Meet the Author: Mark Twain, aka Samuel Clemens

 

Samuel Clemens

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was written by Mark Twain, who was really Samuel Clemens.  Samuel Clemens was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri to John Marshall Clemens and Jane Lampton Clemens.  Florida was an extremely small village, with a population of one hundred.  On the night of his birth, Halley's Comet was seen in the sky.  Clemens joked that since he was born on an appearance of Halley's Comet, he would die when the comet returned.

When Clemens was four years old, his family moved to Hannibal, Missouri, a town on the Mississippi River.  Clemens had many happy

Hannibal, Missouri

childhood  memories of steamboats and the river. St. Petersberg (where Huck Finn begins) is based upon of Hannibal, Missouri.

In 1847, his father died. Hard times forced Clemens to leave Hannibal to become a printer's assistant when he was seventeen years old.  Clemens eventually worked for his brother, Orion, a newspaper publisher.  Clemens held jobs in the printing business in New York, Pennsylvania, and Iowa.  In all of his jobs, Clemens tried writing funny writing pieces for the newspaper.

Clemens Piloting a Steamboat

But, when traveling down the Mississippi River, Clemens apprenticed himself to be a steamboat pilot, a job of his dreams.  After eighteen months of training, he was a pilot.  Clemens piloted the Mississippi waters for three years.

But, when the Civil War stopped traffic on the Mississippi River, Clemens joined the Confederate Army for two weeks, then deserted.  He joined his brother, Orion, in Carson City, Nevada.

"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"

In Nevada, Clemens tried to enter the timber business, then the mining one without much success.  He finally found success writing for the newspaper and wrote in many other publications in the West.  One notable piece was "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," which was published in newspapers throughout the nation in 1865.  But it was in 1863 when Clemens started using his pen name, Mark Twain, which meant the water was twelve feet deep in river boating terms.  Clemens left San Francisco in 1866 and traveled to Hawaii.  He briefly returned to Missouri, then moved to New York as an entertaining lecturer.  In 1867, he embarked on a grand tour of Europe and the Middle East, which his book, Innocents Abroad is about (1869).  Back in the United States, Clemens married Olivia Langdon in 1870.  They moved to Buffalo, New York, then permanently to Hartford, Connecticut.

In Connecticut, Clemens began writing more books, such as Roughing It (1872), and autobiography about his life in the West.  Clemens also wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884).  But, Clemens was unlucky in business, and near the end of his life, he experienced a long period of depression.  This depression began in 1896 when his daughter, Susy, died.  His wife then died in 1904, and another daughter died in 1909.  And, Clemens's prophecy came true, and he died on April 21, 1910, one day after the comet emerged from the far side of the sun.

Pictures:

First picture courtesy of: http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Clemens-1

Second picture courtesy of: http://www.pixadilly.com/archives/2552

Third picture courtesy of: http://www.twainquotes.com/Steamboat3.html

Fourth picture courtesy of: http://www.indiana.edu/~liblilly/games/portraitauth.html