Christened as Samuel Langhorne Clemens, Mark Twain was born on November
30, 1835 in the small river town of Florida, Missouri, just 200 miles
from Indian Territory. The sixth child of John Marshall Clemens and Jane
Lampton, Twain lived in Florida, Missouri until the age of four, at
which time his family relocated to Hannibal in hopes of improving their
living situation.
By lineage, Twain was a Southerner, as both
his parents' families hailed from Virginia. The slaveholding community
of Hannibal, a river town with a population of 2000, provided a mix of
rugged frontier life and the Southern tradition, a lifestyle that
influenced Twain's later writings, including the Adventures of Tom
Sawyer. Few black slaves actually resided in Hannibal, and the small
farms on the delta were no comparison to the typical Southern
plantation. In Hannibal, blacks were mostly held as household servants
rather than field workers, but were still under the obligations of
slavery.In his youth, Twain was a mischievous boy, the prototype of his
character, Tom Sawyer. Though he was plagued by poor health in his early
years, by age nine he had already learned to smoke, led a small band of
pranksters, and had developed an aversion to school. Twain's formal
schooling ended after age 12, because his father passed away in March of
that year. He became an apprentice in a printer's shop and then worked
under his brother, Orion, at the Hannibal Journal, where he quickly
became saturated in the newspaper trade. Rising to the role of
sub-editor, Twain indulged in the frontier humor that flourished in
journalism at the time: tall tales, satirical pranks, and jokes.However,
over the next few years, Twain found himself unable to save any wages
and grew restless. He decided to leave Hannibal in June of 1853 and
accepted a position in St. Louis. Soon afterwards, rather than settling
in St. Louis, Twain proceeded to travel back and forth between New York,
Philadelphia, Washington, and Iowa, working as a journalist. After his
wanderings, Twain ultimately switched professions, realizing an old
boyhood dream of becoming a river pilot.Under the apprenticeship of
Horace Bixby, pilot of the Paul Jones, Mark Twain became a licensed
river pilot at the age of 24. Earning a high salary navigating the river
waters, Twain was entertained by his work, and enjoyed his traveling
lifestyle. In 1861, with the beginning of the Civil War, Twain's
piloting days came to an end.After returning home to Hannibal, Twain
learned that military companies were being organized to assist Governor
Jackson, and he enlisted as a Confederate soldier. Within a short
period, he abandoned the cause, deserted the military, and along with
thousands of other men avoiding the draft, moved West. On his way to
Nevada, twelve years after the Gold Rush, Twain's primary intentions
were to strike it rich mining for silver and gold. After realizing the
impossibility of this dream, Twain once again picked up his pen and
began to write.Twain joined the staff of the Virginia City Territorial
Enterprise, and became an established reporter/humorist. In 1863, he
adopted the pseudonym Mark Twain, derived from a river pilot term
describing safe navigating conditions. In 1869 he published his first
book of travel letters entitled Innocents Abroad. The book was
criticized widely and discouraged Twain from pursuing a literary career.
In the years that followed, Twain published various articles, made
lecture circuits, and relocated between San Francisco, New York, and
Missouri. During this time he also met Olivia Langdon, whom he married
on February 2, 1870. In November of the same year, their first son,
Langdon Clemens, was born prematurely.The Clemens family quickly fell
into debt. However, when over 67,000 copies of Innocents Abroad sold
within its first year, the American Publishing Company asked Twain for
another book. Upon Olivia's request, the couple moved to the domicile
town of Hartford, Connecticut, where Twain composedRoughing It, which
documented the post-Gold Rush mining epoch and was published in 1872.In
March of 1872, Twain's daughter Susan Olivia was born, and the family
appeared prosperous. Unfortunately, Langdon soon came down with
Diphtheria and died. Twain was torn apart by his son's death, and blamed
himself. Moreover, Roughing It was only mildly successful, which added
to the family's hardships.After traveling to Europe for a lecture
series, Twain experienced a turning point in his career. Twain's newest
novel, The Gilded Age, written in collaboration with Charles Dudley
Warner, was published in 1873. The novel is about the 1800s era of
corruption and exploitation at the expense of public welfare.The Gilded
Age was Twain's first extended work of fiction and marked him in the
literary world as an author rather than a journalist.After the broad
success of The Gilded Age, Twain began a period of concentrated writing.
In 1880, his third daughter, Jean, was born. By the time Twain reached
age fifty, he was already considered a successful writer and
businessman. His popularity sky-rocketed with the publications of The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), The Prince and the Pauper (1882), and
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885). By 1885, Twain was considered
one the greatest character writers in the literary community.Twain died
on April 21, 1910, having survived his children Langdon, Susan and Jean
as well as his wife, Olivia. In his lifetime, he became a distinguished
member of the literati, and was honored by Yale, the University of
Missouri, and Oxford with literary degrees. With his death, many volumes
of his letters, articles, and fables were published, including: The
Letters of Quintas Curtius Snodgrass(1946); Simon Wheeler, Detective
(1963); The Works of Mark Twain: What is Man? and Other Philosophical
Writings (1973); and Mark Twain's Notebooks and Journals (1975-79).
Perhaps more than any other classic American writer, Mark Twain is seen
as a phenomenal author, but also as a personality that defined an era.
