Mark Twain Biography

Hello…my name is Samuel L. Clemens. A.K.A. Mark Twain!

“I came in with Halley’s Comet in 1835 “I came in with Halley’s Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year (1910), and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don’t go out with Halley’s Comet.” -Mark Twain, a Biography In 1910, Halley’s Comet reached perihelion on April 20th and Mark Twain died on the 21st.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) Regarded as one of the greatest American writers He said he would have preferred to spend his life as a Mississippi riverboat pilot.

Birth Place Born in Florida, Missouri Birthday: November 30, 1835 Raised in Hannibal, Missouri

Connection to Slavery His uncle and father both owned slaves from whom he would listen to stories and songs. This is where he learned to love story telling.

Education Went to school up to the 5th grade Left school at age 11 when his father died in 1847 Became a printer’s apprentice

Professional Career First job was as a printer’s apprentice in Missouri. From Missouri he went to New York and Philadelphia and worked for several newspapers In 1857 he came back to Missouri and worked as a riverboat captain.

Professional Career In 1857 a river boat captain’s salary was $250.00$ per month, which is equivalent to a $155,000 per year salary in the present day. He was so infatuated with this river that it became the basis for many of his most famous works.

Professional Career 1861, The Civil War closed traffic on the Mississippi River Goes to Nevada to be a silver miner; he was unsuccessful. In Nevada he began to write for the Territorial Enterprise newspaper; this is when he started going by the name of Mark Twain.

Twain the Name Twain was his pen name his real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Felt so close to the river that he chose this pen name because it’s actually a river man’s call “2 fathoms deep”

Professional Career In 1865 Twain published his first short story, “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog” otherwise known as “The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” This was his version of a tall tale he heard while working as a prospector in a mine in CA. Story made him an international celebrity because of his unique writing style.

Back East In 1869, Twain moved to Hartford, Connecticut, where he lived for the rest of his life. He did continue to travel extensively, though, even living in Europe for several years, but he always returned to Hartford.

The Final Years After the death of Twain’s wife and 3 of his 4 children, he never really could reproduce the mix of pessimism and humor he was most famous for. His later works showed an increasingly pessimistic view of society and human nature.

Inspiration He used his travels and past experiences as the basis for all of his novels. His childhood on the Mississippi inspired “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” (1876) and “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” (1884) two of his most famous works.

Writing Style Twain was best known for his infusion of humor in his stories He used a variety of techniques to make his stories humorous and, at times, almost ridiculous, but the readers LOVED them!

Humor Writing intended to evoke laughter Humorists use a variety of techniques to make their writing amusing, including: Exaggerating/embellishing incidents to build comedy Using a narrator who takes a serious tone, adding humor by suggesting that the teller of the tale is unaware of its ridiculous qualities

Regional Dialect Language specific to a particular area of the country This can also add to the humor of a story Twain was a master at adding this dialect as colorful language to his stories

Writing Characteristics of Mark Twain Mark Twain is famous for his humor and satire. Mark Twain’s humor is based on the humor of the Western in America. He used a lot of colloquial idioms and colloquial syntax. He often described persons who was innocent, simple, naive, and ignorant as his heroes or heroines. He used the artistic style of hyperbole on the basis of the western traditional humor and made his writing full of allegories that lay behind the humor.