1、Early lifeSamuel Clemens, age 15Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born in Florida, Missouri, on November 30, 1835, to a Tennessee country merchant, John Marshall Clemens (August 11, 1798 March 24, 1847), and Jane Lampton Clemens (June 18, 1803 October 27, 1890).4Twain was the sixth of seven children. Onl
2、y three of his siblings survived childhood: his brother Orion (July 17, 1825 December 11, 1897); Henry, who died in a riverboat explosion (July 13, 1838 June 21, 1858); and Pamela (September 19, 1827 August 31, 1904). His sister Margaret (May 31, 1830 August 17, 1839) died when Twain was three, and
3、his brother Benjamin (June 8, 1832 May 12, 1842) died three years later. Another brother, Pleasant (18281829), died at six months.5 Twain was born two weeks after the closest approach to Earth of Halleys Comet. On December 4, 1985, the United States Postal Service issued a stamped envelope for “Mark
4、 Twain and Halleys Comet.“ 6When Twain was four, his family moved to Hannibal, Missouri,7 a port town on the Mississippi River that inspired the fictional town of St. Petersburg in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.8 Missouri was a slave state and young Twain became fam
5、iliar with the institution of slavery, a theme he would later explore in his writing.Twains father was an attorney and a local judge.9 The Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad was organized in his office in 1846. The railroad connected the second and third largest cities in the state and was the western
6、most United States railroad until the Transcontinental Railroad. It delivered mail to and from the Pony Express.10In March 1847, when Twain was 11, his father died of pneumonia.11 The next year, he became a printers apprentice. In 1851, he began working as a typesetter and contributor of articles an
7、d humorous sketches for the Hannibal Journal, a newspaper owned by his brother Orion. When he was 18, he left Hannibal and worked as a printer in New York City, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Cincinnati. He joined the union and educated himself in public libraries in the evenings, finding wider inform
8、ation than at a conventional school.12 At 22, Twain returned to Missouri.On a voyage to New Orleans down the Mississippi, the steamboat pilot, Horace E. Bixby, inspired Twain to be a steamboat pilot. As Twain observed in Life on the Mississippi, the pilot surpassed a steamboats captain in prestige a
9、nd authority; it was a rewarding occupation with wages set at $250 per month,13 roughly equivalent to $73,089 a year today. A steamboat pilot needed to know the ever-changing river to be able to stop at the hundreds of ports and wood-lots. Twain studied 2,000 miles (3,200 km) of the Mississippi for
10、more than two years before he received his steamboat pilot license in 1859.While training, Samuel convinced his younger brother Henry to work with him. Henry was killed on June 21, 1858, when the steamboat on which he was working, the Pennsylvania, exploded. Twain had foreseen this death in a dream
11、a month earlier,14 which inspired his interest in parapsychology; he was an early member of the Society for Psychical Research.15 Twain was guilt-stricken and held himself responsible for the rest of his life. He continued to work on the river and was a river pilot until the American Civil War broke
12、 out in 1861 and traffic along the Mississippi was curtailed.Missouri was considered by many to be part of the South, and was represented in both the Confederate and Federal governments during the Civil War. Twain wrote a sketch, “The Private History of a Campaign That Failed“, which claimed he and
13、his friends had been Confederate volunteers for two weeks before disbanding their company.16TravelsThe library of the Mark Twain House, which features hand-stenciled paneling, fireplaces from India, embossed wallpapers and an enormous hand-carved mantel that the Twains purchased in Scotland (HABS ph
14、oto)Twain joined Orion, who in 1861 became secretary to James W. Nye, the governor of Nevada Territory, and headed west. Twain and his brother traveled more than two weeks on a stagecoach across the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains, visiting the Mormon community in Salt Lake City. The experience
15、s inspired Roughing It and provided material for The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. Twains journey ended in the silver-mining town of Virginia City, Nevada, where he became a miner.16 Twain failed as a miner and worked at a Virginia City newspaper, the Territorial Enterprise.17 Here he
16、 first used his pen name. On February 3, 1863, he signed a humorous travel account “Letter From Carson re: Joe Goodman; party at Gov. Johnsons; music“ with “Mark Twain“.18Twain moved to San Francisco, California in 1864, still as a journalist. He met writers such as Bret Harte, Artemus Ward, and Dan
