Breif biography of mark twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, far better known as Mark Twain, was an American writer, businessman, publisher and lecturer. He progressed from his day job as pilot of a Mississippi riverboat to legend of American literature. His work shows a deep seriousness and at the same time, it is hilariously satirical. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn have never lost their places as required reading in schools, and they remain templates for young adult fiction.

His writing style has had a profound influence on generations of American writers. He said that after an initial spell of enthusiasm for imperialism he became very suspicious of imperialist motives, e. Twain became vice-president of the American Anti-Imperialist League in until his death in Twain was also a staunch supporter of abolition and black emancipation.

The early works of Twain were generally light-hearted and humorous. However, as his writing and life developed, his books and articles increasingly became more serious and focused on the pressing social issues facing America. With the same deft touch and comic turn, Twain became a satirist on the cruelties and injustice of mankind and gave vent to his deeply held beliefs.

Hemingway later wrote that:.

Breif biography of mark twain: Mark Twain, the writer,

After working briefly for the Buffalo Express newspaper, Twain took his family and three daughters to live in Hartford, Connecticut. The family lived there for 17 years, and this gave Mark Twain a firm base to devote himself to writing. It was here that he wrote his best-known books — The Adventures of Tom Sawyerand Adventures of Huckleberry Finn As his fame and profile grew, Twain gained a substantial income through his writing.

However, unfortunately, he lost a small fortune through a misplaced investment in the Paige typesetting machines. Combined with money lost through his own publishing house, Twain faced bankruptcy but was saved with the help of financier Henry Rogers. Twain then worked hard — undertaking a worldwide lecture tour to pay off his debts in full.

Mark Twain, whose real name was Samuel Clemens, was the celebrated author of several novels, including two major classics of American literature: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He was also a riverboat pilot, journalist, lecturer, entrepreneur, and inventor. When he was 4 years old, his family moved to nearby Hannibal, a bustling river town of 1, people.

John Clemens worked as a storekeeper, lawyer, judge and land speculator, dreaming of wealth but never achieving it, sometimes finding it hard to feed his family. He was an unsmiling fellow; according to one legend, young Sam never saw his father laugh. His mother, by contrast, was a fun-loving, tenderhearted homemaker who whiled away many a winter's night for her family by telling stories.

She became head of the household in when John died unexpectedly. The Clemens family "now became almost destitute," wrote biographer Everett Emerson, and was forced into years of economic struggle — a fact that would shape the career of Twain. Twain stayed in Hannibal until age The town, situated on the Mississippi River, was in many ways a splendid place to grow up.

Steamboats arrived there three times a day, tooting their whistles; circuses, minstrel shows and revivalists paid visits; a decent library was available; and tradesmen such as blacksmiths and tanners practiced their entertaining crafts for all to see. However, violence was commonplace, and young Twain witnessed much death: When he was nine years old, he saw a local man murder a cattle rancher, and at 10 he watched an enslaved person die after a white overseer struck him with a piece of iron.

Hannibal inspired several of Twain's fictional locales, including "St. Petersburg" in Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. These imaginary river towns are complex places: sunlit and exuberant on the one hand, but also vipers' nests of cruelty, poverty, drunkenness, loneliness and soul-crushing boredom — all parts of Twain's boyhood experience.

Sam kept up his schooling until he was about 12 years old, when — with his father dead and the family needing a source of income — he found employment as an apprentice printer at the Hannibal Courierwhich paid him with a meager ration of food. Inat 15, he got a job as a printer and occasional writer and editor at the Hannibal Western Uniona little newspaper owned by his brother, Orion.

Then, inyear-old Twain fulfilled a dream: He began learning the art of piloting a steamboat on the Mississippi. A licensed steamboat pilot byhe soon found regular employment plying the shoals and channels of the great river. Twain loved his career — it was exciting, well-paying and high-status, roughly akin to flying a jetliner today. However, his service was cut short in by the outbreak of the Civil Warwhich halted most civilian traffic on the river.

As the Civil War began, the people of Missouri angrily split between support for the Union and the Confederate States. Twain opted for the latter, joining the Confederate Army in June but serving for only a couple of breif biographies of mark twain until his volunteer unit disbanded. Where, he wondered then, would he find his future? The short story brought Twain international attention.

