MARK TWAIN

Christened as Samuel Langhorne Clemens, Mark Twain was born on November 30, 1835 in the small river town of Florida, Missouri, just 200 miles away from Indian Territory. The sixth child of John Marshall Clemens and Jane Lampton, Twain grew up amid small-town life in Florida until the age of four, when his family relocated to Hannibal in hopes of an improved living situation.      Twain, by lineage, was a Southerner with both his parents' families originating in Virginia. But the slaveholding community of Hannibal provided a mix between rugged frontier life and the Southern tradition, a lifestyle that influenced Twain's later writings including the Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Few black slaves actually resided in Hannibal; in no way could the small farms on the delta be compared to the normal Southern plantation. Typically, blacks were mostly held as household servants, but they were still under the obligations of slavery.      Growing up in the unusual rivertown of 2000 inhabitants, Twain was a mischievous boy, the prototype of his own character, Tom Sawyer. Though he was plagued by poor health at an early age, by the age of nine he learned to smoke and headed a small band of pranksters, and most of all, he detested school.      His formal schooling ended after the age of 12, when his father passed away in the month of March. First learning as an apprentice in a printer's shop then working under his brother, Orion, at the Hannibal Journal, Twain quickly became saturated in the newspaper trade. Rising to sub-editor, Twain indulged in the frontier humor that flourished in journalism at the time: tall tales, satirical pranks, and jokes.      But over the next few years, Twain was unable to save wages and became restless, deciding to leave Hannibal in June of 1853 to take a job in St. Louis. But instead of settling in St. Louis, Twain proceeded to travel back and forth between New York, Philadelphia, Washington, and Iowa as a journalist. But after his wanderings, Twain ultimately switched professions after realizing an old boyhood dream of becoming a river pilot.      Under the apprenticeship of Horace Bixby, pilot of the Paul Jones, Mark Twain became a licensed river pilot at the age of 24. Earning a high salary navigating the river waters, Twain was entertained by his own position, travelling from city to city and never settling. But in 1861, Twain's piloting days ended with the onset of the Civil War.      Back in Hannibal, Twain learned of military companies being organized to help Governor Jackson and signed up to be a Confederate soldier. But soon after, he deserted the military and along with thousands of men avoiding the draft, moved West. On his way to Nevada twelve years after the Gold Rush, Twain's primary intentions were to travel and strike it rich mining for silver and gold. But after being unsuccessful and with resources diminishing, Twain once again picked up his pen and began to write.      Joining the staff of the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, Twain became an established reporter/humorist and in 1863 adopted the pseudonym Mark Twain, derived from the river pilot term describing safe navigating conditions. In 1869 came the publishing of Twain's first book of travel letters entitled the Innocents Abroad, which was met with critical reception and is seen as discouraging Twain from the literary life. The years that followed consisted of various articles, lecture circuits, and relocations between San Francisco, New York, and Missouri. But the years were highlighted with his first introduction to Olivia Langdon, whom he married on February 2, 1870. In November of the same year, their first son, Langdon Clemens, was prematurely born.      The Clemens family was soon moving into debt. But when over 67,000 copies of Innocents Abroad sold within its first year, the American Publishing Company asked for another book. And at Olivia's persuasions, the couple moved to the domicile town of Hartford, Connecticut, where Twain penned Roughing It, a documentation of the post-Gold Rush mining epoch published in 1872.      With the birth of their first daughter, Susan Olivia, in March of the same year, the Clemens family appeared prosperous. But soon thereafter, the death of Langdon (as a result of Diptheria) and the only mild success of Roughing It added to their hardships. Twain, himself, harnessed the blame for his son's death.      After traveling to Europe and lecturing once again, a turning point in Twain's career was marked by the publishing of The Gilded Age, a novel written in collaboration with Charles Dudley Warner about the 1800s era of corruption and exploitation at the expense of the public welfare. Published in 1873, The Gilded Age was Twain's first extended work of fiction and mapped him in the literary world as an author rather than journalist.      After the success of The Gilded Age, Twain began a period of concentrated writing. In 1880, his third daughter, Jean, was born. By the time Twain reached the age of fifty, he was already considered a successful writer and businessman. His popularity sky-rocketed with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), The Prince and the Pauper (1882), and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885). By then, he was considered among the greatest character writers in the literary community.      Twain died on April 21, 1910, having survived his children Langdon, Susan and Jean as well as his wife, Olivia. In his lifetime, he became a distinguished member of the literati, honored by Yale, the University of Missouri, and Oxford with literary degrees. With his death also came a publishing onslaught of volumes of letters, articles, and fables, including: The Letters of Quintas Curtius Snodgrass (1946); Simon Wheeler, Detective (1963); The Works of Mark Twain: What is Man? and Other Philosophical Writings (1973); Mark Twain's Notebooks and Journals (1975-79). Perhaps more than any other classic American writer, Mark Twain is seen not only as an author, but as a personality that defined an era. Other works include: Punch, Brothers, Punch! and Other Stories (1878) A Tramp Abroad (1880) The Stolen White Elephant (1882) Life on the Mississippi (1883) A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) Merry Tales (1892) Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (1896) How to Tell a Story and Other Essays (1897) A Dog's Tale (1904) Is Shakespeare Dead? (1909)