Рассказ про марка твена на английском языке

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910),[1] known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the «greatest humorist the United States has produced»,[2] and William Faulkner called him «the father of American literature».[3] His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884),[4] the latter of which has often been called the «Great American Novel». Twain also wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889) and Pudd’nhead Wilson (1894), and co-wrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) with Charles Dudley Warner.

Mark Twain

Twain in 1907

Twain in 1907

Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens
November 30, 1835
Florida, Missouri, U.S.
Died April 21, 1910 (aged 74)
Stormfield House, Redding, Connecticut, U.S.
Resting place Woodlawn Cemetery, Elmira, New York, U.S.
Pen name Mark Twain, Josh, Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass
Occupation
  • Writer
  • humorist
  • entrepreneur
  • publisher
  • lecturer
Spouse

Olivia Langdon

(m. 1870; died 1904)​

Children 4, including Susy, Clara, and Jean
Parents John Marshall Clemens (father)
Jane Lampton Clemens (mother)
Relatives Orion Clemens (brother)
Signature
Mark Twain Signatures-2.svg

Twain was raised in Hannibal, Missouri, which later provided the setting for Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He served an apprenticeship with a printer and then worked as a typesetter, contributing articles to the newspaper of his older brother Orion Clemens. He later became a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River before heading west to join Orion in Nevada. He referred humorously to his lack of success at mining, turning to journalism for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise.[5] His humorous story «The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County» was published in 1865, based on a story that he heard at Angels Hotel in Angels Camp, California, where he had spent some time as a miner. The short story brought international attention and was even translated into French.[6] His wit and satire, in prose and in speech, earned praise from critics and peers, and he was a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty. Initially an ardent American imperialist who spoke out strongly in favor of American interests in the Hawaiian Islands, he later became vice-president of the American Anti-Imperialist League from 1901 until his death in 1910, coming out strongly against the Philippine-American War.[7][8]

Twain earned a great deal of money from his writings and lectures but invested in ventures that lost most of it—such as the Paige Compositor, a mechanical typesetter that failed because of its complexity and imprecision. He filed for bankruptcy in the wake of these financial setbacks, but in time overcame his financial troubles with the help of Standard Oil executive Henry Huttleston Rogers. He eventually paid all his creditors in full, even though his bankruptcy relieved him of having to do so. Twain was born shortly after an appearance of Halley’s Comet, and he predicted that he would «go out with it» as well, dying the day after the comet made its closest approach to Earth.

Biography

Early life

Samuel Clemens, age 15 holding metal type in a composing stick that spells out his first name. He understood that the photographic printing process reversed the contents of an image in the same way backwards moveable type was reversed in printing to give clear copy.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born on November 30, 1835, in Florida, Missouri. He was the sixth of seven children of Jane (née Lampton; 1803–1890), a native of Kentucky, and John Marshall Clemens (1798–1847), a native of Virginia. His parents met when his father moved to Missouri. They were married in 1823.[9][10] Twain was of Cornish, English, and Scots-Irish descent.[11][12][13][14] Only three of his siblings survived childhood: Orion (1825–1897), Pamela (1827–1904), and Henry (1838–1858). His brother Pleasant Hannibal (1828) died at three weeks of age,[15][16] his sister Margaret (1830–1839) when Twain was three, and his brother Benjamin (1832–1842) three years later.[citation needed]

When he was four, Twain’s family moved to Hannibal, Missouri,[17] a port town on the Mississippi River that inspired the fictional town of St. Petersburg in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.[18] Slavery was legal in Missouri at the time, and it became a theme in these writings. His father was an attorney and judge who died of pneumonia in 1847, when Twain was 11.[19] The following year, Twain left school after the fifth grade to become a printer’s apprentice.[1] In 1851, he began working as a typesetter, contributing articles and humorous sketches to the Hannibal Journal, a newspaper that Orion owned. When he was 18, he left Hannibal and worked as a printer in New York City, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Cincinnati, joining the newly formed International Typographical Union, the printers trade union. He educated himself in public libraries in the evenings, finding wider information than at a conventional school.[20]

Twain describes his boyhood in Life on the Mississippi, stating that «there was but one permanent ambition» among his comrades: to be a steamboatman. «Pilot was the grandest position of all. The pilot, even in those days of trivial wages, had a princely salary – from a hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty dollars a month, and no board to pay.» As Twain described it, the pilot’s prestige exceeded that of the captain. The pilot had to «get up a warm personal acquaintanceship with every old snag and one-limbed cottonwood and every obscure wood pile that ornaments the banks of this river for twelve hundred miles; and more than that, must… actually know where these things are in the dark». Steamboat pilot Horace E. Bixby took Twain on as a cub pilot to teach him the river between New Orleans and St. Louis for $500 (equivalent to $16,000 in 2021), payable out of Twain’s first wages after graduating. Twain studied the Mississippi, learning its landmarks, how to navigate its currents effectively, and how to read the river and its constantly shifting channels, reefs, submerged snags, and rocks that would «tear the life out of the strongest vessel that ever floated».[21] It was more than two years before he received his pilot’s license. Piloting also gave him his pen name from «mark twain», the leadsman’s cry for a measured river depth of two fathoms (12 feet), which was safe water for a steamboat.[22][23]

As a young pilot, Clemens served on the steamer A. B. Chambers with Grant Marsh, who became famous for his exploits as a steamboat captain on the Missouri River. The two liked and admired each other, and maintained a correspondence for many years after Clemens left the river.[24]

While training, Samuel convinced his younger brother Henry to work with him, and even arranged a post of mud clerk for him on the steamboat Pennsylvania. On June 13, 1858, the steamboat’s boiler exploded; Henry succumbed to his wounds on June 21. Twain claimed to have foreseen this death in a dream a month earlier,[25]: 275  which inspired his interest in parapsychology; he was an early member of the Society for Psychical Research.[26] Twain was guilt-stricken and held himself responsible for the rest of his life. He continued to work on the river and was a river pilot until the Civil War broke out in 1861, when traffic was curtailed along the Mississippi River. At the start of hostilities, he enlisted briefly in a local Confederate unit. He later wrote the sketch «The Private History of a Campaign That Failed», describing how he and his friends had been Confederate volunteers for two weeks before their unit disbanded.[27]

He then left for Nevada to work for his brother Orion, who was Secretary of the Nevada Territory. Twain describes the episode in his book Roughing It.[28][29]: 147 

In the American West

Orion became secretary to Nevada Territory governor James W. Nye in 1861, and Twain joined him when he moved west. The brothers traveled more than two weeks on a stagecoach across the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains, visiting the Mormon community in Salt Lake City.[30]

Twain’s journey ended in the silver-mining town of Virginia City, Nevada, where he became a miner on the Comstock Lode.[27] He failed as a miner and went to work at the Virginia City newspaper Territorial Enterprise,[31] working under a friend, the writer Dan DeQuille. He first used his pen name here on February 3, 1863, when he wrote a humorous travel account titled «Letter From Carson – re: Joe Goodman; party at Gov. Johnson’s; music» and signed it «Mark Twain».[32][33]

His experiences in the American West inspired Roughing It, written during 1870–71 and published in 1872. His experiences in Angels Camp (in Calaveras County, California) provided material for «The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County» (1865).[citation needed]

Twain moved to San Francisco in 1864, still as a journalist, and met writers such as Bret Harte and Artemus Ward. He may have been romantically involved with the poet Ina Coolbrith.[34]

His first success as a writer came when his humorous tall tale «The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County» was published on November 18, 1865, in the New York weekly The Saturday Press, bringing him national attention. A year later, he traveled to the Sandwich Islands (present-day Hawaii) as a reporter for the Sacramento Union. His letters to the Union were popular and became the basis for his first lectures.[35]

In 1867, a local newspaper funded his trip to the Mediterranean aboard the Quaker City, including a tour of Europe and the Middle East. He wrote a collection of travel letters which were later compiled as The Innocents Abroad (1869). It was on this trip that he met fellow passenger Charles Langdon, who showed him a picture of his sister Olivia. Twain later claimed to have fallen in love at first sight.[36]

Upon returning to the United States, Twain was offered honorary membership in Yale University’s secret society Scroll and Key in 1868.[37]

Marriage and children

Twain and Olivia Langdon corresponded throughout 1868. After she rejected his first marriage proposal, they were married in Elmira, New York in February 1870,[35] where he courted her and managed to overcome her father’s initial reluctance.[39] She came from a «wealthy but liberal family»; through her, he met abolitionists, «socialists, principled atheists and activists for women’s rights and social equality», including Harriet Beecher Stowe, Frederick Douglass, and utopian socialist writer William Dean Howells,[40] who became a long-time friend. The Clemenses lived in Buffalo, New York, from 1869 to 1871. He owned a stake in the Buffalo Express newspaper and worked as an editor and writer.[41][38] While they were living in Buffalo, their son Langdon died of diphtheria at the age of 19 months. They had three daughters: Susy (1872–1896), Clara (1874–1962),[42] and Jean (1880–1909). The Clemenses formed a friendship with David Gray, who worked as an editor of the rival Buffalo Courier, and his wife Martha. Twain later wrote that the Grays were «‘all the solace’ he and Livy had during their ‘sorrowful and pathetic brief sojourn in Buffalo'», and that Gray’s «delicate gift for poetry» was wasted working for a newspaper.[38]

In November 1872, Twain was a passenger on the Cunard Line steamship Batavia which rescued the nine surviving crew of the British barque Charles Ward. Twain witnessed the rescue, and wrote to the Royal Humane Society recommending them to honour Batavias captain and the lifeboat’s crew.[43] Starting in 1873, Twain moved his family to Hartford, Connecticut, where he arranged the building of a home next door to Stowe. In the 1870s and 1880s, the family summered at Quarry Farm in Elmira, the home of Olivia’s sister, Susan Crane.[44][45] In 1874,[44] Susan had a study built apart from the main house so that Twain would have a quiet place in which to write. Also, he smoked cigars constantly, and Susan did not want him to do so in her house.[citation needed]

Twain wrote many of his classic novels during his 17 years in Hartford (1874–1891) and over 20 summers at Quarry Farm. They include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), The Prince and the Pauper (1881), Life on the Mississippi (1883), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889).[citation needed]

The couple’s marriage lasted 34 years until Olivia’s death in 1904. All of the Clemens family are buried in Elmira’s Woodlawn Cemetery.[citation needed]

Love of science and technology

Twain was fascinated with science and scientific inquiry. He developed a close and lasting friendship with Nikola Tesla, and the two spent much time together in Tesla’s laboratory.[citation needed]

Twain patented three inventions, including an «Improvement in Adjustable and Detachable Straps for Garments» (to replace suspenders) and a history trivia game.[46][47] Most commercially successful was a self-pasting scrapbook; a dried adhesive on the pages needed only to be moistened before use.[46] Over 25,000 were sold.[46]

Twain was an early proponent of fingerprinting as a forensic technique, featuring it in a tall tale in Life on the Mississippi (1883) and as a central plot element in the novel Pudd’nhead Wilson (1894).[citation needed]

Twain’s novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889) features a time traveler from the contemporary U.S., using his knowledge of science to introduce modern technology to Arthurian England. This type of historical manipulation became a trope of speculative fiction as alternate histories.[citation needed]

In 1909, Thomas Edison visited Twain at Stormfield, his home in Redding, Connecticut and filmed him. Part of the footage was used in The Prince and the Pauper (1909), a two-reel short film. It is the only known existing film footage of Twain.[48]

Financial troubles

Twain made a substantial amount of money through his writing, but he lost a great deal through investments. He invested mostly in new inventions and technology, particularly the Paige typesetting machine. It was a beautifully engineered mechanical marvel that amazed viewers when it worked, but it was prone to breakdowns. Twain spent $300,000 (equal to $9,000,000 in 2023 [49]) on it between 1880 and 1894,[50] but before it could be perfected it was rendered obsolete by the Linotype. He lost the bulk of his book profits, as well as a substantial portion of his wife’s inheritance.[51]

Twain also lost money through his publishing house, Charles L. Webster and Company, which enjoyed initial success selling the memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant but failed soon afterward, losing money on a biography of Pope Leo XIII. Fewer than 200 copies were sold.[51]

Twain and his family closed down their expensive Hartford home in response to the dwindling income and moved to Europe in June 1891. William M. Laffan of The New York Sun and the McClure Newspaper Syndicate offered him the publication of a series of six European letters. Twain, Olivia, and their daughter Susy were all faced with health problems, and they believed that it would be of benefit to visit European baths.[52]: 175  The family stayed mainly in France, Germany, and Italy until May 1895, with longer spells at Berlin (winter 1891–92), Florence (fall and winter 1892–93), and Paris (winters and springs 1893-94 and 1894–95). During that period, Twain returned four times to New York due to his enduring business troubles. He rented «a cheap room» in September 1893 at $1.50 per day (equivalent to $45 in 2021) at The Players Club, which he had to keep until March 1894; meanwhile, he became «the Belle of New York,» in the words of biographer Albert Bigelow Paine.[52]: 176–190 