As his fame grew, Twain became a much sought-after speaker. His wit and satire, both in prose and in speech, earned praise from critics and peers, and Twain was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty. Although Twain initially spoke out in favor of American interests in the Hawaiian Islandshe later reversed his position, [ 8 ] going on to become vice president of the American Anti-Imperialist League from until his death incoming out strongly against the Philippine—American War and American colonialism.

Twain earned a great deal of money from his writing and lectures, but invested in ventures that lost most of it, such as the Paige Compositora mechanical typesetter that failed because of its complexity and imprecision. He filed for bankruptcy in the wake of these financial setbacks, but in time overcame his financial troubles with the help of Standard Oil executive Henry Huttleston Rogers.

Twain eventually paid all his creditors in full, even though his declaration of bankruptcy meant he was not required to do so.

Breif biography of mark twain: Mark Twain was a humorist, journalist,

One hundred breif biographies of mark twain after his death, the first volume of his autobiography was published. The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together. His parents met when his father, a lawyer called to the bar in Kentucky, tried to help Jane's father and uncle avoid bankruptcy.

His brother Pleasant Hannibal died at three weeks of age, [ 21 ] [ 22 ] his sister Margaret — died when Twain was three, and his brother Benjamin — died three years later. When he was four, Twain's family moved to Hannibal, Missouri[ 24 ] a port town on the Mississippi River that inspired the fictional town of St. His father was an attorney and judge who died of pneumonia inwhen Twain was only Louisand Cincinnatijoining the newly formed International Typographical Unionthe printers' trade union.

Twain educated himself in public libraries in the evenings, finding wider information than at a conventional school. Twain describes his boyhood in Life on the Mississippistating that "there was but one permanent ambition" among his comrades: to be a steamboatman. The pilot, even in those days of trivial wages, had a princely salary — from a hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty dollars a month, and no board to pay.

The pilot had to "get up a warm personal acquaintanceship with every old snag and one-limbed cottonwood and every obscure wood pile that ornaments the banks of this river for twelve hundred miles; and more than that, must Steamboat pilot Horace E. Bixby took Twain on as a cub pilot to teach him the river between New Orleans and St. Twain studied the Mississippi, learning its landmarks, how to navigate its currents effectively, and how to read the river and its constantly shifting channels, reefs, submerged snags, and rocks that would "tear the life out of the strongest vessel that ever floated".

Piloting also gave Twain his pen name from " mark twain ", the leadsman's cry for a measured river depth of two fathoms 12 feetwhich was safe water for a steamboat. As a young pilot, Clemens served on the steamer A. Chambers with Grant Marshwho became famous for his exploits as a steamboat captain on the Missouri River. The two liked and admired each other, and maintained a correspondence for many years after Clemens left the river.

While training, Samuel convinced his younger brother Henry to work with him, and even arranged a post of mud clerk for him on the steamboat Pennsylvania. On June 13,the steamboat's boiler exploded; Henry succumbed to his wounds eight days later. Twain continued to work on the river and was a river pilot until the Civil War broke out inwhen traffic was curtailed along the Mississippi River.

At the start of hostilities, he enlisted briefly in a local Confederate unit, the Marion Rangers as a Second Lieutenant. Twain describes the episode in his book Roughing It. Orion became secretary to Nevada Territory governor James W. Nye inand Twain joined him when he moved west. The brothers traveled more than two weeks on a stagecoach across the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountainsvisiting the Mormon community in Salt Lake City.

Twain's journey ended in the silver-mining town of Virginia City, Nevadawhere he became a miner on the Comstock Lode. Twain first used his pen name here on February 3,when he wrote a humorous travel account titled "Letter From Carson — re: Joe Goodman; party at Gov. Johnson's; music" and signed it "Mark Twain". Twain's experiences in the American West inspired Roughing Itwritten during —71 and published in Twain's first success as a writer came when his humorous tall tale "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" was published on November 18,in the New York weekly The Saturday Pressbringing him national attention.

