Mark Twain

Andre Anderson

Period 1

Mrs. Rollings

May 3, 2007

Regional Project: Mark Twain

Mark Twain is believed to be the father of all American literature. Twain was known for writing about issues of his time such as slavery, due to his style of honesty and truth he was known as one of the very first modernist writers. Mark Twain had many inspirations that motivated him to write his novels. The inspirations varied from events that he witnessed and experienced, people he met in his lifetime, other stories he read or heard about, and his environment.

The writer known as, Mark Twain, was actually born with the name Samuel Langhorne Clemens in Florida, Missouri, to John Marshall Clemens and Jane Lampton Clemens on November 30, 1835. While Samuel Clemens was very young the Clemens family moved to Hannibal, Missouri, the inspiration for most of Samuel Clemens novels. John Marshall Clemens worked as a lawyer, but he was very successful, so he also did some work as a land speculator. The Clemens family was never very wealthy but they were middle class. John Marshall Clemens was agonistic and his wife, Jane Lampton Clemens, was a strong Presbyterian. This is influenced much of Samuel Clemens religious beliefs and also his satirical attitude in his novels. Samuel Clemens had a relatively normal childhood until the age of twelve when his father died. The same year his father died Clemens ended his formal school and became his brother Orion's, who was a printer, apprentice. He was a printer's apprentice until his eighteenth birthday. He then learned to be a river pilot for the price of $500. Even though Clemens had become a riverboat pilot he still wrote but under pseudonyms such as Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass, W. Epaminandos Adrastus Blab, Sergeant Fathom, and Josh. Clemens worked as a river pilot for four years until the start of the Civil War. Clemens enlisted into the Confederate army in 1861. He deserted two weeks after enlisting.

Later that same year, Clemens headed West with his older brother, Orion, in search of great wealth, mining silver in the deserts of Nevada. Samuel Langhorne Clemens was a completely unsuccessful miner; however he still managed to make a living, largely due to his skills in journalism. He was employed by the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise. In the years that he was employed by the Territorial Enterprise, Clemens developed his abilities as a reporter and humorist. In 1863, while still employed by the Territorial Enterprise, Clemens adopted the pseudonym Mark Twain which is a riverboat term meant two fathoms deep. Clemens made a gradual change to using Mark Twain as his official pen name. The name Mark Twain gave Clemens the confidence and freedom to make his writing more humoristic. Due to his new confidence and humorist style Twain began a rivalry with another local journalist. The rivalry eventually caused Twain to flee Virginia City or lose his life in a pistol duel to the rival journalist. Twain relocated in San Francisco, where he continually attacked the metropolis' government, which caused him to flee to a nearby settlement from the city's police force. Twain heard some local folklore about a leaping frog which prompted him to write a humorous piece titled, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" which was circulated by the New York Saturday Press. The piece enabled Twain to gain the respect of literary critics of the eastern United States. Twain also achieved some much deserved fame in the East. After the publishing of the frog piece, Twain began writing similar drafts regularly for magazines and newspapers.

In 1867, Mark Twain and his brother took a tour of Europe and Middle East aboard the Quaker City. While on the Quaker City, Twain met a woman by the name of Olivia Langdon. Twain claimed that he was instantly in love with Langdon from the moment he laid eyes on her. In the year of 1870, Mark Twain and Olivia Langdon were wed in Buffalo, New York. Olivia Langdon served as a censor for Mark Twain in all 37 years of their marriage. After living a few years in the city of Buffalo Mark Twain and his wife moved to Hartford, Connecticut. Twain and Olivia Langdon had three daughters, Susy, Clara, and Jean. While living in Hartford Twain was a neighbor to the Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom's Cabin. It is agreed upon by nearly all critics that the years that Twain lived in Hartford were the most creative of his literary career. Twain wrote approximately ten novels in the years he lived in Hartford. His novels were extremely successful and he acquired large amounts of wealth, however due to a interest in publishing and a risky investment in James Paige's Paige machine,