1. Novels; Humor/Satire; Short Stories; Plays; Essays; Letters
Mark Twain (1835-1910)

2. Mark Twain was the most celebrated writer of his time. He was a writer,
humorist, adventurer and prankster but died a curmudgeon. He felt
strongly about his beliefs and opinions. In his early life Twain found
adventure, it seemed, every where he went. He was in Virginia and nearly
found himself in a dual. He went to Hawaii were he spent time in a
commune with beautiful Hawaiian woman. He promoted himself at
every opportunity. He wore a white suit that allowed him to stand out
among the populous.
He hated wealth because of its collateral damage of corruption it caused at
the expense of the less fortunate. However, that didn’t deter him from
trying to attain it. He poured money into get rich quick schemes of which
none availed his desired hopes, in fact, it caused him to go bankrupt. He
defended the slaves and the Chinese immigrants of the indignities
brought upon them by the rich. He poked at that values that rich
American’s held to the delight of the underdog. History would judge him
on his writings causing him to hold the title of an American icon.

3. • John Clemens- lawyer,
storekeeper, judge and land
speculator
• Mother Jane was a fun and
spirited woman
• She lived in poverty for years
after husband died
• His father found solace in
alcohol
and died suddenly from
pneumonia when Sam was 11

4.  Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens on
November 30, 1835 in Florida Missouri
 Sixth of seven children John and Jane
Clemens
 Moved to Hannibal, Missouri at age 4
 Quit school at the age of twelve

5.  Father and uncle owned slaves
 Spent summer days in slave quarters listening
to tales and spiritual fodder
 Witnessed a slave get beat to
death by a white man
 Worked as printer’s apprentice allowing for
knowledge of world news

6.  At 18 went to Philadelphia, New York and
Washington working per diem as newspaper
reporter mailing his stories to his brother
 His brother Orion published Sam’s work in his
Muscatine Journal

7.  At 21 he convinced Horace Bixby to teach him the art
of piloting a steamboat on the Mississippi River
 From 1816-1870 the steamboat carried cotton and
sugar also passengers
 Piloted for two years before the Civil War started
 Joined a confederate unit called the Marion Rangers
and quit after two weeks

9.  In 1861, at 26 followed his brother Orion,
appointed by President Lincoln as Secretary
to Nevada Territory, by stagecoach, west as
his assistant
 Hoped to strike it rich in Nevada's silver rush
 The journey’s trials and tribulations became
fodder for his book, Roughing It

10.  Unable to be profitable in either mining or
assisting his brother and in of a job
 Sept. of 1861 became a writer for the Virginia
City Territorial, Nevada
 Uses the pseudonym “Mark Twain” for first
time-which is a steamboat term that means
12 feet of water

11.  Wrote for the Territorial Enterprise for 3 years
under the name Mark Twain with a style of
friendliness and sharp wit
 Wrote editorials, articles and featured funny
stories with a sharp wit
 Needing a change of scenery he headed to San
Francisco in 1865
 Continued to write stories for local news papers
becoming a favorite story teller to many fans

12.  “Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as
you please.”
 “Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of a joy
you must have somebody to divide it with.”
 “By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity -- another
man's I mean.”
 “Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops
up, all our irritations and resentments slip away and a sunny
spirit takes their place.”
 “I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge
me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and
lead him to a quiet place and kill him.”

13.  His big break came in 1865 mocking the
mining camp he once inhabited with the
publication of “Jim Smiley and His Jumping
Frog” Later named “The Celebrated Jumping
Frog of Calaveras County”
 Became so popular he started on lecture
tours

14.  In 1867, hired by Alto California when he
embarked on a 5 month sea journey through
the Mediterranean writing about the journey
that was met with huge audience acceptance
 In 1869 he finished and published
“ The Innocents Abroad”
becoming one of the best
writers in America

15.  Big names of literary America where centered
in Boston and Cambridge and Twain wanted
their respect
 Twain was quoted as saying, “ I want to
obtain the respectful regard of high eastern
civilization” and said it with a serious face
 He felt like he was crude and lacking class

16.  In 1870,after dating for two years he marries the
daughter of rich coal merchant, Olivia Langdon and
settles in Buffalo, New York
improving his social status,
asking her to help ‘”reform” his
western ways
 Joins the Buffalo Express
as a partner, editor and writer
 Becomes a father for the first time to Langdon
Clemens who dies at the age of two from diphtheria

17.  In 1871 the family moves to Hartford, Ct
 In 1872 his embellished tail of adventure in
crossing the country by stage coach was
brought to life in the story Roughing It
 Twain’s first daughter, Susy, is born and a
year later built a beautiful house in Hartford,
CT

18.  For the next 17 years Twain,
his wife and three daughters
made the house their home
 “To us, our house… had a
heart and soul, and eyes to
see us with; and approvals
and solicitudes and deep sympathies; it was of us, and
we were in its confidence and lived in its grace and the
peace of its benediction”

19.  Although living in Hartford Twain found the
most solitude at his sister in-law’s house in
upstate New York were he wrote most of his
famous books
 Twain’s style captured the conscience of
America by writing about his own history,
political corruption, greed, slavery and the
Reconstruction era

20.  “I am opposed to millionaires, but it would be
dangerous to offer me the position.”
 I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice
letter saying that I approved of it.
 Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear -
not absence of fear.
 I have never let my schooling interfere with my
education.
 A man cannot be comfortable without his own
approval.