Twain’s writings and lectures enabled him to recover financially, combined with the help of his friend, Henry Huttleston Rogers.[53] In 1893 he began a friendship with the financier, a principal of Standard Oil, that lasted the remainder of his life. Rogers first made him file for bankruptcy in April 1894, then had him transfer the copyrights on his written works to his wife to prevent creditors from gaining possession of them. Finally, Rogers took absolute charge of Twain’s money until all his creditors were paid.[52]: 188 

Twain accepted an offer from Robert Sparrow Smythe[54] and embarked on a year-long around-the-world lecture tour in July 1895[55] to pay off his creditors in full, although he was no longer under any legal obligation to do so.[56] It was a long, arduous journey, and he was sick much of the time, mostly from a cold and a carbuncle. The first part of the itinerary took him across northern America to British Columbia, Canada, until the second half of August. For the second part, he sailed across the Pacific Ocean. His scheduled lecture in Honolulu, Hawaii, had to be canceled due to a cholera epidemic.[52]: 188 [57] Twain went on to Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, India, Mauritius, and South Africa. His three months in India became the centerpiece of his 712-page book Following the Equator. In the second half of July 1896, he sailed back to England, completing his circumnavigation of the world begun 14 months before.[52]: 188 

Twain and his family spent four more years in Europe, mainly in England and Austria (October 1897 to May 1899), with longer spells in London and Vienna. Clara had wished to study the piano under Theodor Leschetizky in Vienna.[52]: 192–211 
However, Jean’s health did not benefit from consulting with specialists in Vienna, the «City of Doctors».[58] The family moved to London in spring 1899, following a lead by Poultney Bigelow, who had a good experience being treated by Dr. Jonas Henrik Kellgren, a Swedish osteopathic practitioner in Belgravia. They were persuaded to spend the summer at Kellgren’s sanatorium by the lake in the Swedish village of Sanna. Coming back in fall, they continued the treatment in London, until Twain was convinced by lengthy inquiries in America that similar osteopathic expertise was available there.[59]

In mid-1900, he was the guest of newspaper proprietor Hugh Gilzean-Reid at Dollis Hill House, located on the north side of London. Twain wrote that he had «never seen any place that was so satisfactorily situated, with its noble trees and stretch of country, and everything that went to make life delightful, and all within a biscuit’s throw of the metropolis of the world.»[60] He then returned to America in October 1900, having earned enough to pay off his debts. In winter 1900/01, he became his country’s most prominent opponent of imperialism, raising the issue in his speeches, interviews, and writings. In January 1901, he began serving as vice-president of the Anti-Imperialist League of New York.[61]

Speaking engagements

Twain was in great demand as a featured speaker, performing solo humorous talks similar to modern stand-up comedy.[62] He gave paid talks to many men’s clubs, including the Authors’ Club, Beefsteak Club, Vagabonds, White Friars, and Monday Evening Club of Hartford.[citation needed]

In the late 1890s, he spoke to the Savage Club in London and was elected an honorary member. He was told that only three men had been so honored, including the Prince of Wales, and he replied: «Well, it must make the Prince feel mighty fine.»[52]: 197  He visited Melbourne and Sydney in 1895 as part of a world lecture tour. In 1897, he spoke to the Concordia Press Club in Vienna as a special guest, following the diplomat Charlemagne Tower, Jr. He delivered the speech «Die Schrecken der Deutschen Sprache» («The Horrors of the German Language»)—in German—to the great amusement of the audience.[29]: 50  In 1901, he was invited to speak at Princeton University’s Cliosophic Literary Society, where he was made an honorary member.[63]

Canadian visits

In 1881, Twain was honored at a banquet in Montreal, Canada where he made reference to securing a copyright.[64] In 1883, he paid a brief visit to Ottawa,[65] and he visited Toronto twice in 1884 and 1885 on a reading tour with George Washington Cable, known as the «Twins of Genius» tour.[65][66][67]

The reason for the Toronto visits was to secure Canadian and British copyrights for his upcoming book Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,[65][67] to which he had alluded in his Montreal visit. The reason for the Ottawa visit had been to secure Canadian and British copyrights for Life on the Mississippi.[65] Publishers in Toronto had printed unauthorized editions of his books at the time, before an international copyright agreement was established in 1891.[65] These were sold in the United States as well as in Canada, depriving him of royalties. He estimated that Belford Brothers’ edition of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer alone had cost him ten thousand dollars (equivalent to $300,000 in 2021).[65] He had unsuccessfully attempted to secure the rights for The Prince and the Pauper in 1881, in conjunction with his Montreal trip.[65] Eventually, he received legal advice to register a copyright in Canada (for both Canada and Britain) prior to publishing in the United States, which would restrain the Canadian publishers from printing a version when the American edition was published.[65][67] There was a requirement that a copyright be registered to a Canadian resident; he addressed this by his short visits to the country.[65][67]

Later life and death

The report of my death was an exaggeration.
— Twain[68][69]

Twain lived in his later years at 14 West 10th Street in Manhattan.[70] He passed through a period of deep depression which began in 1896 when his daughter Susy died of meningitis. Olivia’s death in 1904 and Jean’s on December 24, 1909, deepened his gloom.[1] On May 20, 1909, his close friend Henry Rogers died suddenly.[71]

In April 1906, he heard that his friend Ina Coolbrith had lost nearly all that she owned in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and he volunteered a few autographed portrait photographs to be sold for her benefit. To further aid Coolbrith, George Wharton James visited Twain in New York and arranged for a new portrait session. He was resistant initially, but he eventually admitted that four of the resulting images were the finest ones ever taken of him.[72] In September, Twain started publishing chapters from his autobiography in the North American Review.[73] The same year, Charlotte Teller, a writer living with her grandmother at 3 Fifth Avenue, began an acquaintanceship with him which «lasted several years and may have included romantic intentions» on his part.[74]

In 1906 Twain formed the Angel Fish and Aquarium Club, for girls whom he viewed as surrogate granddaughters. Its dozen or so members ranged in age from 10 to 16. He exchanged letters with his «Angel Fish» girls and invited them to concerts and the theatre and to play games. Twain wrote in 1908 that the club was his «life’s chief delight».[29]: 28  In 1907, he met Dorothy Quick (aged 11) on a transatlantic crossing, beginning «a friendship that was to last until the very day of his death».[75]

Twain was awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters (D.Litt.) by Yale University in 1901. Then in 1902, the Doctor of Law by the University of Missouri, Oxford University would also award him the Doctorate of Law in 1907.[76]: 52 : 58 

Twain was born two weeks after Halley’s Comet’s closest approach in 1835; he said in 1909:[52]

I came in with Halley’s Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don’t go out with Halley’s Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: «Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together».

Twain’s prediction was eerily accurate; he died of a heart attack on April 21, 1910, in Stormfield, one day after the comet’s closest approach to Earth.[77]

Upon hearing of Twain’s death, President William Howard Taft said:[78][79]

Mark Twain gave pleasure – real intellectual enjoyment – to millions, and his works will continue to give such pleasure to millions yet to come … His humor was American, but he was nearly as much appreciated by Englishmen and people of other countries as by his own countrymen. He has made an enduring part of American literature.

Twain’s funeral was at the Brick Presbyterian Church on Fifth Avenue, New York.[80] He is buried in his wife’s family plot at Woodlawn Cemetery in Elmira, New York. The Langdon family plot is marked by a 12-foot monument (two fathoms, or «mark twain») placed there by his surviving daughter Clara.[81] There is also a smaller headstone. He expressed a preference for cremation (for example, in Life on the Mississippi), but he acknowledged that his surviving family would have the last word.

Officials in Connecticut and New York estimated the value of Twain’s estate at $471,000 ($10,000,000 in 2021).[82]

Writing

Overview

Twain began his career writing light, humorous verse, but he became a chronicler of the vanities, hypocrisies, and murderous acts of mankind. At mid-career, he combined rich humor, sturdy narrative, and social criticism in Huckleberry Finn. He was a master of rendering colloquial speech and helped to create and popularize a distinctive American literature built on American themes and language.

Many of his works have been suppressed at times for various reasons. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been repeatedly restricted in American high schools, not least for its frequent use of the word «nigger»,[83] a slur commonly used for Black people in the nineteenth century.

A complete bibliography of Twain’s works is nearly impossible to compile because of the vast number of pieces he wrote (often in obscure newspapers) and his use of several different pen names. Additionally, a large portion of his speeches and lectures have been lost or were not recorded; thus, the compilation of Twain’s works is an ongoing process. Researchers rediscovered published material as recently as 1995 and 2015.[51][84]

Early journalism and travelogues

Twain was writing for the Virginia City newspaper the Territorial Enterprise in 1863 when he met lawyer Tom Fitch, editor of the competing newspaper Virginia Daily Union and known as the «silver-tongued orator of the Pacific».[85]: 51  He credited Fitch with giving him his «first really profitable lesson» in writing. «When I first began to lecture, and in my earlier writings,» Twain later commented, «my sole idea was to make comic capital out of everything I saw and heard.»[86] In 1866, he presented his lecture on the Sandwich Islands to a crowd in Washoe City, Nevada.[87] Afterwards, Fitch told him:

Clemens, your lecture was magnificent. It was eloquent, moving, sincere. Never in my entire life have I listened to such a magnificent piece of descriptive narration. But you committed one unpardonable sin – the unpardonable sin. It is a sin you must never commit again. You closed a most eloquent description, by which you had keyed your audience up to a pitch of the intensest interest, with a piece of atrocious anti-climax which nullified all the really fine effect you had produced.[88]

It was in these days that Twain became a writer of the Sagebrush School; he was known later as its most famous member.[89] His first important work was «The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,» published in the New York Saturday Press on November 18, 1865. After a burst of popularity, the Sacramento Union commissioned him to write letters about his travel experiences. The first journey that he took for this job was to ride the steamer Ajax on its maiden voyage to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii). All the while, he was writing letters to the newspaper that were meant for publishing, chronicling his experiences with humor. These letters proved to be the genesis to his work with the San Francisco Alta California newspaper, which designated him a traveling correspondent for a trip from San Francisco to New York City via the Panama isthmus.

On June 8, 1867, he set sail on the pleasure cruiser Quaker City for five months, and this trip resulted in The Innocents Abroad or The New Pilgrims’ Progress. In 1872, he published his second piece of travel literature, Roughing It, as an account of his journey from Missouri to Nevada, his subsequent life in the American West, and his visit to Hawaii. The book lampoons American and Western society in the same way that Innocents critiqued the various countries of Europe and the Middle East. His next work was The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today, his first attempt at writing a novel. The book, written with his neighbor Charles Dudley Warner, is also his only collaboration.

Twain’s next work drew on his experiences on the Mississippi River. Old Times on the Mississippi was a series of sketches published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1875 featuring his disillusionment with Romanticism.[90] Old Times eventually became the starting point for Life on the Mississippi.

Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn

Twain’s next major publication was The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which draws on his youth in Hannibal. Tom Sawyer was modeled on Twain as a child, with traces of schoolmates John Briggs and Will Bowen.[citation needed] The book also introduces Huckleberry Finn in a supporting role, based on Twain’s boyhood friend Tom Blankenship.

The Prince and the Pauper was not as well received, despite a storyline that is common in film and literature today. The book tells the story of two boys born on the same day who are physically identical, acting as a social commentary as the prince and pauper switch places. Twain had started Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (which he consistently had problems completing)[91] and had completed his travel book A Tramp Abroad, which describes his travels through central and southern Europe.

Twain’s next major published work was the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which confirmed him as a noteworthy American writer. Some have called it the first Great American Novel, and the book has become required reading in many schools throughout the United States. Huckleberry Finn was an offshoot from Tom Sawyer and had a more serious tone than its predecessor. Four hundred manuscript pages were written in mid-1876, right after the publication of Tom Sawyer. The last fifth of Huckleberry Finn is subject to much controversy. Some say that Twain experienced a «failure of nerve,» as critic Leo Marx puts it. Ernest Hemingway once said of Huckleberry Finn:

If you read it, you must stop where the Nigger Jim is stolen from the boys. That is the real end. The rest is just cheating.

Hemingway also wrote in the same essay:

All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.[92]

Near the completion of Huckleberry Finn, Twain wrote Life on the Mississippi, which is said to have heavily influenced the novel.[51] The travel work recounts Twain’s memories and new experiences after a 22-year absence from the Mississippi River. In it, he also explains that «Mark Twain» was the call made when the boat was in safe water, indicating a depth of two (or twain) fathoms (12 feet or 3.7 metres).

