MARK TWAIN Cristina Timón López 1º de Bachillerato de Investigación

Mark Twain was a famous American humorist and novelist, his real name was Samuel Langhorne, and Mark Twain only was the pseudonym that he used to move in literary world. Mark Twain was born in Missouri (Florida) in 1835.In his family there were six brothers,and his father was from Virginia. When Samuel was four years old, he moved with his family to Hannibal.This little village was near the Misisipi river.There he spent his happy chilhood and this enviroment was his inspiration for writting his more important novels: The adventures of Tom Sawyer and the adventoures of Huckleberry Finn.

His father died when he was eleven years old and since this moment he was forced to search a job, but he had had a bad education,and he had to work like an apprentice in his brother printing. There he started to collaborate with a newspaper headed by another of his brother. But it was when he was twenty years old when he got the job of his dreams: riverboat pilot. He confessed that this job pleased and satisfied him more than any other, and it was critical to its formation as a writer.

The Civil War breaks out when Mark Twain was twenty-six years old (1861), shortly after Abraham Lincoln was elected president. The Civil War interrumped the traffic of ships across the great rivers.Samuel back to journalism and he made some travels as correspondent of “The Morning Call” San Francisco daily, and he also made trips in search of mines. The war lasted to 1865, it destroyed and ruined the country but it meant the unification of The United States. Just that year,Samuel published his first story: “ The famous frog jumping through the district of the skulls”. He kept on travelling as a corresponsal.

He changed his lifestyle when he got married with Olivia Langdon. He started to live in Hartford where he will be living until 1890.Stage during which Mark Twain will write the best of his works. His first novel was “Innocents Abroad” but it wasn`t successful until the publication of his second novel “By passing bad” Olivia Langdon Mark`s Twain Family

But his most important success was “The adventures of Tom Sawyer(1876), compleated with the appearance eight years later of “The adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. The story is about two boys who spent their childhood together, but they have completely different conditions.

In 1882 appears “Prince and the paper”.Mark Twain is a writer already known and the following year he will publish his autobiographical works “Life in Mississippi” In 1889 he changed his usual thematic with the publication of “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur`s Court”. Finally Mark Twain went back to his favourite character and he wrote “Tom Sawyer Abroad” and “Detective Tom Sawyer”..

Tom is the symbol of a well off family while Huck is a miserable child who has to fight to survive. The childhood of both set in the unspoilt forest ande crystal clear waters of the Mississippi, and it`s a reflection of the innocence of chilhood. Maybe that the creaction of the characters Tom and Huck was a way to give life to the opposing forces of wealth and poverty. Mississippi

Literature has given Mark Twain fame and money which he lose in bad business. To recover the money which he lost, he becomes a lecturer and made long tours. His daughter`s death was a heavy blow for him. Mark Twain died surrounded by fame, but with a pessimistic vision of life THE END