17、 DeQuille. The young poet Ina Coolbrith may have romanced him.19His first success as a writer came when his humorous tall tale, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County“, was published in a New York weekly, The Saturday Press, on November 18, 1865. It brought him national attention. A year l
18、ater, he traveled to the Sandwich Islands (present-day Hawaii) as a reporter for the Sacramento Union. His travelogues were popular and became the basis for his first lectures.20In 1867, a local newspaper funded a trip to the Mediterranean. During his tour of Europe and the Middle East, he wrote a p
19、opular collection of travel letters, which were later compiled as The Innocents Abroad in 1869. It was on this trip that he met his future brother-in-law.Marriage and childrenTwain in 1867Charles Langdon showed a picture of his sister, Olivia, to Twain; Twain claimed to have fallen in love at first
20、sight. The two met in 1868, were engaged a year later, and married in February 1870 in Elmira, New York.20 She came from a “wealthy but liberal family“, and through her he met abolitionists, “socialists, principled atheists and activists for womens rights and social equality“, including Harriet Beec
21、her Stowe (his next door neighbor in Hartford, Connecticut), Frederick Douglass, and the writer and utopian socialist William Dean Howells,21 who became a longtime friend.The couple lived in Buffalo, New York from 1869 to 1871. Twain owned a stake in the Buffalo Express newspaper, and worked as an e
22、ditor and writer. Their son Langdon died of diphtheria at 19 months.In 1871,22 Twain moved his family to Hartford, Connecticut, where starting in 1873, he arranged the building of a home (local admirers saved it from demolition in 1927 and eventually turned it into a museum focused on him). While li
23、ving there Olivia gave birth to three daughters: Susy (18721896), Clara (18741962)23 and Jean (18801909). The couples marriage lasted 34 years, until Olivias death in 1904.During his seventeen years in Hartford (18741891), Twain wrote many of his best-known works: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)
24、, The Prince and the Pauper (1881), Life on the Mississippi (1883), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court (1889).Twain made a second tour of Europe, described in the 1880 book A Tramp Abroad. His tour included a stay in Heidelberg from May 6 until July
25、 23, 1878, and a visit to London.Love of science and technologyTwain in the lab of Nikola Tesla, early 1894He was fascinated with science and scientific inquiry. He developed a close and lasting friendship with Nikola Tesla, and the two spent much time together in Teslas laboratory.Twain patented th
26、ree inventions, including an “Improvement in Adjustable and Detachable Straps for Garments“ (to replace suspenders) and a history trivia game.24 Most commercially successful was a self-pasting scrapbook; a dried adhesive on the pages only needed to be moistened before use.His book A Connecticut Yank
27、ee in King Arthurs Court features a time traveler from contemporary America, using his knowledge of science to introduce modern technology to Arthurian England. This type of storyline would later become a common feature of the science fiction sub-genre, Alternate history.In 1909, Thomas Edison visit
28、ed Twain at his home in Redding, Connecticut and filmed him. Part of the footage was used in The Prince and the Pauper (1909), a two-reel short film.Financial troublesTwain made a substantial amount of money through his writing, but he lost a great deal through investments, mostly in new inventions
29、and technology, particularly the Paige typesetting machine. It was a beautifully engineered mechanical marvel that amazed viewers when it worked, but was prone to breakdowns. Twain spent $300,000 (equal to $7,590,000 today) on it between 1880 and 1894,25 but before it could be perfected, it was made
30、 obsolete by the Linotype. He lost not only the bulk of his book profits but also a substantial portion of his wifes inheritance.26Twain also lost money through his publishing house, which enjoyed initial success selling the memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, but went broke soon after, losing money on a b
31、iography of Pope Leo XIII; fewer than two hundred copies were sold.26Twains writings and lectures, combined with the help of a new friend, enabled him to recover financially.27 In 1893, he began a 15-year-long friendship with financier Henry Huttleston Rogers, a principal of Standard Oil. Rogers fir
32、st made Twain file for bankruptcy. Then Rogers had Twain transfer the copyrights on his written works to his wife, Olivia, to prevent creditors from gaining possession of them. Finally, Rogers took absolute charge of Twains money until all the creditors were paid.Twain embarked on an around-the-worl
33、d lecture tour in 189428 to pay off his creditors in full, although he was no longer under any legal obligation to do so.29 In mid-1900, he was the guest of newspaper proprietor Hugh Gilzean-Reid at Dollis Hill House. Twain wrote of Dollis Hill that he had “never seen any place that was so satisfact
