg. More than 60 texts are freely available.
• Mark Twain Quotes, Newspaper Collections and Related Resources
• Twain on The Awful German Language
• Complete text of No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger
• Audio book recording with accompanying text of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
• 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
• 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.
• Mark Twain Room (Houses original manuscript of Huckleberry Finn)
• The University of California Press Publishers of the critical edition of Mark Twain's writings.
• Elmira College Center for Mark Twain Studies
• Ever the Twain Shall Meet, a guide to Mark Twain on the Web
• "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 Mark Twain by Archibald Henderson
• The Mark Twain House in Hartford, CT
• The Mark Twain Boyhood Home in Hannibal, MO
• The Hannibal Courier Post A Look at the Life and Works of Mark Twain
• Mark Twain: Known To Everyone—Liked By All, a Ken Burns film shown on PBS.
• Literary Pilgrimages—Mark Twain sites

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