The McDowell’s cave—now known as Mark Twain Cave in Hannibal, Missouri, and frequently mentioned in Twain’s book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer—has «Sam Clemens», Twain’s real name, engraved on the wall by Twain himself.[93]

Later writing

Twain produced President Ulysses S. Grant’s Memoirs through his fledgling publishing house, Charles L. Webster & Company, which he co-owned with Charles L. Webster, his nephew by marriage.[94]

At this time he also wrote «The Private History of a Campaign That Failed» for The Century Magazine.[95] This piece detailed his two-week stint in a Confederate militia during the Civil War. He next focused on A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, written with the same historical fiction style as The Prince and the Pauper. A Connecticut Yankee showed the absurdities of political and social norms by setting them in the court of King Arthur. The book was started in December 1885, then shelved a few months later until the summer of 1887, and eventually finished in the spring of 1889.[citation needed]

His next large-scale work was Pudd’nhead Wilson, which he wrote rapidly, as he was desperately trying to stave off bankruptcy. From November 12 to December 14, 1893, Twain wrote 60,000 words for the novel.[51] Critics[who?] have pointed to this rushed completion as the cause of the novel’s rough organization and constant disruption of the plot. This novel also contains the tale of two boys born on the same day who switch positions in life, like The Prince and the Pauper. It was first published serially in Century Magazine and, when it was finally published in book form, Pudd’nhead Wilson appeared as the main title; however, the «subtitles» make the entire title read: The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson and the Comedy of The Extraordinary Twins.[51]

Twain’s next venture was a work of straight fiction that he called Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc and dedicated to his wife. He had long said[where?] that this was the work that he was most proud of, despite the criticism that he received for it. The book had been a dream of his since childhood, and he claimed that he had found a manuscript detailing the life of Joan of Arc when he was an adolescent.[51] This was another piece that he was convinced would save his publishing company. His financial adviser Henry Huttleston Rogers quashed that idea and got Twain out of that business altogether, but the book was published nonetheless.[citation needed]

To pay the bills and keep his business projects afloat, Twain had begun to write articles and commentary furiously, with diminishing returns, but it was not enough. He filed for bankruptcy in 1894. During this time of dire financial straits, he published several literary reviews in newspapers to help make ends meet. He famously derided James Fenimore Cooper in his article detailing Cooper’s «Literary Offenses». He became an extremely outspoken critic of other authors and other critics; he suggested that, before praising Cooper’s work, Thomas Lounsbury, Brander Matthews, and Wilkie Collins «ought to have read some of it».[96]

George Eliot, Jane Austen, and Robert Louis Stevenson also fell under Twain’s attack during this time period, beginning around 1890 and continuing until his death.[97] He outlines what he considers to be «quality writing» in several letters and essays, in addition to providing a source for the «tooth and claw» style of literary criticism. He places emphasis on concision, utility of word choice, and realism; he complains, for example, that Cooper’s Deerslayer purports to be realistic but has several shortcomings. Ironically, several of his own works were later criticized for lack of continuity (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn) and organization (Pudd’nhead Wilson).

Twain’s wife died in 1904 while the couple were staying at the Villa di Quarto in Florence. After some time had passed he published some works that his wife, his de facto editor and censor throughout her married life, had looked down upon. The Mysterious Stranger is perhaps the best known, depicting various visits of Satan to earth. This particular work was not published in Twain’s lifetime. His manuscripts included three versions, written between 1897 and 1905: the so-called Hannibal, Eseldorf, and Print Shop versions. The resulting confusion led to extensive publication of a jumbled version, and only recently have the original versions become available as Twain wrote them.

Twain’s last work was his autobiography, which he dictated and thought would be most entertaining if he went off on whims and tangents in non-chronological order. Some archivists and compilers have rearranged the biography into a more conventional form, thereby eliminating some of Twain’s humor and the flow of the book. The first volume of the autobiography, over 736 pages, was published by the University of California in November 2010, 100 years after his death, as Twain wished.[98][99] It soon became an unexpected best-seller,[100] making Twain one of a very few authors publishing new best-selling volumes in the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.

Censorship

Twain’s works have been subjected to censorship efforts. According to Stuart (2013), «Leading these banning campaigns, generally, were religious organizations or individuals in positions of influence – not so much working librarians, who had been instilled with that American «library spirit» which honored intellectual freedom (within bounds of course)». In 1905, the Brooklyn Public Library banned both The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer from the children’s department because of their language.[101]

Publishers

Mark Twain lived for two decades in a house in Hartford, Connecticut (1871-1891), and the American Publishing Company in that city published the first edition of several of his books.[102] The same can be said about a number of New York-based companies, such as Harper & Brothers and his nephew’s Charles L. Webster and Company.[102] Other memorable editions were created by The Ash Ranch Press of San Diego and Barry Moser’s Pennyroyal Press.[102]

Views

Twain’s views became more radical as he grew older. In a letter to friend and fellow writer William Dean Howells in 1887, he acknowledged that his views had changed and developed over his lifetime, referring to one of his favorite works:

When I finished Carlyle’s French Revolution in 1871, I was a Girondin; every time I have read it since, I have read it differently – being influenced and changed, little by little, by life and environment … and now I lay the book down once more, and recognize that I am a Sansculotte! And not a pale, characterless Sansculotte, but a Marat.[103][104]

Politics

Twain was a staunch supporter of technological progress and commerce. He was against welfare measures, because he believed that society in the «business age» is governed by «exact and constant» laws that should not be «interfered with for the accommodation of any individual or political or religious faction».[105] He opined that «there is no good government at all & none possible».[105] In the opinion of Washington University professor Guy A. Cardwell:

By present standards Mark Twain was more conservative than liberal. He believed strongly in laissez faire, thought personal political rights secondary to property rights, admired self-made plutocrats, and advocated a leadership to be composed of men of wealth and brains. Among his attitudes now more readily recognized as liberal were a faith in progress through technology and a hostility towards monarchy, inherited aristocracy, the Roman Catholic church, and, in his later years, imperialism.[106]

Labor

Twain wrote glowingly about unions in the river boating industry in Life on the Mississippi, which was read in union halls decades later.[107] He supported the labor movement, especially one of the most important unions, the Knights of Labor.[40] In a speech to them, he said:

Who are the oppressors? The few: the King, the capitalist, and a handful of other overseers and superintendents. Who are the oppressed? The many: the nations of the earth; the valuable personages; the workers; they that make the bread that the soft-handed and idle eat.[108]

Imperialism

Before 1899, Twain was an ardent imperialist. In the late 1860s and early 1870s, he spoke out strongly in favor of American interests in the Hawaiian Islands.[109] He said the war with Spain in 1898 was «the worthiest» war ever fought.[110] In 1899, however, he reversed course. In the New York Herald, October 16, 1900, Twain describes his transformation and political awakening, in the context of the Philippine–American War, to anti-imperialism:

I wanted the American eagle to go screaming into the Pacific … Why not spread its wings over the Philippines, I asked myself? … I said to myself, Here are a people who have suffered for three centuries. We can make them as free as ourselves, give them a government and country of their own, put a miniature of the American Constitution afloat in the Pacific, start a brand new republic to take its place among the free nations of the world. It seemed to me a great task to which we had addressed ourselves.

But I have thought some more, since then, and I have read carefully the treaty of Paris (which ended the Spanish–American War), and I have seen that we do not intend to free, but to subjugate the people of the Philippines. We have gone there to conquer, not to redeem.

It should, it seems to me, be our pleasure and duty to make those people free, and let them deal with their own domestic questions in their own way. And so I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land.[111][112]

During the Boxer Rebellion, Twain said that «the Boxer is a patriot. He loves his country better than he does the countries of other people. I wish him success.»[113]

From 1901, soon after his return from Europe, until his death in 1910, Twain was vice-president of the American Anti-Imperialist League,[114] which opposed the annexation of the Philippines by the United States and had «tens of thousands of members».[40] He wrote many political pamphlets for the organization. The Incident in the Philippines, posthumously published in 1924, was in response to the Moro Crater Massacre, in which six hundred Moros were killed.[115] Many of his neglected and previously uncollected writings on anti-imperialism appeared for the first time in book form in 1992.[114]

Twain was critical of imperialism in other countries as well. In Following the Equator, Twain expresses «hatred and condemnation of imperialism of all stripes».[40] He was highly critical of European imperialists such as Cecil Rhodes and King Leopold II of Belgium, both of whom attempted to establish colonies on the African continent during the Scramble for Africa.[40] King Leopold’s Soliloquy is a political satire about his private colony, the Congo Free State. Reports of outrageous exploitation and grotesque abuses led to widespread international outcry in the early 1900s, arguably the first large-scale human rights movement. In the soliloquy, the King argues that bringing Christianity to the colony outweighs «a little starvation». The abuses against Congolese forced laborers continued until the movement forced the Belgian government to take direct control of the colony.[116][117]

During the Philippine–American War, Twain wrote a short pacifist story titled The War Prayer, which makes the point that humanism and Christianity’s preaching of love are incompatible with the conduct of war. It was submitted to Harper’s Bazaar for publication, but on March 22, 1905, the magazine rejected the story as «not quite suited to a woman’s magazine». Eight days later, Twain wrote to his friend Daniel Carter Beard, to whom he had read the story, «I don’t think the prayer will be published in my time. None but the dead are permitted to tell the truth.» Because he had an exclusive contract with Harper & Brothers, Twain could not publish The War Prayer elsewhere; it remained unpublished until 1916.[118] It was republished in the 1960s as campaigning material by anti-war activists.[40]

Twain acknowledged that he had originally sympathized with the more moderate Girondins of the French Revolution and then shifted his sympathies to the more radical Sansculottes, indeed identifying himself as «a Marat» and writing that the Reign of Terror paled in comparison to the older terrors that preceded it.[119] Twain supported the revolutionaries in Russia against the reformists, arguing that the Tsar must be got rid of by violent means, because peaceful ones would not work.[120] He summed up his views of revolutions in the following statement:

I am said to be a revolutionist in my sympathies, by birth, by breeding and by principle. I am always on the side of the revolutionists, because there never was a revolution unless there were some oppressive and intolerable conditions against which to revolute.[121]

Civil rights

Twain was an adamant supporter of the abolition of slavery and the emancipation of slaves, even going so far as to say, «Lincoln’s Proclamation … not only set the black slaves free, but set the white man free also».[122] He argued that non-whites did not receive justice in the United States, once saying, «I have seen Chinamen abused and maltreated in all the mean, cowardly ways possible to the invention of a degraded nature … but I never saw a Chinaman righted in a court of justice for wrongs thus done to him».[123] He paid for at least one black person to attend Yale Law School and for another black person to attend a southern university to become a minister.[124]

Twain’s forward-thinking views on race were not reflected in his early writings on American Indians. Of them, Twain wrote in 1870:

His heart is a cesspool of falsehood, of treachery, and of low and devilish instincts. With him, gratitude is an unknown emotion; and when one does him a kindness, it is safest to keep the face toward him, lest the reward be an arrow in the back. To accept of a favor from him is to assume a debt which you can never repay to his satisfaction, though you bankrupt yourself trying. The scum of the earth![125]

As counterpoint, Twain’s essay on «The Literary Offenses of Fenimore Cooper» offers a much kinder view of Indians.[96] «No, other Indians would have noticed these things, but Cooper’s Indians never notice anything. Cooper thinks they are marvelous creatures for noticing, but he was almost always in error about his Indians. There was seldom a sane one among them.»[126] In his later travelogue Following the Equator (1897), Twain observes that in colonized lands all over the world, «savages» have always been wronged by «whites» in the most merciless ways, such as «robbery, humiliation, and slow, slow murder, through poverty and the white man’s whiskey»; his conclusion is that «there are many humorous things in this world; among them the white man’s notion that he is less savage than the other savages».[127] In an expression that captures his East Indian experiences, he wrote, «So far as I am able to judge nothing has been left undone, either by man or Nature, to make India the most extraordinary country that the sun visits on his rounds. Where every prospect pleases, and only man is vile.»[128]

Twain was also a supporter of women’s suffrage, as evidenced by his «Votes for Women» speech, given in 1901.[129]

Helen Keller benefited from Twain’s support as she pursued her college education and publishing despite her disabilities and financial limitations. The two were friends for roughly 16 years.[130]

Through Twain’s efforts, the Connecticut legislature voted a pension for Prudence Crandall, since 1995 Connecticut’s official heroine, for her efforts towards the education of young African-American women in Connecticut. Twain also offered to purchase for her use her former house in Canterbury, home of the Canterbury Female Boarding School, but she declined.[131]: 528 