His letters to the Union were popular and became the basis for his first lectures. He wrote a collection of travel letters which were later compiled as The Innocents Abroad It was on this trip that Twain met fellow passenger Charles Langdon, who showed him a picture of his sister Olivia. Twain later claimed to have fallen in love at first sight.

Upon returning to the United States, Twain was offered honorary membership in Yale University 's secret society Scroll and Key in Twain and Olivia Langdon corresponded throughout She rejected his first marriage proposal, but Twain continued to court her and managed to overcome her father's initial reluctance. The Clemenses lived in Buffalo, New Yorkfrom to Twain owned a stake in the Buffalo Express newspaper and worked as an editor and writer.

They had three daughters: Susy —Clara —[ 54 ] and Jean — The Clemenses formed a friendship with David Gray, who worked as an editor of the breif biography of mark twain Buffalo Courierand his wife Martha. Twain later wrote that the Grays were " 'all the solace' he and Livy had during their 'sorrowful and pathetic brief sojourn in Buffalo ' ", and that Gray's "delicate gift for poetry" was wasted working for a newspaper.

Starting inTwain moved his family to Hartford, Connecticutwhere he arranged the building of a home next door to Stowe. Twain wrote many of his classic novels during his 17 years in Hartford — and over 20 summers at Quarry Farm. The couple's marriage lasted 34 years until Olivia's death in Twain was fascinated with science and scientific inquiry.

He developed a close and lasting friendship with Nikola Teslaand the two spent much time together in Tesla's laboratory. Twain was an early proponent of fingerprinting as a forensic technique, featuring it in a tall tale in Life on the Mississippi and as a central plot element in the novel Pudd'nhead Wilson This type of historical manipulation became a trope of speculative fiction as alternate histories.

Part of the footage was used in The Prince and the Paupera two-reel short film. It is the only known existing film footage of Twain. Twain made a substantial amount of money through his writing, but he lost a great deal through investments. Twain invested mostly in new inventions and technology, particularly the Paige typesetting machine.

It was considered a mechanical marvel that amazed viewers when it worked, but it was prone to breakdowns. He lost the bulk of his book profits, as well as a substantial portion of his wife's inheritance. Twain also lost money through his publishing house, Charles L. Webster and Companywhich enjoyed initial success selling the memoirs of Ulysses S.

Fewer than copies were sold. Twain and his family closed down their expensive Hartford home in response to the dwindling income and moved to Europe in June William M. Twain, Olivia, and their daughter Susy were all faced with health problems, and they believed that it would be of benefit to visit European baths. During that period, Twain returned to New York four times due to his enduring business troubles.

Twain's writings and lectures enabled him to recover financially, combined with the help of his friend Henry Huttleston Rogers. Rogers first made Twain file for bankruptcy in Aprilthen had him transfer the copyrights on his written works to his wife to prevent creditors from gaining possession of them. Finally, Rogers took absolute charge of Twain's money until all his creditors were paid.

Twain accepted an offer from Robert Sparrow Smythe [ 76 ] and embarked on a year-long around-the-world lecture tour in July [ 77 ] to pay off his creditors in full, although Twain was no longer under any legal obligation to do so. The first part of the itinerary took Twain across northern America to British ColumbiaCanada, until the second half of August.

Breif biography of mark twain: Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30,

For the second part, he sailed across the Pacific Ocean. Twain's scheduled lecture in HonoluluHawaii, had to be canceled due to a cholera epidemic. His three months in India became the centerpiece of his page book Following the Equator. In the second half of JulyTwain sailed back to England, completing his circumnavigation of the world begun 14 months before.

Twain and his family spent four more years in Europe, mainly in England and Austria October to Maywith longer spells in London and Vienna. Clara had wished to study the piano under Theodor Leschetizky in Vienna. Jonas Henrik Kellgren, a Swedish osteopathic practitioner in Belgravia. They were persuaded to spend the summer at Kellgren's sanatorium by the lake in the Swedish village of Sanna.

Coming back in fall, they continued the treatment in London, until Twain was convinced by lengthy inquiries in America that similar osteopathic expertise was available there. Twain wrote that he had "never seen any "breif biography of mark twain" that was so satisfactorily situated, with its noble trees and stretch of country, and everything that went to make life delightful, and all within a biscuit's throw of the metropolis of the world.

