Mark Twain
Mark Twain is the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910), an American humorist, journalist, lecturer, and novelist. He was the voice of his generation and one of the most celebrated authors of the late 19th century, writing some of America's best-known and most memorable works of literature: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Life on the Mississippi, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Through these and other works, he had a profound effect on the development of writing in America, influencing numerous authors of the 20th century, such as Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961). With a career that spanned over four decades, Twain shaped the world's view of America. His rich sense of humor was evident in both his novels and lectures, but Twain's biographer Albert Bigelow Paine believed that he was more than a humorist; he was a philosopher, a prophet, and a humanitarian.
Early Career
Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born in Florida, Missouri, on 30 November 1835. His father, John Marshall Clemens, was educated as a lawyer but chose instead to become a merchant, albeit not a very successful one. In 1839, when Twain was four, his father moved the family to Hannibal, Missouri, a small town along the Mississippi River. In Hannibal, John Marshall returned to the practice of the law, eventually being elected justice of the peace. When he died in 1847, leaving the family in debt, Twain was forced to quit school; he was not quite twelve. Twain, like his older brother Orion before him, was apprenticed to a local printer. When Orion bought a small newspaper, the Hannibal Journal, Twain joined him as a typesetter. The newspaper was operated out of the family's basement. On the days when Orion was absent from the paper, Twain would write small parodies about local characters and conditions, and circulation increased.
In 1853, at the age of 18, Twain left home, working as an itinerant printer in St. Louis, New York, and Philadelphia. By the time he returned from the East, Orion had moved the family to Keokuk, Iowa. Twain would remain in Keokuk with Orion until 1857 when he decided to go to Brazil and the Amazon River. He began the long journey at Cincinnati, working as a printer, until spring. Aboard the Paul Jones, headed to New Orleans, he met a riverboat pilot named Horace Bixby, and after a lengthy conversation, decided to forego the Amazon and become a riverboat pilot. 18 months later, he was considered one the best and most careful on the Mississippi, but, with the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, the Confederates blockaded the river, stopping all river traffic.
Following a short two-week stint in the Confederate Army, Twain traveled west by stagecoach, hoping to become rich in the silver mines of Nevada. Orion, who had a federal appointment in the Nevada Territory as secretary to the governor, went with him. But with little success as either a miner or prospector, Twain used his free time to contribute short articles to the Territorial Enterprise, a Virginia City, Nevada newspaper owned by John Goodman. It was there that he began to use the name Mark Twain, a river term for two fathoms of water. His new name and humorous articles made him famous along the Pacific Slope. Recognizing his talent, Goodman offered Twain the job as editor of the Enterprise at 25 dollars a week. After two years in Virginia City, he moved to San Francisco where he worked for the Morning Call while contributing to the Golden Era and The Californian.
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