Political parties

Twain was a Republican for most of his life. However, in 1884 he publicly broke with his party and joined the Mugwumps to support the Democratic nominee, Grover Cleveland, over the Republican nominee, James G. Blaine, whom he considered a corrupt politician.[132] Twain spoke at rallies in favor of Cleveland. In the early 20th century, he began decrying both Democrats and Republicans as «insane» and proposed, in his 1907 book Christian Science, that while each party recognized the other’s insanity, only the Mugwumps (that is, those who eschewed party loyalties in favor of voting for “the best man”) could perceive the overall madness linking the two.[132]

Religion

Twain was a Presbyterian.[133] He was critical of organized religion and certain elements of Christianity through his later life. He wrote, for example, «Faith is believing what you know ain’t so», and «If Christ were here now there is one thing he would not be – a Christian».[134] With anti-Catholic sentiment rampant in 19th century America, Twain noted he was «educated to enmity toward everything that is Catholic».[135] As an adult, he engaged in religious discussions and attended services, his theology developing as he wrestled with the deaths of loved ones and with his own mortality.[136]

Twain generally avoided publishing his most controversial[137] opinions on religion in his lifetime, and they are known from essays and stories that were published later. In the essay Three Statements of the Eighties in the 1880s, Twain stated that he believed in an almighty God, but not in any messages, revelations, holy scriptures such as the Bible, Providence, or retribution in the afterlife. He did state that «the goodness, the justice, and the mercy of God are manifested in His works», but also that «the universe is governed by strict and immutable laws», which determine «small matters», such as who dies in a pestilence.[138] At other times, he plainly professed a belief in Providence.[139] In some later writings in the 1890s, he was less optimistic about the goodness of God, observing that «if our Maker is all-powerful for good or evil, He is not in His right mind». At other times, he conjectured sardonically that perhaps God had created the world with all its tortures for some purpose of His own, but was otherwise indifferent to humanity, which was too petty and insignificant to deserve His attention anyway.[140]

In 1901, Twain criticized the actions of the missionary Dr. William Scott Ament (1851–1909) because Ament and other missionaries had collected indemnities from Chinese subjects in the aftermath of the Boxer Uprising of 1900. Twain’s response to hearing of Ament’s methods was published in the North American Review in February 1901: To the Person Sitting in Darkness, and deals with examples of imperialism in China, South Africa, and with the U.S. occupation of the Philippines.[141] A subsequent article, «To My Missionary Critics» published in The North American Review in April 1901, unapologetically continues his attack, but with the focus shifted from Ament to his missionary superiors, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions.[142]

After his death, Twain’s family suppressed some of his work that was especially irreverent toward conventional religion, including Letters from the Earth, which was not published until his daughter Clara reversed her position in 1962 in response to Soviet propaganda about the withholding.[143] The anti-religious The Mysterious Stranger was published in 1916. Little Bessie, a story ridiculing Christianity, was first published in the 1972 collection Mark Twain’s Fables of Man.[144]

He raised money to build a Presbyterian Church in Nevada in 1864.[145]

Twain created a reverent portrayal of Joan of Arc, a subject over which he had obsessed for forty years, studied for a dozen years and spent two years writing about.[146] In 1900 and again in 1908 he stated, «I like Joan of Arc best of all my books, it is the best».[146][147]

Those who knew Twain well late in life recount that he dwelt on the subject of the afterlife, his daughter Clara saying: «Sometimes he believed death ended everything, but most of the time he felt sure of a life beyond.»[148]

Twain’s frankest views on religion appeared in his final work Autobiography of Mark Twain, the publication of which started in November 2010, 100 years after his death. In it, he said:[149]

There is one notable thing about our Christianity: bad, bloody, merciless, money-grabbing, and predatory as it is – in our country particularly and in all other Christian countries in a somewhat modified degree – it is still a hundred times better than the Christianity of the Bible, with its prodigious crime – the invention of Hell. Measured by our Christianity of to-day, bad as it is, hypocritical as it is, empty and hollow as it is, neither the Deity nor his Son is a Christian, nor qualified for that moderately high place. Ours is a terrible religion. The fleets of the world could swim in spacious comfort in the innocent blood it has spilled.

Twain was a Freemason.[150][151] He belonged to Polar Star Lodge No. 79 A.F.&A.M., based in St. Louis. He was initiated an Entered Apprentice on May 22, 1861, passed to the degree of Fellow Craft on June 12, and raised to the degree of Master Mason on July 10.

Twain visited Salt Lake City for two days and met there members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. They also gave him a Book of Mormon.[152] He later wrote in Roughing It about that book:[153][154]

The book seems to be merely a prosy detail of imaginary history, with the Old Testament for a model; followed by a tedious plagiarism of the New Testament.

Vivisection

Twain was opposed to the vivisection practices of his day. His objection was not on a scientific basis but rather an ethical one. He specifically cited the pain caused to the animal as his basis of his opposition:[155][156]

I am not interested to know whether Vivisection produces results that are profitable to the human race or doesn’t. … The pains which it inflicts upon unconsenting animals is the basis of my enmity towards it, and it is to me sufficient justification of the enmity without looking further.

Pen names

Twain used different pen names before deciding on «Mark Twain». He signed humorous and imaginative sketches as «Josh» until 1863. Additionally, he used the pen name «Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass» for a series of humorous letters.[157]

He maintained that his primary pen name came from his years working on Mississippi riverboats, where two fathoms, a depth indicating water safe for the passage of boat, was a measure on the sounding line. Twain is an archaic term for «two», as in «The veil of the temple was rent in twain.»[158] The riverboatman’s cry was «mark twain» or, more fully, «by the mark twain», meaning «according to the mark [on the line], [the depth is] two [fathoms]»; that is, «The water is 12 feet (3.7 m) deep and it is safe to pass.»

Twain said that his famous pen name was not entirely his invention. In Life on the Mississippi, he wrote:

Captain Isaiah Sellers was not of literary turn or capacity, but he used to jot down brief paragraphs of plain practical information about the river, and sign them «MARK TWAIN», and give them to the New Orleans Picayune. They related to the stage and condition of the river, and were accurate and valuable; … At the time that the telegraph brought the news of his death, I was on the Pacific coast. I was a fresh new journalist, and needed a nom de guerre; so I confiscated the ancient mariner’s discarded one, and have done my best to make it remain what it was in his hands – a sign and symbol and warrant that whatever is found in its company may be gambled on as being the petrified truth; how I have succeeded, it would not be modest in me to say.[159]

Twain’s story about his pen name has been questioned by some,[160] with the suggestion that «mark twain» refers to a running bar tab that Twain would regularly incur while drinking at John Piper’s saloon in Virginia City, Nevada. Samuel Clemens himself responded to this suggestion by saying, «Mark Twain was the nom de plume of one Captain Isaiah Sellers, who used to write river news over it for the New Orleans Picayune. He died in 1863 and as he could no longer need that signature, I laid violent hands upon it without asking permission of the proprietor’s remains. That is the history of the nom de plume I bear.»[161]

In his autobiography, Twain writes further of Captain Sellers’ use of «Mark Twain»:

I was a cub pilot on the Mississippi River then, and one day I wrote a rude and crude satire which was leveled at Captain Isaiah Sellers, the oldest steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River, and the most respected, esteemed, and revered. For many years he had occasionally written brief paragraphs concerning the river and the changes which it had undergone under his observation during fifty years, and had signed these paragraphs «Mark Twain» and published them in the St. Louis and New Orleans journals. In my satire I made rude game of his reminiscences. It was a shabby poor performance, but I didn’t know it, and the pilots didn’t know it. The pilots thought it was brilliant. They were jealous of Sellers, because when the gray-heads among them pleased their vanity by detailing in the hearing of the younger craftsmen marvels which they had seen in the long ago on the river, Sellers was always likely to step in at the psychological moment and snuff them out with wonders of his own which made their small marvels look pale and sick. However, I have told all about this in «Old Times on the Mississippi.» The pilots handed my extravagant satire to a river reporter, and it was published in the New Orleans True Delta. That poor old Captain Sellers was deeply wounded. He had never been held up to ridicule before; he was sensitive, and he never got over the hurt which I had wantonly and stupidly inflicted upon his dignity. I was proud of my performance for a while, and considered it quite wonderful, but I have changed my opinion of it long ago. Sellers never published another paragraph nor ever used his nom de guerre again.[162]

Legacy and depictions

Caricature of Twain by Spy in the London magazine Vanity Fair, May 1908

While Twain is often depicted wearing a white suit, modern representations suggesting that he wore them throughout his life are unfounded. Evidence suggests that Twain began wearing white suits on the lecture circuit, after the death of his wife in 1904. However, there is also evidence showing him wearing a white suit before 1904. In 1882, he sent a photograph of himself in a white suit to 18-year-old Edward W. Bok, later publisher of the Ladies Home Journal, with a handwritten dated note. The white suit did eventually become his trademark, as illustrated in anecdotes about this eccentricity (such as the time he wore a white summer suit to a Congressional hearing during the winter).[51] McMasters’ The Mark Twain Encyclopedia states that Twain did not wear a white suit in his last three years, except at one banquet speech.[163]

In his autobiography, Twain writes of his early experiments with wearing white out-of-season:[164]

Next after fine colors, I like plain white. One of my sorrows, when the summer ends, is that I must put off my cheery and comfortable white clothes and enter for the winter into the depressing captivity of the shapeless and degrading black ones. It is mid-October now, and the weather is growing cold up here in the New Hampshire hills, but it will not succeed in freezing me out of these white garments, for here the neighbors are few, and it is only of crowds that I am afraid.[164]