Twain was in great demand as a featured speaker, performing solo humorous talks similar to modern stand-up comedy. In the late s, Twain spoke to the Savage Club in London and was elected an honorary member. He was told that only three men had been so honored, including the Prince of Walesand Twain replied: "Well, it must make the Prince feel mighty fine.

InTwain was honored at a banquet in MontrealCanada where he made reference to securing a copyright. The reason for the Toronto visits was to secure Canadian and British copyrights for Twain's upcoming book Adventures of Huckleberry Finn[ 90 ] [ 92 ] to which he had alluded in his Montreal visit. The reason for the Ottawa visit had been to secure Canadian and British copyrights for Life on the Mississippi.

In his later years, Twain lived at 14 West 10th Street in Manhattan. Olivia's death in and Jean's on December 24,deepened Twain's gloom. In AprilTwain heard that his friend Ina Coolbrith had lost nearly all that she owned in the San Francisco earthquakeand he volunteered a few autographed portrait photographs to be sold for her benefit.

Twain was resistant initially, but he eventually admitted that four of the resulting images were the finest ones ever taken of him. InTwain formed the Angel Fish and Aquarium Club, for girls whom he viewed as surrogate granddaughters. Its dozen or so members ranged in age from 10 to Twain exchanged letters with his "Angel Fish" girls and invited them to concerts and the theatre and to play games.

Twain wrote in that the club was his "life's chief delight". Twain was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters D. Oxford University awarded him a Doctorate of Law in Twain was born two weeks after Halley's Comet 's closest approach in ; he said in [ 74 ]. I came in with Halley's Comet in 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". Twain's prediction was eerily accurate; he died of a heart attack on April 21,in Stormfieldone month before the comet passed Earth that year.

Mark Twain gave pleasure — real intellectual enjoyment — to millions, and his works will continue to give such pleasure to millions yet to come His humor was American, but he was nearly as much appreciated by Englishmen and people of other countries as by his own countrymen. He has made an enduring part of American literature. The Langdon family plot is marked by a foot monument two fathoms, or "mark twain" placed there by Twain's surviving daughter Clara.

He expressed a preference for cremation for example, in Life on the Mississippibut he acknowledged that his surviving family would have the last word. Twain began his career writing light, humorous verse, but he became a chronicler of the vanities, hypocrisies, and murderous acts of mankind. At mid-career, Twain combined rich humor, sturdy narrative, and social criticism in Huckleberry Finn.

He was a master of rendering colloquial speech and helped to create and popularize a distinctive American literature built on American themes and language. Many of Twain's works have been suppressed at times for various reasons. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been repeatedly restricted in American high schools, not least for its frequent use of the word " nigger ", [ ] a slur commonly used for Black people in the nineteenth century.

A complete bibliography of Twain's works is nearly impossible to compile because of the vast number of pieces he wrote often in obscure newspapers and his use of several different pen names. Additionally, a large portion of Twain's speeches and lectures have been lost or were not recorded; thus, the compilation of his works is an ongoing process.

Researchers have rediscovered published material as recently as and Twain was writing for the Virginia City newspaper the Territorial Enterprise in when he met lawyer Tom Fitcheditor of the competing newspaper Virginia Daily Union and known as the "silver-tongued orator of the Pacific". Clemens, your lecture was magnificent. It was eloquent, moving, sincere.

Never in my entire life have I listened to such a magnificent piece of descriptive narration. But you committed one unpardonable sin — the unpardonable sin. It is a sin you must never commit again. You closed a most eloquent description, by which you had keyed your audience up to a pitch of the intensest interest, with a piece of atrocious anti-climax which nullified all the really fine effect you had produced.

It was in these days that Twain became a writer of the Sagebrush School ; he was known later as its most famous member. After a burst of popularity, the Sacramento Union commissioned him to write letters about his travel experiences. The first journey that Twain took for this job was to ride the steamer Ajax on its maiden voyage to the Sandwich Islands Hawaii.

