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The Life of Mark Twain

The Life of Mark Twain. By 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

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The Life of Mark Twain

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  1. The Life of Mark Twain By David G Fletcher

  2. 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

  3. 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

  4. 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

  5. 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

  6. 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

  7. Death and Afterlife • Twain 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.

  8. 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.

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