See also

  • Mark Twain bibliography
  • Mark Twain in popular culture

References

  1. ^ a b c «Biography of Mark Twain». Archived from the original on June 3, 2017. Retrieved October 28, 2017.
  2. ^ «Obituary (The New York Times)». The New York Times. Retrieved December 27, 2009.
  3. ^ Jelliffe, Robert A. (1956). Faulkner at Nagano. Tokyo: Kenkyusha, Ltd.
  4. ^ World Book Encyclopedia. Chicago: World Book, Inc. 1999.
  5. ^ Thomson, David, In Nevada: The Land, The People, God, and Chance, New York: Vintage Books, 2000. ISBN 0-679-77758-X p. 35
  6. ^ Twain, Mark (1903). The jumping frog: in English, then in French, then clawed back into a civilized language once more by patient, unremunerated toil. New York: Harper & Brothers.
  7. ^ «Mark Twain — The World of 1898: The Spanish-American War (Hispanic Division, Library of Congress)». www.loc.gov. Retrieved October 26, 2022.
  8. ^ Stone, Oliver; Kuznick, Peter (2013). The Untold History of the United States.
  9. ^ «Inventing Mark Twain» Archived January 19, 2017, at the Wayback Machine. 1997. The New York Times.
  10. ^ Kaplan, Fred (2007). «Chapter 1: The Best Boy You Had 1835–1847». The Singular Mark Twain. Doubleday. ISBN 978-0-385-47715-4. Cited in «Excerpt: The Singular Mark Twain«. About.com: Literature: Classic. Retrieved October 11, 2006.
  11. ^ Jeffrey L. (Ed) Egge. The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine, Volume 41. p. 1.
  12. ^ Michelle K Smith (December 31, 2014). «Mark Twain’s ancestor was «witchfinder general» in Belfast trial».
  13. ^ Kathryn Stelmach Artuso. Transatlantic Renaissances: Literature of Ireland and the American South. p. 5.
  14. ^ Lyman Horace Weeks. Genealogy Volume 1–2; a weekly journal of American ancestry. p. 202.
  15. ^ Powers, Ron (2006). Mark Twain: A Life. Free Press. ISBN 9780743248990.
  16. ^ «Welcome to the Mark Twain House & Museum – Clemens Family Tree». www.marktwainhouse.org. Archived from the original on February 10, 2017. Retrieved August 17, 2017.
  17. ^ «Mark Twain, American Author and Humorist». Retrieved October 25, 2006.
  18. ^ Lindborg, Henry J. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Archived from the original on October 28, 2009. Retrieved November 11, 2006.
  19. ^ «John Marshall Clemens». State Historical Society of Missouri. Archived from the original on September 23, 2013. Retrieved October 29, 2007.
  20. ^ Philip S. Foner, Mark Twain: Social Critic (New York: International Publishers, 1958), p. 13, cited in Helen Scott’s «The Mark Twain they didn’t teach us about in school» (2000) in the International Socialist Review 10, Winter 2000, pp. 61–65, at [1] Archived June 16, 2002, at the Wayback Machine
  21. ^ Clemens, Samuel L. Life on the Mississippi, pp. 32, 37, 45, 57, 78, Harper & Brothers, New York and London, 1917.
  22. ^ «Nautical Dictionary, Glossary and Terms directory: Search Results». www.seatalk.info. Retrieved August 17, 2017.
  23. ^ «What do Mark Twain and your depth sounder have in common?». www.boatsafe.com/index.html. Archived from the original on June 23, 2018. Retrieved September 10, 2018.
  24. ^ Hanson, Joseph Mills. The Conquest of the Missouri: Being the Story of the Life and Exploits of Captain Grant Marsh, pp. 24–29, Murray Hill Books, Inc., New York and Toronto, 1909.
  25. ^ Smith, Harriet Elinor, ed. (2010). Autobiography of Mark Twain: Volume 1. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-26719-0.
  26. ^ For a further account of Twain’s involvement with parapsychology, see Blum, Deborah, Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death (Penguin Press, 2006).
  27. ^ a b «Mark Twain Biography». The Hannibal Courier-Post. Retrieved November 25, 2008.
  28. ^ Clemens, Samuel L. Roughing It, p. 19, American Publishing Company, Hartford, CT, 1872. ISBN 0-87052-707-X.
  29. ^ a b c J. R. Lemaster (1993). The Mark Twain Encyclopedia. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-0824072124.
  30. ^ Powell, Allan Kent. «Mark Twain’s Utah». Utah Division of State History. Retrieved November 7, 2022.
  31. ^ Comstock Commotion: The Story of the Territorial Enterprise and Virginia City News, Chapter 2.
  32. ^ «Mark Twain quotations».
  33. ^ For further information, see Mark Twain in Nevada.
  34. ^ Dickson, Samuel. Isadora Duncan (1878–1927). The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco. Retrieved July 9, 2009.
  35. ^ a b «Samuel Clemens». PBS:The West. Retrieved August 25, 2007.
  36. ^ Gunderman, Richard (February 12, 2018). «Mark Twain’s adventures in love: How a rough-edged aspiring author courted a beautiful heiress». The Conversation. Retrieved February 12, 2018.
  37. ^ Mark Twain; Edgar Marquess Branch; Michael B. Frank; Kenneth M. Sanderson (1990). Mark Twain’s Letters: 1867–1868. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0520906075.
  38. ^ a b c «David Gray biography». Mark Twain Project. Retrieved December 18, 2020.
  39. ^ «Concerning Mark Twain». The Week: A Canadian Journal of Politics, Literature, Science and Arts. 1 (11): 171. February 14, 1884. Retrieved April 26, 2013.
  40. ^ a b c d e f Scott, Helen (Winter 2000). «The Mark Twain They Didn’t Teach Us About in School». International Socialist Review. 10: 61–65. Archived from the original on June 16, 2019.
  41. ^ Dlugosz, Steve (May 27, 2020). «Mark Twain’s experience in Buffalo described as brief but memorable». The Am-Pol Eagle. Retrieved December 18, 2020.
  42. ^ «Mrs. Jacques Samossoud Dies; Mark Twain’s Last Living Child; Released ‘Letters From Earth’«. The New York Times. November 21, 1962. San Diego, Nov. 20 (UPI) Mrs. Clara Langhorne Clemens Samossoud, the last living child of Mark Twain, died last night in Sharp Memorial Hospital. She was 88 years old.
  43. ^ «LDisasters at Sea». The Times. No. 27558. London. December 12, 1872. col B, p. 7.
  44. ^ a b «Twain’s Home in Elmira». Elmira College Center for Mark Twain Studies. Archived from the original on July 29, 2014. Retrieved May 1, 2011.
  45. ^ Hal Bush (Christmas 2010). «A Week at Quarry Farm». The Cresset, A review of literature, the arts, and public affairs, Valparaiso University. Retrieved May 1, 2011.
  46. ^ a b c «Mark Twain Granted His First Patent on December 19, 1871». United States Patent and Trademark Office. December 18, 2001. Archived from the original on October 16, 2020.
  47. ^ Niemann, Paul J. (2004). Invention Mysteries (Invention Mysteries Series). Horsefeathers Publishing Company. pp. 53–54. ISBN 0-9748041-0-X.
  48. ^ The Only Footage of Mark Twain in Existence, Smithsonian.com, retrieved January 13, 2017
  49. ^ 1634–1699: McCusker, J. J. (1997). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States: Addenda et Corrigenda (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1700–1799: McCusker, J. J. (1992). How Much Is That in Real Money? A Historical Price Index for Use as a Deflator of Money Values in the Economy of the United States (PDF). American Antiquarian Society. 1800–present: Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. «Consumer Price Index (estimate) 1800–». Retrieved April 16, 2022.
  50. ^ «Mark Twain House website – Paige Compositor page». Marktwainhouse.org. Retrieved December 30, 2010.
  51. ^ a b c d e f g h Kirk, Connie Ann (2004). Mark Twain – A Biography. Connecticut: Greenwood Printing. ISBN 0-313-33025-5.
  52. ^ a b c d e f g h Albert Bigelow Paine. «Mark Twain, A Biography». Archived from the original on March 25, 2019. Retrieved November 25, 2014.
  53. ^ Lauber, John. The Inventions of Mark Twain: a Biography. New York: Hill and Wang, 1990.
  54. ^
    Shillingsburg, M. «Smythe, Robert Sparrow (1833–1917)». Australian Dictionary of Biography. Melbourne University Press. ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved August 30, 2013 – via National Centre of Biography, Australian National University.
  55. ^ Barbara Schmidt. «Chronology of Known Mark Twain Speeches, Public Readings, and Lectures». marktwainquotes.com. Retrieved February 7, 2010.
  56. ^ Cox, James M. Mark Twain: The Fate of Humor. Princeton University Press, 1966.
  57. ^ Rasmussen, R. Kent (2007). Critical Companion to Mark Twain: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work. New York: Facts on File. p. 723. ISBN 978-0-8160-6225-6.
  58. ^ Ober, Patrick (2003). Mark Twain and Medicine: «Any Mummery Will Cure». Columbia: University of Missouri Press. p. 157. ISBN 9780826215024.
  59. ^ Ober, K. Patrick (2003). Mark Twain and Medicine: Any Mummery Will Cure. Columbia: University of Missouri Press. pp. 153–161. ISBN 0-8262-1502-5.
  60. ^ «History of Dollis Hill House». Dollis Hill House Trust. 2006. Retrieved July 3, 2007.
  61. ^ Zwick, Jim (2002). «Mark Twain and Imperialism». In Shelley Fisher Fishkin (ed.). A Historical Guide to Mark Twain. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 240–241. ISBN -0-19-513293-9.
  62. ^ Judith Yaross Lee, «Mark Twain as a Stand-up Comedian», The Mark Twain Annual (2006) #4 pp. 3–23. doi:10.1111/j.1756-2597.2006.tb00038.x
  63. ^ «Mark Twain at Princeton». Twainquotes.com. Retrieved December 7, 2013.
  64. ^ «Mark Twain in Montreal». twainquotes.com. The New York Times. Retrieved January 2, 2017.
  65. ^ a b c d e f g h i Roberts, Taylor (1998). «Mark Twain in Toronto, Ontario, 1884–1885». Mark Twain Journal. 36 (2): 18–25. JSTOR 41641453.
  66. ^ «The Genial Mark». University of Virginia Library. Toronto Globe. Retrieved January 2, 2017.
  67. ^ a b c d «Mark Twain in Toronto». Toronto Reference Library Blog. Retrieved January 2, 2017.
  68. ^ Petsko, Emily (November 2, 2018). «Reports of Mark Twain’s Quote About His Own Death Are Greatly Exaggerated». Retrieved July 20, 2021.
  69. ^ «Chapters from My Autobiography», North American Review, September 21, 1906, p. 160. Mark Twain
  70. ^ Oleksinski, Johnny. Find out if New York’s greatest writers lived next door. The New York Post April 14, 2017, https://nypost.com/2017/04/14/find-out-if-new-yorks-greatest-writers-lived-next-door/ Archived January 20, 2018, at the Wayback Machine Accessed April 14, 2017
  71. ^ «Apoplexy Carries Off the Financier Famous in Standard Oil, Railways, Gas, and Copper». The New York Times. May 20, 1909. Retrieved July 1, 2022. Henry Huttleston Rogers, one of the foremost of the country’s captains of industry, and a notable figure for many years in financial and corporation development in this country, died suddenly at his home, 3 East Seventy-eighth Street, at 7:20 o’clock yesterday morning, following a stroke of apoplexy, the second one he had suffered.
  72. ^ TwainQuotes.com The Story Behind the A. F. Bradley Photos Archived July 24, 2008, at the Wayback Machine, Retrieved on July 10, 2009.
  73. ^ Twain, Mark (2010). Kiskis, Michael J. (ed.). Mark Twain’s own autobiography: the chapters from the North American review (2nd ed.). Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. ISBN 9780299234737. OCLC 608692466.
  74. ^ Kaser, James A. (2011). The Chicago of Fiction: A Resource Guide. The Scarecrow Press. p. 501. ISBN 9780810877245.
  75. ^ The New York Times, March 16, 1962, DOROTHY QUICK, POET AND AUTHOR: Mystery Writer Dies – Was Friend of Mark Twain Archived September 23, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
  76. ^ Terry Oggel (2003). «In His Own Time: The Early Academic Reception of Mark Twain — The Mark Twain Annual No. 1». JSTOR. Penn State University Press: 45–60. JSTOR 41582169. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
  77. ^ Yeomans, Donald Keith (1998). «Great Comets in History». Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Archived from the original on February 4, 2012. Retrieved July 1, 2022.
  78. ^ Esther Lombardi, about.com. «Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)». Retrieved November 1, 2006.
  79. ^ «Mark Twain is Dead at 74. End Comes Peacefully at His New England Home After a Long Illness». The New York Times. April 22, 1910. Danbury, Connecticut, April 21, 1910. Samuel Langhorne Clemens, «Mark Twain», died at 22 minutes after 6 to-night. Beside him on the bed lay a beloved book – it was Carlyle’s French Revolution – and near the book his glasses, pushed away with a weary sigh a few hours before. Too weak to speak clearly, he had written, «Give me my glasses», on a piece of paper.
  80. ^ Shelden, Michael (2010). Mark Twain: Man in White: The Grand Adventure of His Final Years (1st ed.). New York: Random House. ISBN 978-0679448006. OCLC 320952684.
  81. ^ «Elmira Travel Information». Go-new-york.com. Retrieved December 30, 2010.
  82. ^ «MARK TWAIN ESTATE ABOUT HALF MILLION; Largely in Stocks and Estimated Worth of the Mark Twain Company». The New York Times. July 15, 1911. Archived from the original on January 2, 2022. Retrieved March 26, 2022. Deputy State Controller Julius Harburger filed with the Surrogates’ Court yesterday the tax appraisal of the estate of Samuel L. Clements, (Mark Twain.) Mr. Clemens died at his home in Connecticut on April 21, 1910. He left in this State and Connecticut an estate aggregating $471,136.
  83. ^ Friedman, Matt. «New Jersey lawmakers want schools to stop teaching ‘Huckleberry Finn’«. Politico PRO. Retrieved October 7, 2019.
