The Autobiography of Mark Twain.

 (1835–1910)

Born on November 30, 1835, in Florida,

Missouri, Samuel Langhorne Clemens

wrote under the pen name Mark Twain and

went on to pen several novels, including

two major classics of American

literature, The Adventures of Tom

Sawyer and The Adventures of

Huckleberry Finn. He was also a riverboat

pilot, journalist, lecturer, entrepreneur and

inventor. Twain died on April 21, 1910, in

Redding, Connecticut.

When he was 4 years old, his family moved to nearby Hannibal, a port town on the Mississippi River of 1,000 people.

Sam Clemens lived in Hannibal from age 4 to age 17.

Steamboats arrived there three times a day, tooting their whistles; circuses, street 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 common in the place, and young Sam witnessed much death: When he was 10 years old, he watched a slave die after a white overseer struck him with a piece of iron.

Clemens, age 15

Sam kept up his schooling until he

was about 12 years old, when his

father died unexpectedly and the

family started needing a source of

income. He found employment as an

apprentice printer at the Hannibal

Courier, which paid him with a

miserable ration of food.

In 1851, at 15, he got a job as a

printer and occasional writer and

editor at the Hannibal Western Union,

a little newspaper owned by his

brother, Orion.

Clemens, age 15

Then, in 1857, 21-year-old Clemens

fulfilled a dream: He began learning

the art of piloting a steamboat on

the Mississippi.

He became a licensed pilot by 1859

and loved his career. It was exciting,

well-paying and high-status.

However, his service was cut short in

1861 by the outbreak of the Civil

War, which stopped most civilian

traffic on the river.

As the Civil War began, the people of

Missouri angrily split between support for

the Union and the Confederacy.

Clemens opted for the latter, joining the

Confederate Army in June 1861 but

serving for only a couple of weeks until

his volunteer unit disbanded.

Where, he wondered then, would he find

his future? What venue would bring him

both excitement and cash? His answer:

the great American West…

In July 1861, Twain climbed onboard a

stagecoach and headed for Nevada

and California, where he would live for

the next five years. At first, he

prospected for silver and gold,

convinced that he would become the

savior of his struggling family and the

sharpest-dressed man in Virginia City

and San Francisco. But nothing

panned out, and by the middle of

1862, he was flat broke and in need of

a regular job.

“Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society”

Mark Twain.

Twain became one of the best-known

storytellers in the West. He possessed

a distinctive narrative style (friendly,

funny, irreverent, often satirical).

He got a big break in 1865, when one

of his tales about life in a mining

camp, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog,"

was printed in newspapers and

magazines around the country. (the

story later appeared under various

titles).

His next step up the ladder of success

came in 1867, when he took a five-

month sea cruise in the

Mediterranean, writing humorously

about the sights for American

newspapers with an eye toward

getting a book out of the trip. And so

it came to pass that in 1869 The

Innocents Abroad was published,

and it became a bestseller.

On February 2nd 1870, he married 24-year-

old Olivia (Livy) Langdon, the daughter of a

rich New York coal merchant. Writing to a

friend shortly after his wedding, "I have ...

the only sweetheart I have ever loved ...

she is the best girl, and the sweetest, and

gentlest, and the daintiest, and she is the

most perfect gem of womankind.“

Twain hoped that she would "reform" him, a

mere humorist, from his rustic ways.

The couple settled in Buffalo and later had

four children.

At 34, this handsome, red-haired,

affable, smart, egocentric and

ambitious journalist and traveler had

become one of the most popular and

famous writers in America.In 1885, he triumphed as a book publisher by issuing the bestselling memoirs of former President Ulysses S. Grant, who had just died. He lavished many hours on this and other business and was certain that his efforts would be rewarded with enormous wealth, but he never achieved the success he expected. His publishing house eventually went bankrupt.

Some of these later works have enduring merit, and his unfinished work The Chronicle of Young Satan has fervent admirers today.

In 1889, Twain published A

Connecticut Yankee in King

Arthur's Court, a

science-fiction/historical novel about

ancient England. His next major work,

in 1894, was The Tragedy of

Pudd'nhead Wilson, a somber novel

that some observers described as

"bitter." He also wrote short stories,

essays and several other books,

including a study of Joan of Arc.

Mark Twain's last 15 years were filled

with public honors, including degrees

from Oxford and Yale. Probably the

most famous American of the late

19th century, he was much

photographed and applauded

wherever he went. Indeed, he was

one of the most prominent celebrities

in the world, traveling widely

overseas, including a successful

round-the-world lecture tour in

1895-'96, undertaken to pay off his

debts.

On June 5th 1904, while Twain traveled,

his wife died after a long illness. "The

full nature of his feelings toward her is

puzzling," writes scholar R. Kent

Rasmussen. "If he treasured Livy's

comradeship as much as he often said,

why did he spend so much time away

from her?" But absent or not,

throughout 34 years of marriage, Twain

had indeed loved his wife.

"Wheresoever she was, there was

Eden" he wrote in tribute to her.

Olivia Langdon Clemens 1845-1904

Twain became somewhat bitter in his later years. Even projecting to be friendly in public, in private he demonstrated a stunning insensivity to friends and loved ones.

He was unable to finish most of his projects. He had volcanic rages and nasty bouts of paranoia, and he experienced depression, which he tried to fight by smoking cigars, reading in bed and playing endless hours of billiards and cards.Samuel Clemens died on April 21st, 1910, at the age of 74, at his country home in Redding, Connecticut. He was buried in Elmira, New York.