1. Samuel Clemons A.K.A. Mark Twain

2. ► Samuel Langhorne Clemens, who would one day be known as Mark Twain - America's most famous literary icon, was welcomed into the world as the sixth child of John Marshall and Jane Lampton Clemens.

3. ► In 1839 the Clemens family moved 35 miles east to the town of Hannibal, a growing port city that lie along the banks of the Mississippi, from the small town of Florida, Mo. ► Hannibal was a frequent stop for steam boats arriving by both day and night from St. Louis and New Orleans.

4. ► When Samuel was 12, his father died of pneumonia, and at 13, Samuel left school to become a printer's apprentice. ► After two short years, he joined his brother Orion's newspaper as a printer and editorial assistant. ► It was here that young Samuel found he enjoyed writing.

5. ► At 17, he left Hannibal behind for a printer's job in St. Louis. While in St. Louis, Clemens became a river pilot's apprentice. He became a licensed river pilot in 1858. ► Clemens' pseudonym, Mark Twain, comes from his days as a river pilot. ► It is a river term which means two fathoms or 12-feet when the depth of water for a boat is being sounded.

6. ► In 1861 went to Nevada as private secretary to his brother, who had been appointed secretary of the territory. ► Afterward he undertook mining in Nevada, and became in 1862 city editor of the Virginia City "Enterprise."

7. ► "Mark twain" means that is safe to navigate. ► Twain began to gain fame when his story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" appeared in the New York Saturday Press on November 18, 1865.

8. ► Twain's first book, "The Innocents Abroad," was published in 1869, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" in 1876, and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" in 1885.

9. ?Questions about Twain? ► What did Mark Twain write about slavery? ► What was his view on slaves? ► How did Mark Twain's background influence his perceptions on African Americans? ► Was Mark Twain a racist?

10. ► His uncle, John Quarles, owned 20 slaves; so Mark Twain witnessed the practice of slavery first-hand whenever he spent summers at his uncle's place. When he was still a young boy, Mark Twain witnessed the brutal murder of a slave in his home town of Hannibal by the slave's owner, who killed the man with a thrown rock for "merely doing something awkward."

11.  In 1904, Mark Twain wrote in his notebook: "The skin of every human being contains a slave."  In A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Mark Twain wrote: "The blunting effects of slavery upon the slaveholder's moral perceptions are known and conceded the world over; and a privileged class, an aristocracy, is but a band of slaveholders under another name." A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's CourtA Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

12.  In "The Lowest Animal," Mark Twain wrote: "Man is the only Slave. And he is the only animal who enslaves. He has always been a slave in one form or another, and has always held other slaves in bondage under him in one way or another.