Mark Twain Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), [1] better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. He wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), [2] the latter often called "The Great American Novel". [1]The Adventures of Tom SawyerAdventures of Huckleberry Finn [2]The Great American Novel Twain grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, which provided the setting for Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. After an apprenticeship with a printer, he worked as a typesetter and contributed articles to the newspaper of his older brother,Orion Clemens. He later became a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River before heading west to join Orion in Nevada. He referred humorously to his singular lack of success at mining, turning to journalism for the Virginia CityTerritorial Enterprise. [3]Hannibal, MissouriOrion ClemensMississippi RiverVirginia CityTerritorial Enterprise [3]

Mark Twain In 1865, his humorous story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County", was published, based on a story he heard at Angels Hotel in Angels Camp, California, where he had spent some time as a miner. The short story brought international attention, and was even translated into classic Greek. [4] His wit and satire, in prose and in speech, earned praise from critics and peers, and he was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty.The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras CountyAngels HotelAngels Camp, California [4] Though Twain earned a great deal of money from his writings and lectures, he invested in ventures that lost a great deal of money, notably the Paige Compositor, a mechanical typesetter, which failed because of its complexity and imprecision. In the wake of these financial setbacks, he filed for protection from his creditors via bankruptcy, and with the help of Henry Huttleston Rogers eventually overcame his financial troubles. Twain chose to pay all his pre-bankruptcy creditors in full, though he had no legal responsibility to do so.Paige CompositorHenry Huttleston Rogers

Mark Twain Twain was born shortly after a visit by Halley's Comet, and he predicted that he would "go out with it", too. He died the day after the comet returned. He was lauded as the "greatest American humorist of his age", [5] and William Faulknercalled Twain "the father of American literature". [6]Halley's Comet [5]William FaulknerAmerican literature [6]

Early life Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born in Florida, Missouri, on November 30, He was the son of Jane (née Lampton; 1803–1890), a native of Kentucky, and John Marshall Clemens (1798–1847), a Virginian. His parents met when his father moved to Missouri and were married in [7][8] Twain was the sixth of seven children, but only three of his siblings survived childhood: Orion (1825–1897); Henry (1838–1858); and Pamela (1827–1904). His sister Margaret (1833–1839) died when he was three, and his brother Benjamin (1832–1842) died three years later. Another brother, Pleasant (1828–1829), died at six months. [9] Twain was born two weeks after the closest approach to Earth of Halley's Comet. His ancestors were of Scots-Irish, English, and Cornish extraction. [10][11][12][13]Florida, MissouriJohn Marshall Clemens [7][8]Orion [9]Halley's CometScots-IrishEnglishCornish [10][11][12][13]

In 1847, when Twain was 11, his father, by then an attorney and judge, died of pneumonia. [16] The next year Twain left school after the fifth grade [17] to become a printer's apprentice. In 1851, he began working as a typesetter and contributor of articles and humorous sketches for the Hannibal Journal, a newspaper Orion owned. When he was 18, he left Hannibal and worked as a printer in New York City, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Cincinnati. He joined the newly formed International Typographical Union, the printers union, and educated himself in public libraries in the evenings, finding wider information than at a conventional school. [18]pneumonia [16] [17]typesetterPhiladelphiaSt. LouisCincinnatiInternational Typographical Unionunioneducated himselfpublic libraries [18]

Twain describes in Life on the Mississippi how, when he was a boy, "there was but one permanent ambition" among his comrades: to be a steamboatman. "Pilot was the grandest position of all. 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." As Twain described it, the pilot's prestige exceeded that of the captain. 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... actually know where these things are in the dark..." Steamboat pilot Horace E. Bixby took on Twain as a "cub" pilot to teach him the river between New Orleans and St. Louis for $500, payable out of Twain's first wages after graduatingLife on the MississippiSteamboatHorace E. BixbyNew Orleans

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". [19] It was more than two years before he received his pilot's license. Piloting gave him his pen name, Mark Twain, from "mark twain", the leadsman's cry for a measured river depth of two fathoms (12 feet), which was safe water for a steamboat. [19]mark twain

While training, Samuel convinced his younger brother Henry to work with him. Henry was killed on June 21, 1858, when the steamboat he was working on, thePennsylvania, exploded. Twain had foreseen this death in a dream a month earlier, [20]:275 which inspired his interest in parapsychology; he was an early member of the Society for Psychical Research. [21] Twain was guilt-stricken and held himself responsible for the rest of his life.Pennsylvania [20]parapsychologySociety for Psychical Research [21]

Twain continued to work on the river and was a river pilot until the American Civil War broke out in 1861, and traffic along the Mississippi was curtailed. At the start of hostilities, Twain enlisted briefly in a Confederate local unit. Twain later wrote a sketch, "The Private History of a Campaign That Failed", that told how he and his friends had been Confederate volunteers for two weeks before disbanding. [22] He then left for Nevada to work for Orion, who was Secretary of the Nevada Territory. Twain describes the episode in his book, Roughing It. [23][24]American Civil WarcurtailedConfederateThe Private History of a Campaign That Failed [22]Nevada TerritoryRoughing It [23][24]