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 frank 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 literary luminary

Samuel L. 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. 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 - an American hero.

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 Sam's father's 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 often in 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. However, he earned little money, 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, 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 Twain 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" At this point, rather than join the Confederate Army; Clemens decided to follow his brother, Orion, who had been appointed secretary to the territorial governor of Nevada, and head 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 who was bound by more traditional conventions, while Mark Twain, mocking the status quo, inspired new ways of thinking about life and society. His lifelong friend, literary advisor, editor of the Atlantic Monthly and author, William Dean Howells would always call him "Clemens." Regardless, his new name became nationally known when newspapers across the country printed his short story, "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 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 public speaker. 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 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 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 cemetary." He was 31 years old and had been travelling 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, "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. 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 controvery 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 19th 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 books, written with a connection to Tudor England, were The Prince and the Pauper written in 1881 and A Connecticut Yankee in Kiing Arthur's Court (1889). The first is the story of twin brothers who, separated at birth, learn of one another; one is a prince in royal English society and the other a pauper. After an inadvertant meeting, they trade places and this allows each to experience the other's life. 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 traveller 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 irreverant tone of the book towards royal monarcy and its traditions.

Bankruptcy and the world wide lecture tour

Twain, seemingly like his own father before him, was not an adept businessman. He lost money through his experimentation with new inventions, like the Paige typesettng machine. A publishing company venture, established to publish the memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, soon folded. Faced with mounting debt and the spectre 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 or 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 define Twain's later writings which were permeated with pathos and dark humor. Soon, other trials ensued; Livy, always in frail health 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, he sought refuge in travel, as he had often done in the past, and spent some of his final days in Bermuda.

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.'"

Samuel L. Clemens -Mark Twain, returned from Bermuda to his Connecticut home, safe waters at last, where he died on April 21, 1910.

File:MarkTwainatMarkTwainESHouston.JPG

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

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Aller, Susan Bivin (2006), Mark Twain, Minnesota: Lerner Publications Company ISBN 9780822534259

• 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)
• (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

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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