Mark Twain (Pseudonym)

Real name: Samuel Langhorne Clemens*30.11.1835 in Florida, Missouri†21.04.1910 in Redding, Connecticut→one of the most famous US-American writer

•Fifth children of John & Jane Clemens

•He grew up in the small seaport Hannibal on the Mississippi-river

•The family was poor; in 1842, the sole slave must be sold

•1846: Samuel's father died. There was no money for the school education of the boy

• 1852: Samuel graduated a typeset-apprenticeship and wrote his brother's newspaper

→His talent emerged for the first time

• He began 1852 a pilot-apprenticeship on a Mississippi-steamboat. He got the license in 1859

→Due to the fact of the American Civil War(1861), he was out of work

→The life on the Mississippi engraved his works

•From necessity, he went to the army („Missouri State“). But only two weeks. After that, he moved to his brother Orion in Nevada, prospecting for gold.

•Because it failed, he began to write for the newspaper „Territorial Enterprise“ in 1862 (Virginia City, Nevada).

→Samuel contributed with his varnished coverage to the myth of the „Wild West“ .

•03.02.1863: Samuel used the pseudonym “Mark Twain” for the first time in a humorous travel account. Sailors would say the following “two twine (water depth)”.

→”Mark Twain's” career began.

•1864: He moved to San Francisco

•He married Olivia Langdon in 1870 (till this, he traveled a lot).

•One Year later, he moved with her to Hartford (Connecticut).

→He found his love, built a existence and began to write.

•1865: He published his first really famous story “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog”, which put him into the spotlight.

•1869: He bought shares of the paper “Buffalo Express”.

Based on a five and a half month long cruise through Europe and the near East, he wrote “The Innocents Abroad”.

•1870: the first children Langdon Clemens got born as a feeblish premature birth.

•1872: Langdon died and during the same year the daughter Susy got born.

•1876: The work “The Adventures Of Tom Sawyer” got published; a scallywag-story on the Mississippi.

•1880: Mark traveled a second time through Europe (Germany, Switzerland, Italy), whereby he got inspired to “Tramp Abroad”

→the article “The awful German Language" was an addition to this

•1884: The book “The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn” got published; a Son has to argue with his father and to run away with the slave Jim (over the Mississippi)

•1888: He got the “Master-of-Arts”-Title (honorary).

•1894: Because of a unwise investigation, he went bankrupt.

→Mark had to go on a worldwide journey with readings to reorganize his finances. Out of it, he developed the book “Following the Ecuador”(1897).

•His daughter Susy died from Meningitis when he was traveling († 1896 ). His woman Olivia died earlier then him, too († 05.05.1904) just like Jean (*1880 - † 1896), the second of four children (Clara *1874 - † 1962).

→Mark brought this strokes in a ironic and sarcasm way in his works.

→This occurrences has been dignified processed in his autobiography.

•1901: He received an honorary doctorate of the Yale University

•Mark Twain died on April 21, 1910 in Redding, Connecticut, of angina pectoris

•Many people see Mark Twain as an author of children's book and humorist, but he was really denotative for the social criticism.

•His whole experiences as pilot, gold seeker, journalist and impressions while the travels had a big influence on in his literary works.