❝The secret of getting ahead is getting started.❞
-- Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known for his pen name Mark Twain, was an American humorist, journalist, lecturer, riverboat pilot, entrepreneur, inventor, and novelist who acquired international fame for his travel narratives especially The Innocents Abroad (1869), Roughing It (1872), and Life on the Mississippi (1883). Also, he was known for his adventure stories of boyhood, his two well-known novels in this genre were The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885). Clemens was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri; he was the sixth child of John Marshall and Jane Lampton Clemens. He was born two months prematurely and his health was low his first ten years.
When Clemens was four years old, his family moved to nearby to the Mississippi River port town of Hannibal. His father worked as a storekeeper, lawyer, judge, and land speculator, dreaming of wealth but never achieving it. His mother was fun-loving, tenderhearted homemaker who whiled away a many winter's night for her family by telling stories. She became head of the household in 1847 when John died of pneumonia. There was a lot of death surrounding his early life, his family members, also within his town. Violence was a common place, he witnessed when he was nine years old, a local man murder a cattle rancher, and at ten years old, he witnessed an enslaved person die after a white overseer struck him with a piece of iron.
At twelve years old, he found employment as an apprentice printer at the Hannibal Courtier. As time went on, Clemens left Hannibal, traveling to the east in multiple occupations. In 1857, he began to learn how to pilot a steamboat. He loved his career, but his service was cut short in 1861 by the Civil War, which halted most of civilian traffic on the river.
He headed out west for Nevada and California where he would live for the next five years. After a year looking for gold and silver, he was flat broke, he began to start work as a reporter for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise. He wrote new stories, editorials, and drew sketches and this was when he started to use his pen name, Mark Twain. He honed a distinctive narrative style - friendly, funny, irreverent, ofter satirical and always eager to deflate the pretentious.
His first big break through was in 1865, one of his tales about life in a mining camp, titled, "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog" was printed in newspapers and magazines across the country. Then came his book, "The Innocents Abroad," 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.
He married Olivia Langdon in February 1870. His books ranged from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Prince and the Pauper (1881), Life on the Mississippi, and he wrote memoirs of former President Ulysses S. Grant. He continued to write throughout his life and also short stories. Indeed, he was one of the most prominent celebrities in the world, traveling widely overseas. Clemens died on April 21, 1910, at the age of 74.
Discussion Questions:
As a writer, would you want to write under a pen name or your birth name? Why or why not?
Clemens - Twain witnessed a lot of death throughout his life, including his younger years and also when he was older and he had children. Would that have influenced his writings? With him being known for his funny and satirical style?
Which of his writings have you read? Would you be interested in reading his short stories / memoirs / newspapers?
Always open to additional questions and comments on about Mark Twain and his works.
If there is another author you would like to see a discussion on, please post your suggestion in the comments below for a chance to be featured in a future chapter!
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