21.  Twain’s earlier life was the back drop in his
first book, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer”
in which the book explores the mischievous
and wild deeds of a young boy coming of age
 In 1873 he wrote “The Gilded Age” that
examined the conscience of American greed
and political corruption that was so prevalent
in that period

22.  In 1880, Twain writes the book “The Tramp
Abroad” depicting his travels through Europe
 In 1882, he turns out another 2 books that
deal with the social injustices and class
relations in America called “The Prince and
the Pauper and again in 1889 with
“Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

23.  Twain rounds out his forties with two books
that bring him back to his Mississippi years
“Life on the Mississippi” in 1883 and the
“Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” in 1885

24.  After writing “A Connecticut Yankee in King
Arthur’s Court” Twain, in 1892, wrote “The
American Claimant”
 “The American Claimant” was written with
the help of a phonographic dictation
machine.

25.  In 1884, Twain started his own publishing firm
in order to retain the money he was paying
publishers to publish his books
 Huckleberry Finn was the first book published
by his new found company
 Ulysses S. Grant published his memoir papers
through Twain’s company and was very
profitable for Twain and the Grant estate

26.  Twain made some bad investments; one being,
investing $250,000 in the Paige typesetting
machine
 in 1891,Twain’s bad investments on new
inventions was the cause of going bankrupt and
having to pack up his family and move to Europe
were it was cheaper to live in hopes of paying of
creditors by lecturing he never returned until
1900

28.  In 1894, Twain writes “Tom Sawyer Abroad”
that entails Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn
traveling to Africa in a hot air balloon
 This same year he published “The Tragedy of
Pudd’nhead Wilson” which again took on the
social issues of slavery
 c. 1895 his daughter Susy dies from
meningitis

29.  Twain writes his last novel “Personal
Recollections of Joan of Arc” which he
considers one of his most important pieces of
work
 In 1897, Twain writes another travel book
called “ Following the Equator” describing ill
treatment of weaker governments around
the world by European powers

30.  In 19oo Twain finishes paying off his debts
and returns to America and describes himself
an anti-imperialist and becomes vice
president of the Anti-Imperialist League
 Twain died at the age 0f 74 of a heart attack
at his home in Redding Conn. and buried far
from Hannibal, MO in Elmira, New York

31.  Honorary M.A., 1888, Litt.D., 1901, both Yale
University; LL.D., University of Missouri,
 1902; named to American Academy of Arts
and Letters,
 1904; D.Litt., Oxford University, 1907.

32.  Tom Sawyer, Detective, as Told by Huck Finn,
and Other Stories, 1896
 The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, and
Other Stories and Essays, 1900
 A Double Barrelled Detective Story, 1902
 A Dog's Tale, 1904
 Extracts from Adam's Diary, 1904
 Eve's Diary Translated from the Original Ms,
1906

33.  The Gilded Age, 1873
 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, 1876
 The Prince and The Pauper, 1881
 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, 1884
 The Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s
Court, 1889
 The American Claimant, 1892

34.  Tom Sawyer Abroad, by Huck Finn, 1894
 Puddn’head Wilson, 1894
 Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, 1896
 Extract from CaptainStormfield’s Visit to
Heaven, 1909
 The Mysterious Stranger: A Romance, 1916
 Simon Wheeler: Detective, 1963

35.  The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras
County, 1867
 Screamers: A Gathering of Scraps of Humour,
Delicious Bits, and Short Stories, 1871
 Eye Openers: Good Things, Immensely Funny
Sayings, and Stories, 1871
 Merry Tales, 1892
 The 1,000,000 Pound Bank-Note, and Other
New Stories, 1893

36.  The $30,000 Bequest, 1906
 A Horse's Tale, 1907
 Short Stories of Mark Twain, 1967
 A Story without an End, 1986

37. Twain's last ten years of his life were probably his darkest. He became
disgusted and disgruntled at how greedy people could be and the cruelty in
which they treated each other in order to attain any amount of success.
Some people considered Twain a traitor because of his anti- government
speeches and writings. Some of his works were never published because,
some say, publishing houses feared a backlash from the government or that
they were trying to shield his famous him and his reputation. He became
insensitive to his family and friends and demanded to be treated as an
American icon from admirers. His Honorary Degree’s from both Yale and
Oxford only added to his self worth.
Twain was the best known writer around the world in his time. We can form
a picture in our minds from Twain’s writings of how the world was changing
during the Reconstruction Era and the political atmosphere that contributed
to that change.

38.  http://www.masshist.org/
 http://www.marktwainhouse.org/man/biography_main.ph
 http://www.historyaccess.com/marktwain-histor.html
 George Perkins/ Barbara Perkins: The American Tradition in Literature
 http://www.history.com/topics/steamboat
 http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/twainbio.html
 http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/wilson/pwhompg.html