All the while, he was writing letters to the newspaper that were meant for publishing, chronicling his experiences with humor. These letters proved to be the genesis to Twain's work with the San Francisco Alta California newspaper, which designated him a traveling correspondent for a trip from San Francisco to New York City via the Panama isthmus.

Inhe published his second piece of travel literature, Roughing Itas an account of his journey from Missouri to Nevada, his subsequent life in the American Westand his visit to Hawaii. The book lampoons American and Western society in the same way that Innocents critiqued the various countries of Europe and the Middle East. The book, written with Twain's neighbor Charles Dudley Warneris also his only collaboration.

Twain's next work drew on his experiences on the Mississippi River. Old Times on the Mississippi was a series of sketches published in the Atlantic Monthly in featuring his disillusionment with Romanticism. Twain's next major publication was The Adventures of Tom Sawyerwhich draws on his youth in Hannibal. The Prince and the Pauper was not as well received, despite a storyline that is common in film and literature today.

The book tells the story of two boys born on the same day who are physically identical, acting as a social commentary as the prince and pauper switch places. Twain had started Adventures of Huckleberry Finn which he consistently had problems completing [ ] and had completed his travel book A Tramp Abroadwhich describes his travels through central and southern Europe.

Twain's next major published work was the Adventures of Huckleberry Finnwhich confirmed him as a noteworthy American writer. Some have called it the first Great American Novel, and the book has become required reading in many schools throughout the United States. Huckleberry Finn was an offshoot from Tom Sawyer and had a more serious tone than its predecessor.

Four hundred manuscript pages were written in mid, right after the publication of Tom Sawyer. The last fifth of Huckleberry Finn is subject to much controversy. Some say that Twain experienced a "failure of nerve," as critic Leo Marx puts it. Ernest Hemingway once said of Huckleberry Finn :. If you read it, you must stop where the Nigger Jim is stolen from the boys.

That is the real end. The rest is just cheating. Near the completion of Huckleberry FinnTwain wrote Life on the Mississippiwhich is said to have heavily influenced the breif biography of mark twain. In it, he also explains that "Mark Twain" was the call made when the boat was in safe water, indicating a depth of two or twain fathoms 12 feet or 3.

Twain produced President Ulysses S. Grant 's Memoirs through his fledgling publishing house, Charles L. Webster and Companywhich he co-owned with Charles L. Websterhis nephew by marriage. A Connecticut Yankee shows the absurdities of political and social norms by setting them in the court of King Arthur. The book was started in Decemberthen shelved a few months later until the summer ofand eventually finished in the spring of Twain's next large-scale work was Pudd'nhead Wilsonwhich he wrote rapidly, as he was desperately trying to stave off bankruptcy.

From November 12 to December 14,Twain wrote 60, words for the novel. This novel also contains the tale of two boys born on the same day who switch positions in life, like The Prince and the Pauper. It was first published serially in Century Magazineand when it was finally published in book form, Pudd'nhead Wilson appeared as the main title; however, the "subtitles" make the entire title read The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson and the Comedy of The Extraordinary Twins.

Twain's next venture was a work of straight fiction that he called Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc and dedicated to his wife. Twain said a year before his death that this was the work that he was most proud of, despite the criticism that he received for it, writing: " I like Joan of Arc best of all my books; and it is the best; I know it perfectly well.

And besides, it furnished me seven times the pleasure afforded me by any of the others; twelve years of preparation, and two years of writing. The others needed no preparation and got none. Twain specifically insisted it to be an anonymous publication so that readers would take it as a serious historical account.

Breif biography of mark twain: Samuel Clemens was born on November

To pay the bills and keep his business projects afloat, Twain had begun to write articles and commentary furiously, with diminishing returns, but it was not enough. He filed for bankruptcy in During this time of dire financial straits, Twain published several literary reviews in newspapers to help make ends meet. Twain became an extremely outspoken critic of other authors and other critics; he suggested that, before praising Cooper's work, Thomas LounsburyBrander Matthewsand Wilkie Collins "ought to have read some of it".

George EliotJane Austenand Robert Louis Stevenson also fell under Twain's attack during this time period, beginning around and continuing until his death.