  84. ^ Nicky Woolf (May 4, 2015). «Mark Twain stories, 150 years old, uncovered by Berkeley scholars». the Guardian.
  85. ^ Baskin, R. N. (Robert Newton); Madsen, Brigham D. (2006). Reminiscences of early Utah : with, Reply to certain statements by O. F. Whitne. Salt Lake City: Signature Books. p. 281. ISBN 978-1-56085-193-6.
  86. ^ Henderson, Archibald (1912). «The Humorist». Mark Twain. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company. p. 99.
  87. ^ Gary Scharnhorst, ed. (2010). Twain in His Own Time: A Biographical Chronicle of His Life, Drawn from Recollections, Interviews, and Memoirs by Family, Friends, and Associates. Writers in Their Own Time (first ed.). University of Iowa Press. p. 290. ISBN 978-1-58729-914-8.
  88. ^ DeQuille, Dan; Twain, Mark (July 1893). «Reporting With Mark Twain». The Californian Illustrated Magazine. Archived from the original on May 11, 2011.
  89. ^ «The Sagebrush School Nevada Writers Hall of Fame 2009». University of Nevada, Reno. October 28, 2009. Archived from the original on January 4, 2014. Retrieved February 26, 2012.
  90. ^ Reading the American Novel 1865–1914 G. R. Thompson; John Wiley & Sons, February 7, 2012; 462 pages; p. 29
  91. ^ Powers, Ron (2005). Mark Twain: A Life. New York: Free Press. pp. 471–473. ISBN 978-0-7432-4899-0.
  92. ^ From Chapter 1 of Green Hills of Africa
  93. ^ Amanda Jackson (September 27, 2019). «After decades of searching, Mark Twain’s signature was found inside a famous cave». CNN. Retrieved March 5, 2021.
  94. ^ «American Experience – People & Events: Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835–1910». PBS. Archived from the original on June 6, 2009. Retrieved November 28, 2007.
  95. ^ Reprinted in Benjamin Griffin, ed., Mark Twain’s Civil War.
  96. ^ a b Twain, Mark. Fenimore Cooper’s Literary Offenses Archived August 19, 2009, at the Wayback Machine. From Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches and Essays, from 1891–1910. Edited by Louis J. Budd. New York: Library of America, 1992.
  97. ^ Feinstein, George W (January 1948). «Twain as Forerunner of Tooth-and-Claw Criticism». Modern Language Notes. 63 (1): 49–50. doi:10.2307/2908644. JSTOR 2908644.
  98. ^ «After keeping us waiting for a century, Mark Twain will finally reveal all» The Independent 23 May 2010 Archived July 22, 2017, at the Wayback Machine Retrieved May 29, 2010
  99. ^ «Dead for a Century, He’s Ready to Say What He Really Meant» The New York Times 9 July 2010 Archived January 19, 2017, at the Wayback Machine. Retrieved July 9, 2010.
  100. ^ «Mark Twain’s Big Book». NY Times. November 26, 2010. Retrieved November 27, 2010. an enormous hit, apparently much to the surprise of its publisher
  101. ^ Murray, Stuart A. P. «The Library: An Illustrated History», New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2012, p. 189.
  102. ^ a b c Golden, Audrey (November 30, 2019). «Who Were Mark Twain’s Publishers?». BooksTellYouWhy.com. Retrieved August 29, 2022.
  103. ^ Frederick Anderson, ed., A Pen Warmed Up in Hell: Mark Twain in Protest (New York: Harper, 1972), p. 8, cited in Helen Scott’s «The Mark Twain they didn’t teach us about in school» (2000) in International Socialist Review 10, Winter 2000, pp. 61–65
  104. ^ «Mark Twain’s Letters 1886–1900». Mark Twain Classic Literature Library. Retrieved January 8, 2015.
  105. ^ a b Budd, Louis J. (1962). Mark Twain: Social Philosopher. University of Missouri Press. p. 160. ISBN 978-0-8262-1368-6.
  106. ^ Cardwell, Guy A. (September 1, 1963). «Review: Mark Twain: Social Philosopher, by Louis J. Budd». Nineteenth-Century Fiction. 18 (2): 197–200. doi:10.2307/2932778. ISSN 0029-0564. JSTOR 2932778.
  107. ^ Philip S. Foner, Mark Twain: Social Critic (New York: International Publishers, 1958), p. 98
  108. ^ Philip S. Foner, Mark Twain: Social Critic (New York: International Publishers, 1958), p. 169, cited in Helen Scott’s «The Mark Twain they didn’t teach us about in school» (2000) in International Socialist Review 10, Winter 2000, pp. 61–65
  109. ^ David Zmijewski, «The Man in Both Corners: Mark Twain the Shadowboxing Imperialist», Hawaiian Journal of History, 2006, Vol. 40, pp. 55–73
  110. ^ Paine, ed. Letters 2:663; Ron Powers, Mark Twain: a life (2005) p. 593
  111. ^ From Andrew Jay Hoffman, Inventing Mark Twain: The Lives of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (New York: William Morrow, 1997), cited in Helen Scott’s «The Mark Twain they didn’t teach us about in school» (2000) in International Socialist Review 10, Winter 2000, pp. 61–65
  112. ^ «Mark Twain Home, An Anti-Imperialist» (PDF). New York Herald. October 16, 1900. p. 4. Retrieved October 25, 2014.
  113. ^ Twain, Mark (2007). Mark Twain Speeches. p. 116. ISBN 978-1-4346-7879-9.
  114. ^ a b Mark Twain’s Weapons of Satire: Anti-Imperialist Writings on the Philippine-American War. (1992, Jim Zwick, ed.) ISBN 0-8156-0268-5
  115. ^ «Comments on the Moro Massacre». by Samuel Clemens (March 12, 1906) Archived February 6, 2018, at the Wayback Machine. History is a Weapon.
  116. ^ Adam Hochschild (1998). King Leopold’s ghost : a story of greed, terror, and heroism in colonial Africa. Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 978-0-395-75924-0. OCLC 39042794.
  117. ^ Jeremy Harding (September 20, 1998). «Into Africa». The New York Times.
  118. ^ «Harper’s». Wikisource. Retrieved December 26, 2021.
  119. ^ Coates, Ta-Nehisi (August 25, 2011). «That Older and Real Terror». The Atlantic. Retrieved July 29, 2018.
  120. ^ Maxwell Geismar, ed., Mark Twain and the Three Rs: Race, Religion, Revolution and Related Matters (Indianapolis: Bobs-Merrill, 1973), p. 169, cited in Helen Scott’s «The Mark Twain they didn’t teach us about in school» (2000) in International Socialist Review 10, Winter 2000, pp. 61–65
  121. ^ Maxwell Geismar, ed., Mark Twain and the Three Rs: Race, Religion, Revolution and Related Matters (Indianapolis: Bobs-Merrill, 1973), p. 159
  122. ^ Philip S. Foner, Mark Twain: Social Critic (New York: International Publishers, 1958), p. 200
  123. ^ Maxwell Geismar, ed., Mark Twain and the Three Rs: Race, Religion, Revolution and Related Matters (Indianapolis: Bobs-Merrill, 1973), p. 98
  124. ^ Paine, A. B., Mark Twain: A Biography, Harper, 1912 p. 701
  125. ^
    «Mark Twain, Indian Hater». Blue Corn Comics. May 28, 2001. Retrieved July 9, 2008.
  126. ^ Twain, Mark, In defense of Harriet Shelley and Other Essays, Harper & Brothers, 1918. p. 68
  127. ^ Twain, Mark. 2008. Following the Equator. pp. 94–98
  128. ^ «Mark Twain in India». Amritt. 2009.
  129. ^ Twain, Mark (1910). Mark Twain’s Speeches. New York: Harper & Bros. pp. 101–103.
  130. ^ «Seven fascinating facts you probably didn’t know about Helen Keller». Perkins School for the Blind.
  131. ^ Small, Miriam R.; Small, Edwin W. (December 1944). «Prudence Crandall Champion of Negro Education». New England Quarterly. Vol. 17, no. 4. pp. 506–529.
  132. ^ a b Leonard, James S. (2020), Bird, John (ed.), «Politics», Mark Twain in Context, Literature in Context, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 151–160, ISBN 978-1-108-47260-9, retrieved July 7, 2022
  133. ^ Twain, Mark (January 2013). The wit and wisdom of Mark Twain. Blaisdell, Robert. Mineola, NY. p. 20. ISBN 978-0486489230. OCLC 761852687.
  134. ^ Huberman, Jack (2007). The Quotable Atheist. Nation Books. pp. 303–304. ISBN 978-1-56025-969-5.
  135. ^ «America’s dark and not-very-distant history of hating Catholics». The Guardian. September 18, 2016.
  136. ^ Dempsey, Terrell, Book Review: Mark Twain’s Religion. William E. Phipps Archived September 15, 2014, at the Wayback Machine 2004 Mark Twain Forum
  137. ^ Letters from Earth. Ostara publications. 2013. p. back cover.
  138. ^ Twain, Mark, ed. by Paul Baender. 1973. What is man?: and other philosophical writings. p. 56
  139. ^ Phipps, William E., Mark Twain’s Religion, pp. 263–266, 2003 Mercer Univ. Press
  140. ^ Twain, Mark, ed. by Paul Baender. 1973. What is man?: and other philosophical writings. pp.10, 486
  141. ^ Mark Twain, «To the Person Sitting in Darkness», The North American Review 182:531 (February 1901):161–176; JSTOR 25105120
  142. ^ Mark Twain, «To My Missionary Critics», The North American Review 172 (April 1901):520–534; JSTOR 25105150
  143. ^ Gelb, Arthur (August 24, 1962). «Anti-Religious Work by Twain, Long Withheld, to Be Published». The New York Times. p. 23. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 22, 2008.
  144. ^ Twain, Mark (1972). «Little Bessie». In John S. Tuckey; Kenneth M. Sanderson; Bernard L. Stein; Frederick Anderson (eds.). Mark Twain’s Fables of Man. California: University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-02039-9.[permanent dead link]
  145. ^ «Church Aided by Twain Is in a Demolition Dispute». The New York Times. Associated Press. April 2, 2006. Retrieved October 5, 2008.
  146. ^ a b Paine, Albert Bigelow, The Adventures of Mark Twain, p. 281, Kessinger 2004
  147. ^ Goy-Blanquet, Dominique, Joan of Arc, a saint for all reasons: studies in myth and politics, p. 132, 2003 Ashgate Publishing
  148. ^ Phipps, William E., Mark Twain’s Religion, p. 304, 2003 Mercer Univ. Press
  149. ^ PBS NewsHour (July 7, 2010). «Mark Twain’s Autobiography Set for Unveiling, a Century After His Death». PBS. Archived from the original on January 21, 2014. Retrieved July 7, 2010.
  150. ^ «Brother Samuel Langhorne Clemens: A Missouri Freemason — Mert Sahinoglu». mertsahinoglu.com.
  151. ^ Masonic Information Center. «MIC Mark Twain Award». Retrieved October 28, 2017.
  152. ^ Kathryn Jenkins Gordon (August 18, 2015). «What Mark Twain Really Thought About Mormons». LDS Living. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
  153. ^ Roughing It – Chapter 16
  154. ^ Adam Gopnik (August 13, 2012). «I, Nephi». The New Yorker. Retrieved October 27, 2015.
  155. ^ Mark Twain, Letter to Sidney G. Trist, Editor of the Animals’ Friend Magazine, in his capacity as Secretary of the London Anti-Vivisection Society (May 26, 1899), in Mark Twain’s Notebooks, ed. Carlo De Vito (Black Dog & Leventhal, 2015).
  156. ^ Twain, Mark (2010). Fishkin, Shelley Fisher (ed.). Mark Twain’s book of animals. Berkeley: University of California Press. p. 26. ISBN 978-0520248557. OCLC 667015000.
  157. ^ Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass, (Charles Honce, James Bennet, ed.), Pascal Covici, Chicago, 1928
  158. ^ «Matthew 27:51 at that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split». Bible.cc. Retrieved December 7, 2013.
  159. ^ Life on the Mississippi, chapter 50
  160. ^ Williams, III, George (1999). «Mark Twain Leaves Virginia City for San Francisco». Mark Twain and the Jumping Frog of Calaveras County: How Mark Twain’s humorous frog story launched his legendary career. Tree by the River Publishing. ISBN 0-935174-45-1. Cited in «Excerpt: The Singular Mark Twain«. Retrieved June 26, 2007.
  161. ^ Fatout, Paul. «Mark Twain’s Nom de Plume.» American Literature, v 34, n 1 (March 1962), pp. 1–7. doi:10.2307/2922241. JSTOR 2922241.
  162. ^ «Autobiography of Mark Twain Archived October 16, 2015, at the Wayback Machine.» Volume 2; 10 September 1906, (2013, 2008), Paragraph 4.
  163. ^ Lemaster, J. R; Wilson, James Darrell; Hamric, Christie Graves (1993). The Mark Twain encyclopedia. Garland Publishing. p. 390. ISBN 978-0-8240-7212-4. Retrieved October 16, 2009.
  164. ^ a b Next after fine colors, I like plain white. One of my sorrows, when the summer ends, is that I must put off my cheery and comfortable white clothes and enter for the winter into the depressing captivity of the shapeless and degrading black ones. It is mid-October now, and the weather is growing cold up here in the New Hampshire hills, but it will not succeed in freezing me out of these white garments, for here the neighbors are few, and it is only of crowds that I am afraid. I made a brave experiment, the other night, to see how it would feel to shock a crowd with these unseasonable clothes, and also to see how long it might take the crowd to reconcile itself to them and stop looking astonished and outraged. On a stormy evening I made a talk before a full house, in the village, clothed like a ghost, and looking as conspicuous, all solitary and alone on that platform, as any ghost could have looked; and I found, to my gratification, that it took the house less than ten minutes to forget about the ghost and give its attention to the tidings I had brought.
    I am nearly seventy-one, and I recognize that my age has given me a good many privileges; valuable privileges; privileges which are not granted to younger persons. Little by little I hope to get together courage enough to wear white clothes all through the winter, in New York. It will be a great satisfaction to me to show off in this way; and perhaps the largest of all the satisfactions will be the knowledge that every scoffer, of my sex, will secretly envy me and wish he dared to follow my lead. «Autobiography of Mark Twain Archived October 16, 2015, at the Wayback Machine», Volume 2, October 8, 1906 (2013, 2008), Paragraph 14

