1. Mark Twain 30.11.1835 – 21.04.1910

2. Mark Twain (real name Samuel Langhorne Clemens (born Samuel Langhorne Clemens). He was born on November 30, 1835 in the village of Florida (Missouri) - a prominent American writer, journalist and social activist. His work spans many genres - realism, romanticism, humor, satire, philosophical fiction, journalism, etc., and in all these genres, he has consistently taken the position humanist and democrat. At his peak, he was probably the most popular figure in America. William Faulkner wrote that he was "the first truly American writer, and all of us since then - his heirs," and Ernest Hemingway wrote that "all modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called" The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn "." Of Russian writers of Mark Twain particularly warmly Maxim Gorky and Alexander Kuprin.

3. . Clemens argued that the pseudonym "Mark Twain" (born Mark Twain) was taken in his youth in terms of river navigation. He was an assistant to the pilot on the Mississippi, and the term "Mark Twain» («mark twain», literally - "mark two fathoms") is the shallowest depth that is suitable for the passage of river vessels. In addition to "Mark Twain" Clemens once in 1896, signed as "sir Louis de Conte", under that name, he published his novel, "Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, Sir Louis de Comte, it's page and secretary" Alias

4. He spent his childhood in the town of Hannibal on the Missouri River. When his father died, he left school and began working as a typesetter in the local newspapers. From 18 to 22 years of wandering in the country, then became a pilot on the Mississippi. In 1861, Twain went to the Far West, where he was a prospector in the silver mines of Nevada and gold prospector in California. At the same time, he tried his hand as a newspaper reporter in Virginia City, where he published a number of humorous essays and short stories. In 1865, he traveled by ship to Europe and Palestine, sending humorous stories from the road. Widely known in the folk tale Twain's story "The famous prancing frog from Calaveras" (1865). Visiting France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, the Crimea and the Holy Land, he returned to the United States. In 1869, he published a collection of travel essays, "The Innocents Abroad", which was a huge success. In 1872 he published the autobiographical book "Hardened" about the people and customs of the Wild West. Three years later, Twain published a collection of his best short stories - "The old and new essays," after which his popularity has increased even more. In 1876 he published "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," and because the book was a huge success, in 1885 he published a sequel, "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." Between these two novels, Twain released another autobiography - "Life on the Mississippi" (1883). Biography

5. Twain's greatest contribution to American and world literature is the novel "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." Many believe it is generally the best literary work ever created in the United States. Also popular are "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" and a collection of essays documentary "Life on the Mississippi." Mark Twain began his career with humorous verses, and finished terrible and almost vulgar chronicles of human vanity, hypocrisy, and even murder. His career

6. In recent years, the success of Mark Twain slowly began to fade. Until his death in 1910, he suffered the loss of three of the four children died and his beloved wife Olivia. Financial position Twain also deteriorated, his publishing company went bankrupt; plagiarists stole the rights to several of his books. Sam Twain died April 21, 1910 from angina pectoris (angina). A year before his death he said: "I came in 1835 with Halley's Comet, a year later she arrives again, and I expect to get away with it." And so it happened. In the city of Hannibal, Missouri, kept the house in which the boy was playing Sam Clemens, and caves, which he explored in his childhood, and which were later described in the famous "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", there are now coming tourists. Mark Twain House in Hartford turned into his personal museum in the United States and declared a national historic treasure. Later years