Mark Twain :: essays research papers

Mark TwainMark Twains works are some of the best Ive ever read. I love the way hebrings you into the story, especially with the duologue used, like in TomSawyer or Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain is my favorite dead author.Mark Twain was never "Mark Twain" at all. That was only his pen name. Hisreal name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Samuel was born in Florida, Missouri in1835. He accomplished worldwide fame during his lifetime for being a wideauthor, lecturer, satirist, and humorist. Since his death on April 21, 1910,his great literary reputation has further increased. Many composers such as ErnestHemingway and William Faulkner have declared his work-especially HuckleberryFinn- a major influence on 20th-century American fiction.Twain was raised in Hannibal, Missouri, a town on the Mississippi river.After the death of his father in 1847, Twain joined his companion Orionsnewspaper, the Hannibal Journal. During this time he became accustomed withmuch of the frontier humor of the time.From 1853 to 1857, Twain worked in many cities as a printer, and wrotearticles for his brothers newspapers under various nicknames. After a visitto New Orleans, he learned how to pilot a steamboat. That became his job untilthe Civil War closed the Mississippi River, andit set him up for "Old measure on the Mississippi" and "Life on the Mississippi."In 1861, Twain traveled to Carson City, Nevada, with his brother Orion.After attempts for silver and gold mining had failed, he continued to write fornewspapers. It was in 1863 when Samuel Clemens adopted the name "Mark Twain", arivermans term for "two fathoms" deep.In 1884 Twain went to San Francisco and reached national fame with hisstory, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." He thus took a tripto Hawaii which started him on a very successful career as a public speaker.His trips to the Mediterranean and the Holy pour down were recorded in letters to aSan Francisco newspa per, and later formed into The Innocents Abroad, which waspopular all over the world.In 1870 Mark Twain married Olivia Langdon. He then abandoned journalism tofocus on serious literature. From 1870-1875, Twain produced many novels,including the famous tale, Tom Sawyer.A European vacation in 1878-1879, inspired novels like The Prince and thePauper and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court. Meanwhile, heestablished his own firm, Charles L. Webster and Co., and after that, completedhis masterpiece, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, in 1884.In 1891, Twain was forced to yarn-dye to Europe because of financial problems.In 1894, because of the failure of his firm and other reasons, he had to declare