And why are we learning about him?•To find out more about the author who wrote the book we are about to start reading.•To see if anything in his life might have influenced his writing.

By the end of this powerpoint you should know…

Mark Twain’s real nameA bit about his childhoodA few of the crazy jobs he held throughout his lifeWhy he chose “Mark Twain” as his pen nameSome of his most famous writings and why they were

importantHow he lived his life

And then, once you have finished reading the novel…

You will be able to answer the question:

Did Mark Twain’s life influence his writing?

Mark Twain was born on November 30th, 1835 in a two-room house in Florida, Missouri.

His real name was

Samuel Langhorne

Clemens.

The Early Years…

Hannibal, MissouriA small town that

overlooked the Mississippi River

Sam called it “a boy’s paradise.”

He often skipped school to swim, fish, and play in the woods with his friends.

Hannibal, MO

Sam’s childhood home

The Mississippi River

Hannibal had one other thing that young Sam loved…

STEAMBOATS

SteamboatsSam lived in a time

before cars or cross-country railroads or highways.

Steamboats were like the cars and trucks of his day.

Rivers were like highways.

Sam was fascinated by steamboats and dreamed of one day becoming a steamboat pilot.

Slavery•Although Sam thought that Hannibal was a wonderful place for a boy to grow up, things were not good for everyone.

•Slavery was still legal and there were slaves in Sam’s town.

•Sam once wrote, “In my schoolboy days, I was not aware there was anything wrong about [slavery].”

•Later in his life, he would change his mind.

Sam starts to work…When Sam was twelve, his

father died. Sam went to work as a printers apprentice at a newspaper.

He continued to work for newspapers in St. Louis (MO), New York (NY), Philadelphia (PA), Keokuk (IA), Chicago (IL), and Cincinnati (OH).

But Sam thought this work was very boring and he wanted to earn more money.

A childhood dream come true…

Sam decided to leave the newspaper business and started working on steamboats, eventually becoming a steamboat pilot.

He thought it would be an easy job, but…

Being a steamboat pilot was tough work!

A pilot had to…

WHEW!

Memorize hundreds of miles of river

Know the locations of all the shallows, shipwrecks or reefs, where the steamboat might run aground

Be able to read the surface of the water

Keep track of the changing currents, shorelines, and water levels

Know the river’s shape and landmarks so well that he could steer at night, in the rain, or in thick fog

Life as a steamboat pilot…Sam made a lot of money as

a steamboat pilot.He loved relaxing on the

deck, telling stories to the passengers and learning about their lives.

Sam learned a lot about human nature during this time – many people think it helped him write characters who seemed like real people!

But what about that name…Mark Twain?

Remember, being a steamboat pilot was hard, dangerous work. You had to make sure that the boat never hit the bottom of the river!

At certain spots in the river, there was a man whose job it was to drop a weighted line off the boat to the bottom of the river. The line was knotted every six feet to measure the water’s depth.

A steamboat had to travel in water that was at least twelve feet deep – which was the second knot on the line.

When a pilot heard the man yell, “MARK TWAIN!” (twain meant “two”), he knew that the boat was in water that was just barely deep enough – and that he was in danger of running aground.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens felt that, in many ways, this was the way he had lived his life – just barely out of danger – so he chose “Mark Twain” for his pen name!

Sam might have stayed a steamboat pilot forever, but…

In the spring of 1861, the Civil War began.

All commercial traffic on the Mississippi stopped because of the war.

Sam tried out a lot of jobs…He and some of his

childhood friends formed a small unit of Confederate soldiers, but they didn’t do much fighting and quickly decided they didn’t want to be soldiers anymore…

He decided to travel west…His older brother, Orion

had just been named Secretary of the U.S. Territory of Nevada (it wasn’t a state yet!).

Sam decided to follow Orion to Nevada and be his secretary.

They took a stagecoach from Missouri to Nevada (the trip took three weeks!).

…and caught “Silver Fever!”Working for his brother

got boring, so Sam started looking for something better.

When one of the world’s largest silver deposits (the Comstock Lode) was found in Nevada, Sam joined thousands of others in digging for silver, trying to get rich. A man digging for silver in the

mountains in Nevada.

“I succumbed and grew as frenzied as the craziest.”

Sam’s quote above shows just how obsessed he grew with striking it rich in Nevada.

After six months of searching, Sam had found no silver and was out of money.

He needed to find a “real” job.

A natural silver nugget.