Further reading

  • Nathan G. Alexander, «Unclasping the Eagle’s Talons: Mark Twain, American Freethought, and the Responses to Imperialism.» Archived August 1, 2018, at the Wayback Machine The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 17, no. 3 (2018): 524–545. doi:10.1017/S1537781418000099.
  • Lucius Beebe. Comstock Commotion: The Story of the Territorial Enterprise and Virginia City News, Stanford University Press, 1954 ISBN 1-122-18798-X
  • Louis J. Budd, ed. Mark Twain, Collected Tales, Sketches, Speeches & Essays 1891–1910 (Library of America, 1992) (ISBN 978-0-940450-73-8)
  • Ken Burns, Dayton Duncan, and Geoffrey C. Ward, Mark Twain: An Illustrated Biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001 (ISBN 0-375-40561-5)
  • Philip S. Foner. Mark Twain: Social Critic. New York: International Publishers. 1966.
  • Gregg Camfield. The Oxford Companion to Mark Twain. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002 (ISBN 0-19-510710-1)
  • Guy Cardwell, ed. Mark Twain, Mississippi Writings, (Library of America, 1982) (ISBN 978-0-940450-07-3)
  • Guy Cardwell, ed. Mark Twain, The Innocents Abroad & Roughing It, (Library of America, 1984) ISBN 978-0-940450-25-7
  • James M. Cox. Mark Twain: The Fate of Humor, Princeton University Press, 1966 (ISBN 0-8262-1428-2)
  • Everett Emerson. Mark Twain: A Literary Life, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000 (ISBN 0-8122-3516-9)
  • Shelley Fisher Fishkin Archived February 28, 2013, at the Wayback Machine, ed. A Historical Guide to Mark Twain. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002 (ISBN 0-19-513293-9)
  • Shelley Fisher Fishkin, Lighting Out for the Territory: Reflections on Mark Twain and American Culture. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996 (ISBN 0-19-510531-1)
  • Benjamin Griffin, ed., Mark Twain’s Civil War: «The Private History of a Campaign That Failed». Berkeley, California: Heyday, 2019 (ISBN 9781597144780)
  • Susan K. Harris, ed. Mark Twain, Historical Romances (Library of America, 1994) (ISBN 978-0-940450-82-0)
  • Hamlin L. Hill, ed. Mark Twain, The Gilded Age and Later Novels (Library of America, 2002) ISBN 978-1-931082-10-5
  • Jason Gary Horn. Mark Twain: A Descriptive Guide to Biographical Sources, Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 1999 (ISBN 0-8108-3630-0)
  • William Dean Howells. My Mark Twain, Mineloa, NY: Dover Publications, 1997 [1910] (ISBN 0-486-29640-7)
  • Fred Kaplan. The Singular Mark Twain: A Biography, New York: Doubleday, 2003 (ISBN 0-385-47715-5)
  • Justin Kaplan. Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain: A Biography, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1966 (ISBN 0-671-74807-6)
  • J. R. LeMaster and James D. Wilson, eds. The Mark Twain Encyclopedia, New York: Garland, 1993 (ISBN 0-8240-7212-X)
  • Andrew Levy, Huck Finn’s America: Mark Twain and the Era that Shaped His Masterpiece. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2015.
  • Jerome Loving, Mark Twain: The Adventures of Samuel L. Clemens. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010.
  • Bruce Michelson, Mark Twain on the Loose, Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1995 (ISBN 0-87023-967-8)
  • Patrick Ober, Mark Twain and Medicine: «Any Mummery Will Cure» Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2003 (ISBN 0-8262-1502-5)
  • George Orwell, «Mark Twain—The Licensed Jester,» The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell, vol. 2: My Country Right or Left, 1940-1943, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1968. Archived February 21, 2022, at the Wayback Machine
  • Albert Bigelow Paine, Mark Twain, A Biography: The Personal and Literary Life of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, Harper & Bros., 1912. ISBN 1-84702-983-3
  • Mark Perry, Grant and Twain: The Story of a Friendship that Changed American; also published as Grant and Twain: The Story of an American Friendship, New York: Random House, 2004. ISBN 0679642730
  • Ron Powers, Dangerous Water: A Biography of the Boy Who Became Mark Twain, New York: Da Capo Press, 1999. ISBN 0-306-81086-7
  • Ron Powers. Mark Twain: A Life, New York: Random House, 2005. (ISBN 0-7432-4899-6)
  • Radavich, David (2004). «Twain, Howells, and the Origins of Midwestern Drama». MidAmerica. XXXI: 25–42.
  • R. Kent Rasmussen, Critical Companion to Mark Twain: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Facts On File, 2007. Revised edition of Mark Twain A to Z ISBN 0-8160-6225-0
  • R. Kent Rasmussen, ed., The Quotable Mark Twain: His Essential Aphorisms, Witticisms and Concise Opinions, Contemporary Books, 1997 ISBN 0-8092-2987-0
  • Gary Scharnhorst, ed., Mark Twain: The Complete Interviews, Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2006. ISBN 9780817315221
  • Gary Scharnhorst, ed., Mainly the Truth: Interviews with Mark Twain, Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2009. ISBN 9780817355395
  • Gary Scharnhorst, ed., Twain in His Own Time: A Biographical Chronicle of His Life, Drawn from Recollections, Interviews, and Memoirs by Family, Friends, and Associates, Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2010. ISBN 9781587299148
  • Gary Scharnhorst, ed., Mark Twain on Potholes and Politics: Letters to the Editor, Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 2014. ISBN 9780826220462
  • Gary Scharnhorst, The Life of Mark Twain: The Early Years, 1835-1871, Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 2018. ISBN 9780826221445
  • Gary Scharnhorst, The Life of Mark Twain: The Middle Years, 1871-1891, Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 2019. ISBN 9780826274304
  • Gary Scharnhorst, The Life of Mark Twain: The Final Years, 1891-1910, Columbia, Missouri: University of Missouri Press, 2022. ISBN 9780826222411
  • Ben Tarnoff, The Bohemians: Mark Twain and the San Francisco Writers Who Reinvented American Literature. New York: The Penguin Press, 2014
  • Mark Twain (November 1874). «A True Story, Repeated Word for Word As I Heard It». The Atlantic Monthly. Boston: Atlantic Monthly Co. pp. 591–594.
  • Larzer Ziff, Mark Twain, New York: Oxford University Press, 2004. ISBN 0195170199
  • «Mark Twain». Cartoon portraits and biographical sketches of men of the day. Illustrated by Frederick Waddy. London: Tinsley Brothers. 1873. p. 122. Retrieved March 13, 2011.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)

External links

  • Mark Twain at Curlie
  • Western American Literature Journal: Mark Twain

Online editions

  • Works by Mark Twain in eBook form at Standard Ebooks
  • Works by Mark Twain at Project Gutenberg
  • Works by Mark Twain at Faded Page (Canada)
  • Works by or about Mark Twain at Internet Archive
  • Works by or about Samuel Langhorne Clemens at Internet Archive
  • Works by Mark Twain at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)  

Libraries

  • The Mark Twain Papers and Project of the Bancroft Library, University of California Berkeley. Archive of Mark Twain’s papers and writings
  • Mark Twain Room at Buffalo & Erie County Public Library
  • Samuel Langhorne Clemens collection of papers at New York Public Library
  • Mark Twain Original Manuscripts from 1862–1909 Shapell Manuscript Foundation
  • Mark Twain’s Mississippi at Northern Illinois University Libraries
  • Finding aid to the Mark Twain papers at Columbia University. Rare Book & Manuscript Library.
  • Samuel Langhorne Clemens Collection. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

Представлено сочинение на английском языке Биография Марка Твена/ The Biography of Mark Twain с переводом на русский язык.

The Biography of Mark Twain Биография Марка Твена
Samuel Langhorne Clemens was a famous American writer and humorist. He was better known by his pen friend Mark Twain. Perhaps, everybody knows about the adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. The author of these stories was Mark Twain. Сэмюэл Лэнгхорн Клеменс был известным американским писателем и юмористом. Он был более известен по своему писательскому псевдониму, как Марк Твен. Возможно, все знают о приключениях Тома Сойера и Гекльберри Финна. Автором этих историй был Марк Твен.
He was born in Florida, Missouri on November 30th, 1835. When he was four years old his family moved to Hannibal in Missouri. It was a port town on the Mississippi River, which inspired the fictional town in “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. He was only eleven when his father died and he soon began working as a printer’s apprentice and contributor of funny sketches. When he was 18 he left the town to work in New York, Philadelphia and some other large cities as a printer. Он родился во Флориде, штат Миссури, 30-го ноября 1835 года. Когда ему было четыре года, его семья переехала в Ганнибал в штате Миссури. Это был портовый город на реке Миссисипи, который вдохновил его на создание вымышленного городка в «Приключениях Тома Сойера» и «Приключениях Гекльберри Финна». Ему было всего одиннадцать, когда его отец умер, и вскоре он начал подрабатывать помощником печатника и автором смешных эскизов. Когда ему было 18 лет, он покинул город и отправился работать в Нью-Йорк, Филадельфию и другие крупные города в качестве печатника.
Mark Twain travelled a lot. While being on the voyage to New Orleans he met Horace E. Bixby, who was a steamboat pilot and who later inspired a young author to become a pilot too. He soon obtained a steamboat pilot license. Until 1861 he worked as a pilot. He also persuaded his brother Henry to work together. In 1858 Henry died in steamboat explosion. It was known that Mark Twain foresaw this accident in his dream. Марк Твен много путешествовал. Во время путешествия в Новый Орлеан он познакомился с Горацием Е. Биксби, который был пилотом парохода, и который позже вдохновил молодого автора стать также пилотом. Вскоре он получил лицензию на управление пароходом. До 1861 года он работал в качестве пилота. Он также уговорил брата Генри работать вместе с ним. В 1858 году Генри умер в результате взрыва парохода. Было известно, что Марк Твен предвидел этот несчастный случай во сне.
In 1876 he wrote “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”. This book became popular not only with kids but also with adults. It was translated nearly into every language in the world. The book was such a success that in 1884 he wrote “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. Later he also wrote “Tom Sawyer Abroad”, “Tom sawyer the Detective” etc. There were many other books written by Mark Twain but the stories about Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn brought him world fame. В 1876 году он написал «Приключения Тома Сойера». Эта книга стала популярной не только среди детей, но и среди взрослых. Она была переведена почти на все языки мира. Книга имела такой успех, что в 1884 году он написал «Приключения Гекльберри Финна». Позже он также написал «Том Сойер за границей», «Том Сойер детектив» и т.д. Были и многие другие книги, написанные Марком Твеном, но рассказы о Томе Сойере и Гекльберри Финне принесли ему мировую славу.

  • 13.11.2018

Тема по английскому языку: Марк Твен

Топик по английскому языку: Марк Твен (Mark Twain). Данный текст может быть использован в качестве презентации, проекта, рассказа, эссе, сочинения или сообщения на тему.

Ранние годы

Марк Твен родился в штате Миссури в Соединенных Штатах 30 ноября 1835. Он считается великим юмористом американской литературы 19 века. Отец Твена был неудачливым юристом. В 1838 семья Марка переехала в Ганнибал, Миссури, на реке Миссисипи, где молодой Твен испытал волнение, увидев красочные достопримечательности набережной. Как и многие другие авторы своего времени, он не получил положенного образования. Он даже не окончил среднюю школу. Он начал работать в возрасте 12 лет. Два года Твен работал в маленькой газете своего старшего брата и печатником, и репортером.  1853 Марк покинул Ганнибал, чтобы путешествовать. По пути в Новый Орлеан он убедил речного пилота научить его своему мастерству. К весне 1859 Марк Твен был лицензированным лодочным пилотом.

Литературный псевдоним

Настоящее имя Марка Твена было Самюэль Клеменс. Его литературный псевдоним в речной тематике означает «две морские сажени».

Первый популярный рассказ

С началом Гражданской войны в США Твен решил не вмешиваться в происходящие события и переехал в Карсон-Сити, штат Невада. После неудачной попытки добычи золота и серебра он был зачислен в штат газеты в Вирджиния-Сити, штат Невада. Твен написал свой первый популярный рассказ в 1865; он назывался «Прыжки лягушки Калаверас Каунти».

Приключения Тома Сойера

В 1876 Марк написал «Приключения Тома Сойера», которые принесли ему мировую славу. Книга была чрезвычайно популярна и переведена почти на каждый язык мира. Позже были изданы «Приключения Гекльберри Финна», «Том Сойер за границей», и «Том Сойер – детектив». Персонажи историй Твена всегда хорошо изображены; сами истории являются жизненными, а сюжеты искусно выстроены.

Другие работы

Между 1873 и 1889 Твен написал несколько романов, включая «Принц и нищий» и «Янки из Коннектикута при дворе короля Артура». Марк Твен был также автором сатир и критики, которые открывали правду об американском образе жизни.

Смерть

Он умер в 1910.

