The Life of Mark TwainBy David G Fletcher

Birth and Early Life

Born on November 30, 1835, in Florida, Missouri

His real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens

Raised in the river town Hannibal, Missouri

His father, John Marshall Clemens, was a lawyer and a shopkeeper

Young Samuel left school at age 12 after his father died

Worked to support himself and his family

Early Work

Worked several odd jobs before becoming an established writer

Worked for brother, Orion, as a printer

In 1853 he began a three year journey across America

Served as an apprentice to a steamboat pilot

Brief stint as a volunteer soldier in Civil War

Became a reporter and traveling journalist

Early Writing Career

His pen name is a river term meaning “two fathoms deep” or “safe water”

Wrote travel sketches, short stories, novels, satires, and essays

Fiction based on experiences in youth and in travel

Early writings often characterized as humorous and witty

First published short story in 1865: “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”

First book, Innocents Abroad, published in 1869

Rise in Popularity

1870: Twain married Olivia Langdon and moved to Hartford, Connecticut

Published The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in 1876 and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in 1884

Instantly recognized by literary establishment as one of the greatest American writers

Continued writing popular books for the next decade

Published A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court in 1889 and The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson in 1894

Works interrogate issues of race, class, and gender

Later Work and Later Life

Twain’s later works are often characterized as pessimistic and cynical

A series of family tragedies threatened Twain’s sanity and health

Twain began a lecture tour to pay off his debts

Published many sardonic and embittered stories and treatises

His opinions were sought out by the press on political, military, and social subjects.

Was awarded honorary degrees by Yale and Oxford

Death and AfterlifeTwain died of a heart attack on April 21, 1910 at the age of 74

Much of his literary work was left unfinished and (until recently) unpublished

“Corn Pone Opinions” was written in 1901, but was published posthumously in 1923 in the collection Europe and Elsewhere

Scholars today are beginning to reconsider the creativity of Twain’s later works

On Twain’s orders his autobiography was not published until 2010 – 100 years after his death

Today, the Mark Twain Project Online serves as a living archive of Twain scholarship.

Sources

Bantam Classics. “Mark Twain.” The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. By Mark Twain. New York: Bantam Books, 1981. i. Print

Baym, Nina, ed. “Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) 1835-1910.” The Norton Anthology of American Literature Sixth Edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003. 212-215. Print.

Dover Publications. “Note.” Pudd’nhead Wilson. By Mark Twain. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc., 1999. iii. Print.

Mark Twain Project Online. Berkeley: UC Press. Marktwainproject.org, 2007-2013. Web.