A presentation made for the course of American Literature taught by Mrs. Yony Cardenas in the UNMSM -Lima, Peru.

1. Teacher: Yony Cárdenas Cornelio
Student: Gabriela Paredes Baquerizo

2. One of the greatest American
writers: humorist, essayist,
novelist and adventurer

3. Early Years Along the River
Born November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri
Parents John M. and Jane L. Clemens
The sixth of seven children.
Only two survived childhood.
At four, his family moved to Hannibal.
At eleven, his father died of pneumonia
Dropped out of school and became a
typesetter.
Worked for his brother Orion as his assistant
at a newspaper.

4. 1857, at the age of 21, moved to
New Orleans in search of
adventure and became a
steamboat pilot assistant.
Pictures from www.pbs.org

5. Traveling
1859 earned
his steamboat
pilot’s license
and worked
steadily as a
river pilot
between New
Orleans and
St. Louis.

6. Map of the Mississippi River

7. Civil War 1861-1865
1861 Mississippi River closed due to the Civil
War.
Sam’s piloting career ends.
1863 Began writing for the Territorial
Enterprise in Nevada.
Published “Jim Smiley and His Jumping
Frog” -- a retelling of a tall tale he picked up
from the miners.

8. In 1863, Sam adopted his pen
name “Mark Twain”
An important part of being a
riverboat pilot is knowing the
waters -- depths, snags, mud,
reefs. To “mark twain” is to
sound the depths and deem
them safe to passage.
Means two fathoms, or twelve
feet -- safe water for the
steamship.

9. Marriage and Family
Sam married
Olivia (Livy)
Langdon in 1870.
They settled in
Buffalo, NY
where he worked
as a partner and
writer for the
Buffalo Express.

10. Olivia Clemens 1845-1904
Olivia was the daughter of an affluent
New York family.
She had poor health, suffering from
tuberculosis of the spine between the
ages of 14-20, and affecting her life.
Her inheritance, along with Sam’s
earnings from his writing and
lectures, allowed them somewhat of a
lavish lifestyle.

11. Marriage and Family
Their first child, Langdon Clemens was
born in Buffalo 1870.
Sam moved his family back to
Connecticut to be closer to his
publisher (1871).
1873 Langdon died of diphtheria.

12. Marriage and Family
1873 daughter Suzy was born.
1874 daughter Clara was born.
1880 daughter Jean was born.

13. Europe and Tragedy
1891 Sam and Livy moved their family
to Europe in 1891 in order to
economize and pay back debt
1894 Publishing company failed and
Sam embarked on a European Lecture
Tour to earn money
1896 Suzy (24 years old) died of
meningitis while on a visit to Hartford

14. Back to America and More
Tragedy
Daughter Suzy died of
meningitis 1896
Livy, who was an invalid in the
last years of her life, died in
1904
Jean, his youngest daughter,
and many say “favorite”
daugther, died in an epileptic
seizure in 1909
Her daughter Clara was the
only one of his children who
survived.

15. “I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again
next year (1910), 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."
Mark Twain died in 1910, the
year Halley’s Comet
appeared. Pictures from www.pbs.org

16. More than anything, Mark
Twain loved the river.

17. Map of the Mississippi River

18. Mark Twain’s Masterpieces

19. LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER

20. It is not a commonplace river, but on the contrary is
in all ways remarkable. Considering the Missouri its
main branch, it is the longest river in the world--four
thousand three hundred miles.

21. It was first saw in1542.

22. WHEN I was a boy, there was but one permanent
ambition among my comrades in our village on the
west bank of the Mississippi River. That was, to be a
steamboatman.

23. Once a day a cheap,
gaudy packet arrived
upward from St. Louis,
and another downward
from Keokuk. Before
these events, the day
was glorious with
expectancy; after them,
the day was a dead and
empty thing. Not only
the boys, but the whole
village, felt this.

24. When a negro drayman, famous for his quick eye
and prodigious voice, lifts up the cry, "S-t-e-a-m-boat
a-comin'!" and the scene changes!

25. After ten minutes
the town is dead
again,and the
town drunkard
asleep by the
skids once more.

26. Years later, Twain felt his
bouhood ambitio to
surface again, and he
signed on as an
apprentice to the pilot of
the Paul Jones, Mr. Bixby.

28. Mr. Bixby called my attention to certain things, he said, "This is
Nine-Mile Point." Later he said, "This is Twelve-Mile Point." They
were all about level with the water's edge; they all looked about
alike to me; they were monotonously unpicturesque. I hoped Mr.
Bixby would change the subject

29. "Come! turn out!“ - And then he left. I could not
understand this extraordinary procedure; so I presently
gave up trying to, and dozed off to sleep. Pretty soon the
watchman was back again, and this time he was gruff. I
was annoyed.

30. About this time Mr.
Bixby appeared on the
scene. Something like a
minute later I was
climbing the pilot-house
steps with some of my
clothes on and the rest
in my arms. Mr. Bixby
was close behind

31. "My boy, you must get a little memorandum-book,
and every time I tell you a thing, put it down right
away. There's only one way to be a pilot, and that is
to get this entire river by heart. You have to know it
just like A B C."

32. Writing Characteristics of
Mark Twain
Literature is an art of language. Mark Twain’s
language is artistic and like a sharp weapon without
doubt. Mark Twain is famous for his humor and
satire.
Mark Twain’s humor is based on the humor of the
Western in America.
He used a lot of colloquial idioms and colloquial
syntax.
He often described persons who were innocent,
simple, naive, and ignorant as his heroes or
heroines.
He used the artistic style of hyperbole on the basis of
the western traditional humor and made his writing
full of allegories that lay behind the humor.