1835-1910 Challenges make life interesting, however, overcoming them is what makes life meaningful....

1835-1910

MARK TWAIN Challenges make life interesting, however, overcoming them is what makes life meaningful. ~ Mark Twain ~

• Born on November 30, 1835• Born in Florida, Missouri • His given name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens • At the age of 12, Twain began working as an apprentice

printer at the Hannibal Courier• He had to work at such a young age because his father

died and he needed to earn his keep• At 15, he got a job as a printer, occasional writer and

editor at the Hannibal Western Union• Hannibal Western Union was his brother Orion’s

newspaper• The paper, in time, was moved into a part of the Clemens

home, and the two brothers ran it

BIOGRAPHY

• He was one of 6 children, unfortunately most of his siblings died at a young age

• His siblings were Orion, Henry, Pamela, Margaret, Benjamin, and Pleasant

• Henry died in a riverboat explosion in 1858• His brothers Benjamin and Pleasant died when they were

children• His sister Margaret also died when she was a child• When Mark was 4 years old, his family moved to

Hannibal, Missouri • Hannibal was a port town on the Mississippi River • Hannibal inspired the fictional town of St. Petersburg in

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

BIOGRAPHY

• Twain’s 2 most known works are “Tow Sawyer” and “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”

• In 1882, Twain wrote a fiction by the name of “Prince and the Pauper”

• He also wrote “A Tramp Abroad” a non-fiction humorous look at his trip through Germany, Italy, and the Alps and somewhat of a sequel to “Innocents Abroad”

• “Roughing It,” one of Twain’s non-fiction novels describes his journey out West with his brother Orion

• Some of the themes in Mark Twain’s novel “Tom Sawyer” are youth, hopes, dreams, manipulation, and supernatural

WRITING/CAREER

• His genres are novels, humor/satire, short stories, plays, essays, and letters

• Twain began his career writing light and humorous poetry

• That then evolved into a 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

• Many of Twain's works have been suppressed at times for various reasons

• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been repeatedly restricted in American high schools for its frequent use of the “n” word

• The word was very commonly used in the pre-Civil War period in which the novel was set

WRITING/CAREER

• The Adventures of Tom Sawyer drew on his youth in Hannibal

• Tom Sawyer was modeled on Twain as a child, with traces of two schoolmates, John Briggs and Will Bowen

• The book also introduced in a supporting role Huckleberry Finn, based on Twain's boyhood friend Tom Blankenship

• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, solidified 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

WRITING/CAREER

• “The Prince and the Pauper,” despite a storyline that is omnipresent in film and literature today wasn’t very popular then

• Telling the story of two boys born on the same day who are physically identical, the book acts as a social commentary as the prince and pauper switch places

• Pauper was Twain's first attempt at historical fiction, and blame for its shortcomings is usually put on Twain for having not been experienced enough in English society

• Also, the fact that “The Prince and the Pauper” was produced after a massive hit

• After Twain wrote all of his most notable works, he wrote "The Private History of a Campaign That Failed" for The Century Magazine

WRITING/CAREER

• This piece detailed his two-week period in a Confederate militia during the Civil War

• The name of his publishing company was Charles L. Webster & Company, which he owned with Charles L. Webster, his nephew by marriage

• In 1884, Twain went on a National lecture tour with George Caleb

• In 1907, he visited Oxford University in England to receive honorary degree

• In 1909, “Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven” was Mark Twain’s last novel was published before he died

WRITING/CAREER

• In 1870, Twain married Olivia Langdon• She rejected his first marriage proposal• Then 2 months later, he proposed again and she said yes• Twain hoped that she would "reform" him, a mere

humorist, from his rustic ways• They had a brief residence in upstate New York, Twain

worked as an editor and part owner of the Buffalo Express

• After New York, they moved to Hartford, Connecticut, where they lived for twenty years

• They had 4 children together, Langdon, Susy, Clara, and Jean Clemens

• Their son Langdon died of diphtheria at the age of 19 months

MARK TWAIN’S FAMILY

• Jean was the youngest child of the Clemens• Susy died from meningitis when she was 24 years old• Susy was the undisputed favorite daughter• Their son Langdon died of diphtheria at the age of 19

months• Unfortunately, Jean grew up to be a very sick woman

suffering from epilepsy• Jean was placed in a sanatorium in 1906, and died in

1910• Mark’s surviving daughter, Clara, lived until 1962• Clara had a daughter of her own who died childless• There are no direct heirs to Clemens surviving today

