Mark Twain

Essay by raschiriHigh School, 10th gradeA+, September 1996

download word file, 2 pages 3.7

It is ok, there might be a few mistakes, I don' t think that it has the endnotes on it so the user might want to erase them. Teacher said that I was repetative

Mark Twain

Mark Twain's works are some of the best I've ever read. I love the way he brings you

into the story, especially with the dialogue used, like in Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn. Mark

Twain is my favorite dead author.

Mark Twain was never 'Mark Twain' at all. That was only his pen name. His real name

was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Samuel was born in Florida, Missouri in 1835. He

accomplished worldwide fame during his lifetime for being a great author, lecturer, satirist, and

humorist. Since his death on April 21, 1910, his great literary reputation has further increased.

Many writers such as Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner have declared his work-especially

Huckleberry Finn- a major influence on 20th-century American fiction.

Twain was raised in Hannibal, Missouri, a town on the Mississippi river. After the death

of his father in 1847, Twain joined his brother Orion's newspaper, the Hannibal Journal. During

this time he became accustomed with much of the frontier humor of the time.

From 1853 to 1857, Twain worked in many cities as a printer, and wrote articles for his

brother's newspapers under various nicknames. After a visit to New Orleans, he learned how to

pilot a steamboat. That became his job until the Civil War closed the Mississippi River, and

it set him up for 'Old Times on the Mississippi' and 'Life on the Mississippi.'

In 1861, Twain traveled to Carson City, Nevada, with his brother Orion. After attempts

for silver and gold mining had failed, he continued to write for newspapers. It was in 1863 when

Samuel Clemens adopted...