Скачать Топик по английскому языку: Марк Твен

Mark Twain

Early years

Mark Twain was born in the state of Missouri in the United States on 30 November, 1835. He is considered the greatest humorist of 19th Century American literature. Twain’s father was an unsuccessful lawyer. In 1839 Mark’s family moved to Hannibal, Missouri, on the Mississippi River where young Twain experienced the excitement and colorful sights of the waterfront. Like many authors of his day the future writer had little formal education. He didn’t even finish secondary school. He started working at the age of 12. For two years Twain worked for his elder brother’s small newspaper both as a printer and reporter. In 1853 Mark left Hannibal in order to travel. On a trip to New Orleans he persuaded a riverboat pilot to teach him his skill. By the spring of 1859 Mark Twain was a licensed riverboat pilot.

Pen name

Mark Twain’s real name was Samuel Clemens. His pen name means “two fathoms” in riverboat-talk.

First popular story

At the outbreak of the American Civil War Twain chose not to get involved and moved to Carson City, Nevada. After an unsuccessful attempt at gold and silver mining he joined the staff of a newspaper in Virginia City, Nevada. Twain wrote his first popular story in 1865; it was called The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

In 1876 Mark wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which brought him world fame. The book was extremely popular and translated into nearly every language of the world. Later were published The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer Abroad and Tom Sawyer the Detective. The characters of Twain’s stories are always well-drawn; the stories themselves true-to-life and the plots are skillfully built up.

Other works

Between 1873 and 1889 Twain wrote several novels, including The Prince and the Pauper and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. Mark Twain was also the author of satires and critical pages revealing a good deal of the truth about American way of life.

Death

He died in 1910.

  • Главная
  • Топики
  • Биографии

Mark Twain is a famous American writer and a journalist. His real name was Samuel Clemens. He was born in 1835 in Florida. Mark Twain started his literary career rather late. He worked as a journalist in newspapers in Nevada and California during the years of the Civil War. His father died when the boy was only 12 years old. Twain had to start working with his brother. In 1857 he became a sailor on the Mississippi. After the Civil War he worked as a reporter for the «Territorial Enterprise» in Virginia City. His witty style, characterizing all his following works, was formed during his work in that newspaper. Soon after his first stories had been published he received the fame of the first humourist of America. «The Gilded Age», «My Watch», «The Adventures of Tom Sawyer» appeared during this period in Twain’s literary career. The characteristic features of American comical folklore found their place in Twain’s creative works. He ignores all the rules of the «true» art and laughs at the European civilization. As the Americans of his times he believes in democratic America, creating a new culture, ignoring all previous experience of mankind. His removal to New York and his marriage to a daughter of a coal tycoon changed a lot in his life. He tried to become a businessman, but ruined himself and had to deliver lectures. In the 1870s he wrote «Life on Mississippi», and in 1885 — «The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn». «The Prince and the Pauper», and «A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court» were also published during this time. In his works of that period Mark Twain showed racial prejudices, clash of humanism with antihuman materialism of bourgeois world. His works of the period greatly influenced American literature. The last period of his creative work is the time of pamphlet, which became his most favorite genre.

Версия для печати

Quick Facts

Also Known As: Samuel Langhorne Clemens

Died At Age: 74

Family:

Spouse/Ex-: Olivia Langdon ​(m. 1870 — 1904), Olivia Langdon ​ (m. 1870 — 1904)

father: John Marshall Clemens

mother: Jane Lampton, Jane Lampton Clemens

siblings: Benjamin Clemens, Henry Clemens, Margaret Clemens, Orion Clemens, Pamela Clemens, Pleasant Clemens

children: Clara Clemens, Jean Clemens, Langdon Clemens, Susy Clemens

Born Country: United States


Quotes By Mark Twain


Novelists

Died on: April 21, 1910

place of death: Redding, Connecticut, United States

Ancestry: British American

Personality: ENTP

Cause of Death: Heart Attack

U.S. State: Missouri

More Facts

awards: Audie Award for Excellence in Design

Childhood & Early Life

Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens on November 30, 1835, in Florida, Missouri, USA, to Jane (née Lampton) and John Marshall Clemens. He was one of the couple’s seven children, but only three of his siblings survived childhood. He was of Scots-Irish, English, and Cornish ancestry.

His father, an attorney and judge, died of pneumonia in 1847. After his father’s death, the family faced financial crisis. Mark Twain, who was 11 years old, dropped out of school to become a printer’s apprentice.

He began working as a typesetter in 1851 and occasionally contributed articles and humorous sketches to the ‘Hannibal Journal,’ a newspaper owned by his brother Orion.

mark-twain-35445.jpg

Continue Reading Below

Later Years

He left the ‘Hannibal Journal’ at the age of 18 and began working as a printer in New York City. During this time, he frequented public libraries and read voraciously in order to educate himself

His fondest childhood dream was to become a steamboatman. Hence, he was elated when steamboat pilot Horace E. Bixby took him as an apprentice and trained him in navigation. After more than two years of rigorous training, Clemens became a licensed river pilot in 1858.

Although he loved his job, the outbreak of the ‘Civil War’ in 1861 brought a standstill to the river trade and he was forced to take up an alternative occupation.

He struggled to re-establish himself and became a miner. However, this occupation did not suit him and he started to write for newspapers. During this time, Samuel Langhorne Clemens adopted the pen name of ‘Mark Twain,’ a term for ‘12 feet of water’ in steamboat slang.

He first tasted success as a writer in 1865 when his humorous story ‘The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County’ was published in a New York weekly, ‘The Saturday Press.’ The story brought him national attention and laid the foundation for his successful career as a writer.

Over the next few years, he published several other popular works. In 1876, he published ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,’ a novel about a young boy growing up along the Mississippi River. The book, with its heartwarming theme of a young boy and his adventures, was a resounding success.

In 1881, Twain published the novel ‘The Prince and the Pauper,’ his first attempt at historical fiction. Set in 1537, it narrates the story of two young boys who are identical in appearance: Tom, a pauper, and Prince Edward, the son of a king.

His novel ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,’ published in 1884, cemented his reputation as an author of international acclaim. A sequel to ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,’ this book is noted for its scathing satire on entrenched attitudes, particularly racism.

Mark Twain earned a large amount of money from his books which he invested in several business ventures. Unfortunately, many of his ventures failed, leaving him in financial difficulties. In order to stave off bankruptcy, he began writing more frequently in the early-1890s which affected the quality of his works.

Continue Reading Below

Unable to cope with the increasing financial pressures, he filed for bankruptcy in 1894. His friend and financier Henry Huttleston Rogers came to his aid and helped him to re-stabilize himself financially.

A very popular person, Twain was a much sought after speaker. He performed solo humorous talks and gave speeches in men’s clubs. A staunch anti-imperialist, he was made the vice-president of the ‘American Anti-Imperialist League’ in 1901. He also supported civil rights and women’s suffrage.

mark-twain-35446.jpg

Major Works

One of Mark Twain’s most popular works is his novel ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,’ a story about the boyhood adventures of two friends, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. The book inspired several stage, television, and film adaptations.

His novel ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,’ a sequel to ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,’ is often named among the ‘Great American Novels.’ The book, which explores notions of race and identity, is both controversial and extremely popular.

Twain’s first attempt at historical fiction, ‘The Prince and the Pauper,’ is also one of his most popular works. Set in the mid-16th century England, it narrates the tale of two young boys who are identical in appearance, but born into two entirely different social classes. The story has inspired numerous theatrical production and films.

Awards & Achievements

In 1901, the ‘Yale University’ awarded him an honorary Doctor of Letters degree.

‘Oxford University’ awarded Mark Twain an honorary Doctorate of Letters (D.Litt.) in 1907.

mark-twain-35447.jpg

Personal Life & Legacy

While working as a steamboatman, Mark Twain met Charles Langdon who showed him a picture of his sister Olivia. Twain began corresponding with Olivia and proposed marriage to her.

The couple married in 1870 and had four children, of whom one died in childhood. He loved his wife and was shattered when she died in 1904 after 34 years of marriage.

Twain’s later years were marked by personal tragedies—in addition to his wife, two of his three surviving children also predeceased him. The last decade of his life was a very difficult one, and he was plagued by depression. He died of heart attack on April 21, 1910, at the age of 74.

Trivia

This great American author was born shortly after a visit by Halley’s Comet in 1835 and died the day after the comet returned in 1910.

Encyclopedia Britannica

Encyclopedia Britannica

  • Entertainment & Pop Culture
  • Geography & Travel
  • Health & Medicine
  • Lifestyles & Social Issues
  • Literature
  • Philosophy & Religion
  • Politics, Law & Government
  • Science
  • Sports & Recreation
  • Technology
  • Visual Arts
  • World History
  • On This Day in History
  • Quizzes
  • Podcasts
  • Dictionary
  • Biographies
  • Summaries
  • Top Questions
  • Week In Review
  • Infographics
  • Demystified
  • Lists
  • #WTFact
  • Companions
  • Image Galleries
  • Spotlight
  • The Forum
  • One Good Fact
  • Entertainment & Pop Culture
  • Geography & Travel
  • Health & Medicine
  • Lifestyles & Social Issues
  • Literature
  • Philosophy & Religion
  • Politics, Law & Government
  • Science
  • Sports & Recreation
  • Technology
  • Visual Arts
  • World History
  • Britannica Classics
    Check out these retro videos from Encyclopedia Britannica’s archives.
  • Demystified Videos
    In Demystified, Britannica has all the answers to your burning questions.
  • #WTFact Videos
    In #WTFact Britannica shares some of the most bizarre facts we can find.
  • This Time in History
    In these videos, find out what happened this month (or any month!) in history.
  • Britannica Explains
    In these videos, Britannica explains a variety of topics and answers frequently asked questions.
  • Student Portal
    Britannica is the ultimate student resource for key school subjects like history, government, literature, and more.
  • COVID-19 Portal
    While this global health crisis continues to evolve, it can be useful to look to past pandemics to better understand how to respond today.
  • 100 Women
    Britannica celebrates the centennial of the Nineteenth Amendment, highlighting suffragists and history-making politicians.
  • Britannica Beyond
    We’ve created a new place where questions are at the center of learning. Go ahead. Ask. We won’t mind.
  • Saving Earth
    Britannica Presents Earth’s To-Do List for the 21st Century. Learn about the major environmental problems facing our planet and what can be done about them!
  • SpaceNext50
    Britannica presents SpaceNext50, From the race to the Moon to space stewardship, we explore a wide range of subjects that feed our curiosity about space!

Mark Twain is one of the greatest authors of America. His Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn are known all over the world.

Mark Twain isn’t a real name. Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born in 1835. He grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, on the Mississippi River. From this little town, he gathered the material for his most famous stories.

Young Samuel held different jobs that he would turn into material for his books. When he began working as a reporter in the local newspaper, he began using the pen name, Mark Twain. It is an old river term meaning two fathoms, or 12 feet, of water — a depth that was not very safe for riverboats.

One of Twain’s first stories, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” was printed in many American newspapers. So he became very popular.

The writer was known as a humorist. But behind his mask of humour lay a serious view of life. One of his most famous novels, Huckleberry Finn, is sometimes thought of as a book for children. But its wisdom is appreciated best by adults. But another Mark Twain’s famous novels, Tom Sawyer, is mostly a young person’s book that adults can also read with great pleasure.

Марк Твен — один из величайших авторов Америки. Его Том Сойер и Гекльберри Финн известны во всем мире.

Марк Твен не настоящее имя. Сэмюэль Лэнгхорн Клеменс родился в 1835 году. Он вырос в Ганнибале, штат Миссури, на реке Миссисипи. Из этого маленького городка он собрал материал для своих самых известных историй.

Молодой Самюэль занимал разные должности, которые он превращал в материал для своих книг. Когда он начал работать репортером в местной газете, он начал использовать псевдоним Марк Твен. Это старый речной термин, означающий две глубины, или 12 футов, воды — глубина, которая не очень безопасна для речных судов.

Одна из первых историй Твена «Знаменитая прыгающая лягушка округа Калаверас» была напечатана во многих американских газетах. Так он стал очень популярным.

Автор был известен как юморист. Но за маской юмора скрывался серьезный взгляд на жизнь. Один из его самых известных романов, Гекльберри Финн, иногда считается книгой для детей. Но его мудрость больше всего ценится взрослыми. Но другой знаменитый роман Марка Твена, Том Сойер, в основном представляет собой книгу для молодых людей, которую взрослые также могут с удовольствием читать.

Рассказ о Марке Твене (Mark Twain)4.5 out of
5
based on
2 votes

  • Рассказ про машу и женю
  • Рассказ про марию шарапову
  • Рассказ про мое утро на английском
  • Рассказ про машу и дубровского кратко
  • Рассказ про мое лето