American writer, journalist Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Samuel Langhorne Clemens), known worldwide as Mark Twain, was born on November 30, 1835 in the small village of Florida (Missouri) in the family of a small merchant. He was the sixth child in a family of seven children.
In 1839, the Clemens family moved to the town of Hannibal in the same state where the future writer spent his childhood. In March 1847, the father died of pneumonia, leaving many debts, and the children were forced to take jobs. In 1848, Sam became an apprentice compositor for the weekly newspaper The Missouri Courier, published in Hannibal, and three years later moved to the Western Union (later the Hannibal Journal), which was published by his older brother, Orion Clemens. The first literary and journalistic works of the future writer were published in this newspaper.
In May 1852, in the Boston magazine "Carpet Bag" was published his essay "The dandy scares the squatter."
In 1853 1857. Samuel Clemens traveled the country, visiting first St. Louis, then the eastern states and Washington. He worked as a compositor in St. Louis, New York and Philadelphia, then in Keokuk (Iowa) and Cincinnati (Ohio).
In New York, he systematically visited the city library in the evenings, in books he looked for more extensive information than he received in a regular school.
In 1857, Sam became an apprentice pilot on a Mississippi steamer, and in April 1859 he received a pilot's license. He continued to work with the New Orleans newspapers True Delta and Crescent.
When the American Civil War began in 1861, Sam fought on the side of the southerners as part of the militia for two weeks. In July 1861, when his elder brother Orion was appointed assistant governor of Nevada Territory, Samuel left west with his brother as his personal secretary. In 1862, in Nevada, hoping to get rich, he went to the silver mines and worked as a prospector for almost a year. After that, he got a job at the Territorial Enterprise newspaper in Virginia City, for which he wrote articles, stories, humorous essays, signing them with the pseudonym Mark Twain. Clemens claimed that the pseudonym ("mark twain" measure 2) was taken by him from the terms of river navigation, which was called the minimum depth suitable for the passage of river vessels.
In 1906, Twain began to dictate his autobiography (he dictated it in 1906-1908), large fragments of which were never combined into a single whole.
Having finished it, Mark Twain banned the publication of the manuscript earlier than one hundred years after his death, which expired in 2010. The Mark Twain Papers & Projects (MTPP) Foundation at the University of California plans to release the first of three volumes of Mark Twain's autobiography.
Mark Twain's work is varied. He left more than 25 volumes of works of various genres, from light sketches and feuilletons to historical novels.
Twain's greatest contributions to American and world literature are the novels The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and a collection of real stories, Life on the Mississippi.
Of the stories published in the last years of his life, the most notable is "The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg" (The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg), as well as sharp, accusatory pamphlets. Treatise "What is a man?" (What Is Man) digression into philosophy. The works of recent years are mostly unfinished. Mark Twain's last satirical work, The Mysterious Stranger, was published posthumously in 1916 from an unfinished manuscript.
Mark Twain was very proud of public recognition: he was the recipient of an honorary degree of Master of Arts (July 1888), and a Doctor of Fine Arts (October 1901) from Yale University, an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from the University of Missouri (June 1902); he especially appreciated the award in 1907 of a doctorate in belles-lettres from the University of Oxford.
Mark Twain was a member of the American Anti-Imperial League which protested the American annexation of the Philippines.
In the last years of his life, Mark Twain was in a deep depression, which began in 1896 when his beloved daughter Susie died of meningitis, the depression intensified when his wife Olivia died in 1904, and on December 24, 1909 in Redding (Connecticut ) daughter Jean died of an attack of epilepsy.
Twain's financial situation was also shaken: his publishing company went bankrupt; he invested a lot of money in a new model of the printing press, which was never put into production.
In January 1910, Mark Twain went to Bermuda, where his illness began to worsen: he was tormented by angina attacks. April 24, 1910 Mark Twain died. He is buried in his wife's family cemetery in Elmira, New York.
Mark Twain's home in Hartford has been turned into his personal museum and declared a National Historic Site in the United States.
A crater on Mercury is named after Mark Twain.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources.
Years of life: from 11/30/1835 to 04/21/1910
Outstanding American writer, satirist, journalist and public figure. He is best known for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Real name is Samuel Langhorne Clemens.
early years
Born in the small town of Florida (Missouri, USA) in the family of merchant John Marshall Clemens and Jane Lampton Clemens. He was the sixth child in a family of seven children.
When Mark Twain was 4 years old, his family moved to the town of Hannibal, a river port on the Mississippi River. Subsequently, this city will serve as the prototype of the town of St. Petersburg in the famous novels "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". At this time, Missouri was a slave state, therefore already at that time Mark Twain was faced with slavery, which he would later describe and condemn in his works.
In March 1847, when Mark Twain was 11, his father died of pneumonia. The following year, he starts working as an assistant in a printing house. Since 1851, he has been typing and editing articles and humorous essays for the Hannibal Journal, a newspaper owned by his brother Orion.