34、orily situated, with its noble trees and stretch of country, and everything that went to make life delightful, and all within a biscuits throw of the metropolis of the world“.30 He then returned to America in 1900, having earned enough to pay off his debts, without settling for less, which would hav
35、e been cheaper and easier, for him.Speaking engagementsTwain was in demand as a featured speaker, and appeared before many mens clubs, including the White Friars, the Vagabonds, the Authors, the Monday Evening Club of Hartford, and the Beefsteak Club. He was made an honorary member of the Bohemian C
36、lub in San Francisco. In the late 1890s, he spoke to the Savage Club in London and was elected honorary member. When told that only three men had been so honored, including the Prince of Wales, he replied “Well, it must make the Prince feel mighty fine.“31 In 1897, Twain spoke to the Concordia Press
37、 Club in Vienna as a special guest, following diplomat Charlemagne Tower. In German, to the great amusement of the assemblage, Twain delivered the speech “Die Schrecken der deutschen Sprache“ (“The Horrors of the German Language“).32Later lifeMark Twain in his gown (scarlet with grey sleeves and fac
38、ings) for his D.Litt. degree, awarded to him by Oxford University.Twain passed through a period of deep depression, which began in 1896 when his daughter Susy died of meningitis. Olivias death in 1904 and Jeans on December 24, 1909, deepened his gloom.33 On May 20, 1909, his close friend Henry Roger
39、s died suddenly.In 1906, Twain began his autobiography in the North American Review. In April, Twain heard that his friend Ina Coolbrith had lost nearly all she owned in the 1906 San Francisco earthquake, and he volunteered a few autographed portrait photographs to be sold for her benefit. To furthe
40、r aid Coolbrith, George Wharton James visited Twain in New York and arranged for a new portrait session. Initially resistant, Twain admitted that four of the resulting images were the finest ones ever taken of him.34Twain formed a club in 1906 for girls he viewed as surrogate granddaughters, the Ang
41、el Fish and Aquarium Club. The dozen or so members ranged in age from 10 to 16. Twain exchanged letters with his “Angel Fish“ girls and invited them to concerts and the theatre and to play games. Twain wrote in 1908 that the club was his “lifes chief delight.“35Oxford University awarded Twain an hon
42、orary doctorate in letters (D.Litt.) in 1907.In 1909, Twain is quoted as saying:36I came in with Halleys Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I dont go out with Halleys Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt
43、: Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.His prediction was accurate Twain died of a heart attack on April 21, 1910, in Redding, Connecticut, one day after the comets closest approach to Earth.Upon hearing of Twains death, President William Howa
44、rd Taft said:3738“Mark Twain gave pleasure real intellectual enjoyment to millions, and his works will continue to give such pleasure to millions yet to come. His humor was American, but he was nearly as much appreciated by Englishmen and people of other countries as by his own countrymen. He has ma
45、de an enduring part of American literature.“Mark Twain headstone in Woodlawn Cemetery.Twains funeral was at the “Old Brick“ Presbyterian Church in New York.39 He is buried in his wifes family plot at Woodlawn Cemetery in Elmira, New York. His grave is marked by a 12-foot (i.e., two fathoms, or “mark
46、 twain“) monument, placed there by his surviving daughter, Clara.40 There is also a smaller headstone.WritingOverviewTwain began his career writing light, humorous verse, but evolved into a chronicler of the vanities, hypocrisies and murderous acts of mankind. At mid-career, with Huckleberry Finn, h
47、e combined rich humor, sturdy narrative and social criticism. Twain was a master at rendering colloquial speech and helped to create and popularize a distinctive American literature built on American themes and language. Many of Twains works have been suppressed at times for various reasons. Adventu
48、res of Huckleberry Finn has been repeatedly restricted in American high schools, not least for its frequent use of the word “nigger“, which was in common usage in the pre-Civil War period in which the novel was set.A complete bibliography of his works is nearly impossible to compile because of the v
49、ast number of pieces written by Twain (often in obscure newspapers) and his use of several different pen names. Additionally, a large portion of his speeches and lectures have been lost or were not written down; thus, the collection of Twains works is an ongoing process. Researchers rediscovered published material by Twain as recently as 1995.26Early journalism and traveloguesCabin in which Twain wrote Jumping Frog of Calaveras, located on Jackass Hill in