MARK TWAIN’S FAMILY

• In 1857, 21 year old Twain fulfilled one of his dreams by beginning to learn the art of piloting a steamboat on the Mississippi River

• As a riverboat pilot, Twain earned from $150 to $250 a month

• During the Civil War, Twain formed a Confederate militia known as the “Marion Rangers”

• Militia is a term now commonly referred to as military force composed of ordinary citizens

• The militia disbanded after approximately two weeks• Twain left Missouri after his militia disbanded and moved

to Nevada, there he worked as a miner• To pay off debts accumulated as a result of failed

business ventures, Twain toured the world as a lecturer, publishing his experiences in Following the Equator

INTERESTING FACTS

• Mark Twain grew up in Missouri, which at the time was a slave state

• In 1888 he was awarded an honorary Master of Art degree from Yale University

• Mark Twain published more than 30 books throughout his career

• From 1901 until his death in 1910, Twain was vice president of the American Anti-Imperialist League

• “Huckleberry Finn” was ranked as the fifth most frequently challenged book in the United States by the American Library Association

• Prior to adopting Mark Twain as his pen name, Clemens wrote under the pen name Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass for a number of humorous pieces that he contributed to the Keokuk Post

INTERESTING FACTS

• Twain had no problem ridiculing and attacking those he didn’t like. One of his most famous literary targets was James Fenimore Cooper, who he wrote about in his essay, “Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses”

• After his short time in the Civil War, Twain moved to Nevada and worked as a miner

• In 1868 Twain met Harriet Beecher Stowe who was an american abolitionist and author

• Twain first donned his famous white suit in 1906, when he appeared before Congress to testify about copyright law

• The New York Times carried a headline the next day proclaiming “Mark Twain in White Amuses Congressmen.”

• He wore a white suit from then on, arguing that “light-colored clothing is more pleasing to the eye and enlivens the spirit”

INTERESTING FACTS

• “Mark Twain” was the original pen name of Captain Sellers, an old steamboat pilot who wrote rather all-knowingly about river conditions for the New Orleans Picayune in the mid-1800s

• As a tribute to the old man and steamboat traditions, Clemens started using the pen name of Mark Twain in 1863

• On the Mississippi River, 'mark twain' meant 'two fathoms deep.'

• In 1907, Mark Twain received a Doctorate in Letters from Oxford University

• The Twain’s home base was now Hartford, Connecticut, where in 1874 Twain built a home, though they traveled often

• Twain received an honorary doctorate from Oxford University in 1907

INTERESTING FACTS

• Mark Twain was fond of cats, his childhood home is rumored to have been shared with as many as 19 cats

• As an adult, Twain always kept at least two cats around• Clemens claimed to have seen his brother's death in a

dream before it happened, sparking an interest an parapsychology

• Mark Twain was said to have been working on a ghost story right before his death

• No one ever found it for he ordered all his manuscripts burned when he died

• Twain suffered from color blindness• Bermuda was the last foreign place Twain visited before

he died

INTERESTING FACTS

• Mark Twain was the pen name used by Samuel Langhorne Clemens and it first appeared on February 3rd, 1863, in a piece he contributed to the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise

• From 1853-1856 he worked as a journeyman printer, traveling to St. Louis, New York, and Philadelphia

• Mark Twain and Olivia Langdon Clemens were married for 34 years

• Twain was born in 1835 and died in 1910 the years in which Halley's Comet passed by earth

• In “Mark Twain: A Biography,” he is quoted as saying, “I came in with Halley's comet in 1835.  It's coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it.”

• From 1901 to 1910, in his last years, he worked as the vice president of the American Anti-Imperialist League

INTERESTING FACTS

Twain's life and works were defined by America. All of his experiences from growing up in Hannibal to life in the West gave him insight into America's principles and permitted him to write and portray the American experience very precisely. He was well known and respected throughout the world as a humorist during his life, and since his death, his reputation across the country has only grown. Today, Mark Twain is known as a great writer as well as a humorist and American icon.

END NOTES

The Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut that is visited by 60,000 people yearly.

Olivia Langdon Clemens

Twain in 1907

Twain, Olivia, Susy, Clara, and Jean

Clemens on a stamp in 1940 Mark Twain headstone in

Woodlawn Cemetery

Susy Clemens

Langdon Clemens

Jean ClemensClara

Clemens

Twain’s home