Short Bio

 

Mark Twain was born on November 30, 1835, in Florida, Missouri. His birth name was Samuel L. Clemens and wrote under the pen name Mark Twain and went to write several novels and those included two major successful classics: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Although he was a an author he was an also a riverboat pilot, journalist, lecturer, entrepreneur and inventor. Mark Twain died on April 21, 1910, in Redding, Connecticut.

 

 

The Early Years

 

Samuel L. Clemens was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri, the sixth of seven children. At the age of 4, Sam and his family moved to the small frontier town of Hannibal, Missouri, on the banks of the Mississippi River. At this time Missouri was a really new at the time and it was also a slave state. Sam's father owned one slave and his uncle owned several slaves. Samuel often spent most of his time on his uncle's farm and spent summers playing in the slave quarters, he often listened to the tall tales and the slave spirituals that he would enjoy throughout his life. In the year, 1847, when Sam was 11, his father died and shortly after he left school and began to work as a printer's apprentice for a local newspaper. His job there was to arrange the type for each of the newspapers stories, this allowed Sam to read the news of the world while doing his work.

 

Mark Twain as A Young Adult

When Sam was 18, he went to the east, New York and Philly, this is where he would work on different newspapers and had some success at writing some articles. In the year 1857, he returned home and and wanted to start a new career as a riverboat pilot, but this quickly change due to the civil war in 1861. He did join the civil war and joined as a volunteer to a Confederate unit called the Marion Rangers, but quit after two weeks. He had trouble searching for a new career, so in July 1861, he traveled west and was intrigued because he wanted to make it rich in the Nevada silver rush. While his trip there he would get into various events that would later on make it to his books and short stories. He got to Nevada and didn’t do to great as a prospector and shortly after began writing for the Territorial Enterprise, which was a Nevada city newspaper. Sam being the way he was, wanted change and headed to San Francisco in the year 1864. He had luck in the year 1865 when he published his short story, “Jim Smiley and his Jumping Frog.” He published his short story in the papers all across the country and a year later was hired to a new job. He began getting popular and went on his first lecture tour and was a successful performer. He arrived in New York City in 1867 and signed up for a steamship tour of Europe and the Holy Land.

 

Mark Twain's Marriage and Family

After being together for about two years, Same Clemens and Olivia Langdon got married in February 1870. They moved and settled in Buffalo, New York. This is where Sam had become the publisher for the daily newspaper the Buffalo Express. While he lived there in New York he had his first child, Langdon Clemens. So in the year 1871, him and his family moved to Hartford, Connecticut. He had been there before and absolutely loved the place. During the first few years of their stay they rented a house in Nook Farm, this was an area well known to be home for numerous writers and publishers. In the year 1872 they had their second child, this was Sam's first daughter Susy. Their son had died at the age of two from diphtheria. (would have a link to the definition)