The Territorial Enterprise

The Carson City, Nevada newspaper, the “Territorial Enterprise,” offered Sam $25 per week to become the city editor.

Sam discovers his calling…

Mark Twain is born!In his job as editor, Sam had

to find interesting stories about people and events around town to write about.

But if he couldn’t find anything interesting happening, he just used his imagination and made stories up!

It wasn’t good journalism to make up stories, but people loved reading them!

On February 3rd, 1863, Sam decided to start writing stories under the pen name Mark Twain.

Mark Twain leaves town in a hurry!

Sam wrote in Nevada for a few years, until a newspaperman he had made fun of challenged him to a duel!

Sam left town rather than risk his life.

He headed to San Francisco, where he landed a great job…in Hawaii!

Mark Twain, Travelling Writer/Lecturer

Sam travelled to Hawaii (then known as the Sandwich Islands) and wrote about his adventures there.

When he returned to the United States, he travelled around the country talking about what he had seen.

He continued to travel and write about his experiences. He visited Italy, Greece and, Spain, many other countries.

Mark Twain gets married.On a ship heading

back to the United States, Sam met Olivia (Livy) Langdon.

They married one year later.

The Hartford HomeAfter losing their first

child, a son named Langdon, Mark Twain and his family moved to Hartford, Connecticut.

He built this 19-room mansion.

The house had a billiard room, turrets, and a porch like a riverboat deck.

It was a happy home for Mark, his wife, and their growing family.

Mark Twain’s Children

Olivia Susan (Susy)

Clemens

Clara Langdon Clemens

Jean Lampton Clemens

Quarry FarmIn the summer, the

Clemens family went to Elmira, New York to stay with Livy’s sister.

The house was called “Quarry Farm.”

It was at Quarry Farm, in the study shown in the picture, that Mark Twain wrote what would become his most popular book.

Mark Twain’s study at Quarry Farm

“The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”

Finished in 1875, this story is about a young boy named Tom. Tom lives in a town on the Mississippi River and is always having adventures and getting into trouble.

Think back to what you have learned about Sam’s childhood. Does this book

sound familiar?

“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”

One year after “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” was published, Mark Twain started writing a sequel.

This time, Tom’s friend Huck was the main character.

Although Mark Twain intended the story to be another funny story of adventure, it ended up becoming something much more meaningful.

In the story, Huck is floating down the Mississippi with Jim, a runaway slave.

When he was a child, Mark Twain hadn’t thought slavery was wrong, but as an adult he saw that it was cruel, evil, and wrong.

He brought up these issues in the book, making many people consider their own feelings about racism and slavery .

Later in life…Although Mark Twain

made a lot of money from his writing, he invested it poorly and ended up deeply in debt.

He owed so much money, that he eventually had to close up his house and move his family to Europe, where things were cheaper.

Returning home…In 1900, Mark Twain

and his family returned home to Connecticut.

His eldest daughter, Susy, had died at 24 years old.

The family was happy to be back in the United States, but mourned Susy’s for a long time.

He had repaid all of the money he had owed.

Olivia Susan Clemens (Susy)1872-1896

More sadness…In 1904, Livy, Mark

Twain’s wife died.Twain wrote, “She

was all our riches, and she is gone. She was our breath, she was our life, and now we are nothing.”

Olivia Langdon Clemens1845-1904

Mark Twain is celebrated…While working on his

autobiography, Mark Twain received word that Oxford University in England wanted to celebrate his writing by giving him an honorary doctorate of letters.

Since he had left school when he was 11 years old, Mark Twain was very honored by the award.

In 1909, Mark Twain’s daughter, Clara, was married. His daughter, Jean, died of a heart attack.

Mark Twain wrote down his memories of Jean and then said, “I shall never write any more.”

Mark Twain died on April 21st, 1910 at the age of 74.

People remember Mark Twain…

President William Howard Taft said, "Mark Twain gave pleasure – real intellectual enjoyment – to millions, and his works will continue to give such pleasure to millions yet to come...

Writer William Faulkner called him, “the father of American literature.”

Twain was called, “the greatest American humorist of his age.”

So now that you have learned a bit about Mark

Twain…Do you know:

Mark Twain’s real name?A bit about his childhood?A few of the crazy jobs he held throughout his life?Why he chose “Mark Twain” as his pen name?Some of his most famous writings and why they were

important?How he lived his life?

…and do you think that his writings were

influenced by his life experiences?