Mark Twain Biography

There are few greater icons in American history besides Mark Twain. Mark Twain had an insight into America’s conscience and he brilliantly articulated it to the world. The average American was compelled to take a good look at himself in the mirror after reading Mark Twain.

Today, Mark Twain is known as a great writer as well as a humorist and American icon. Mark Twain was known and respected throughout the world as a humorist during his life, and since his death, his reputation has only grown.

Mark Twain is known all over the world for his stories - The Celebrating Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, A Tramp Aboard, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Tragedy of Pudd`nhead Wilson, The Prince and the Pauper, Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur`s Court. These books have been translated and sold as classics all over the world.

Mark Twain was born in Hannibal, Missouri in 1835. He was born as Samuel Clemens, the name Mark Twain was adopted later. The Clemens family consisted of two brothers, a sister, and the family-owned slave, Jenny, whose vivid storytelling was a formative influence on the young Sam.

Some years later, after he had left the river to continue his journalistic career, Sam realized he needed a pen-name for the more comedic and fantastic columns he was writing. This was especially necessary since he had been dispatched to Carson City to report the activities of the Nevada legislature.

While working in Carson City he met his mentor, the popular humorist Artemus Ward, who recognized Clemens' talent and encouraged him to write 'as much as possible.' Mark Twain did precisely that. Young Samuel went back to his roots of the river to arrive at the perfect name.

As his pen name, he chose a bit of the lingo, relating to the periodic measurement of the distance between the bottom of the steamboat and the riverbed. When the leadsman detected a depth of only twelve feet (two fathoms), he would sound the alert: 'By the maaa-ark, twain!'

It was not so easy to work at Hartford; there was too much going on. The Clemens home was a sort of general headquarters for literary folk, near and far, and for distinguished foreign visitors of every sort. Every foreign notable who visited America made a pilgrimage to Hartford to see Mark Twain. Some even went as far as Elmira, among them Rudyard Kipling, who recorded his visit in a chapter of his American Notes. Kipling declared he had come all the way from India to see Mark Twain.

The same year that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published, Twain formed the firm Charles L. Webster & Company. The company published Twain's works and that of other writers, including American general and president Ulysses S. Grant. The company suffered a critical blow after a disastrous investment in an automatic typesetting machine. Twain's company filed for bankruptcy in 1894 and left Twain in considerable debt.

The financial woes that plagued Mark Twain drove him out of America and into Europe in 1891. For most of the decade, the family lived in various countries throughout Europe, including France, Germany, Italy and Switzerland. Even through these tumultuous times, Twain continued to write and lecture. He used a worldwide lecture tour and the book based on those travels, "Following the Equator" (1897), to pay off his debts. He also revived help from Standard Oil executive Henry Rogers. Twain payed off all of his debt by 1898.

Twain's health began failing in the first decade at the turn of the century. In January of 1910, he went to Bermuda because of his health, but after it appeared his health wasn't improving he returned to Stormfield where he sank into a coma and died on April 21, 1910. Samuel Clemens died at age 74 and was buried next to his wife and children at Woodlawn Cemetery, in Elmira, N.Y. At the same time of Twain's death, Halley's Comet reappeared in the April skies. The last time the comet had appeared was in November 1835, the time of Twain's birth. Twain often said the he would "go out with the comet." Remarkably, his prediction came true.

Mark Twain's work was always of a kind to make people talk, always important, even when it was mere humor. The focal point of his work was that there was no focal point. Mark Twain was never dogmatic and gave off the impression that he was ready to accept a new idea. Some of his aphorisms--so quaint in form as to invite laughter--are yet fairly startling in their purport. He once said, "Frankness is a jewel; only the young can afford it."