The Orion newspaper soon closed, the brothers' paths diverged for many years, only to cross again by the end of the Civil War in Nevada.
At the age of 18, he left Hannibal and worked at a print shop in New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis and other cities. He was self-educated, spending a lot of time in the library, thus gaining as much knowledge as he would have received from a regular school.
At the age of 22, Twain moved to New Orleans. On the way to New Orleans, Mark Twain traveled by steamboat. Then he had a dream to become the captain of the ship. Twain meticulously taught the route of the Mississippi River for two years, until he received a diploma as a ship captain in 1859. Samuel got his younger brother to work with him. But Henry died on June 21, 1858, when the steamer he was working on exploded. Mark Twain believed that he was primarily to blame for the death of his brother and guilt did not leave him throughout his life until his death. However, he continued to work on the river and worked until the Civil War broke out and shipping on the Mississippi ceased. The war forced him to change his profession, although Twain regretted it for the rest of his life.
Samuel Clemens had to become a Confederate soldier. But since he has been accustomed to being free since childhood, in two weeks he deserts from the ranks of the army of the inhabitants of the South and directs his way west, to his brother in Nevada. It was only rumored that silver and gold had been found in the wild prairies of this state. Here Samuel worked for a year in a silver mine. In parallel with this, he wrote humorous stories for the newspaper "Territorial Enterprise" in Virginia City and in August 1862 received an invitation to become its employee. This is where Samuel Clemens had to look for a pseudonym for himself. Clemens claimed that the pseudonym "Mark Twain" was taken from the terms of river navigation, which was called the minimum depth suitable for the passage of river vessels. This is how the writer Mark Twain appeared in the spaces of America, who in the future managed to win world recognition with his work.
Creation
For several years, Mark Twain wandered from newspaper to newspaper as a reporter and feuilletonist. In addition, he earned extra money by publicly reading his humorous stories. Twain was an excellent orator. As a correspondent for Alta California, he spent five months on a Mediterranean cruise on the steamer Quaker City, during which he collected material for his first book, Simpletons Abroad. Her appearance in 1869 aroused some interest on the part of the reading public because of the combination of good southern humor and satire, rare for those years. Thus, the literary debut of Mark Twain took place. In addition, in February 1870, he married the sister of his friend Ch. Langdon, whom he met during the cruise - Olivia.
Mark Twain's next successful book, co-authored with Charles Warner, was The Gilded Age. The work, on the one hand, is not very successful, because the styles of the co-authors were seriously different, but on the other hand, it became to the taste of readers so much that the time of the reign of President Grant was dubbed its name.
And in 1876, a new book by Mark Twain saw the world, which not only cemented him as the greatest American writer, but forever made his name in the history of world literature. It was the famous "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer". In fact, the writer did not have to invent anything. He remembered his childhood in Hannibal and his life during those years. And now on the pages of the book appeared the place of St. Petersburg, in which one can easily distinguish the features of Hannibal, as well as the features of many other small settlements spread along the banks of the Mississippi. And in Tom Sawyer, you can easily recognize the young Samuel Clemens, who really did not like school and was already smoking at the age of 9.
The success of the book exceeded all expectations. The book, filled with simple humor and written in accessible language, appealed to a wide mass of ordinary Americans. Indeed, in Tom, many recognized themselves in a distant and carefree childhood. This recognition of readers Twain secured the next book, also not designed for the refined minds of literary critics. The story "The Prince and the Pauper", which was published in 1882, takes readers to England during the Tudor era. Exciting adventures are combined in this story with the dream of a simple American to get rich. The casual reader liked it.
The historical theme interested the writer. In the preface to his new novel, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Twain wrote: "If anyone is inclined to condemn our modern civilization, well, it cannot be prevented, but it is good sometimes to draw a comparison between it and what was done in the world earlier, and this should reassure and inspire hope.
Until 1884, Mark Twain was already a well-known writer, and also became a successful businessman. He set up a publishing firm nominally headed by C. L. Webster, the husband of his niece. One of the first books published by his own publishing house was his Adventures of Huckleberry Fin. The work, which, according to critics, was the best in the work of Mark Twain, was conceived as a continuation of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. However, it turned out to be much more complex and multi-layered. It was reflected that the writer had been creating it for almost 10 years. And these years were filled with a constant search for the best literary form, polishing the language and deep reflections. In this book, for the first time in American literature, Twain used the spoken language of the American hinterland. Once it was allowed to be used only in farce and satire on the customs of the common people.
Among other books published by the Mark Twain publishing house can be called "Memoirs" of the eighteenth President of the United States, V.S. Grant. They became a bestseller and brought the desired material well-being to the Samuel Clemens family.
The publishing company of Mark Twain successfully existed until the well-known economic crisis of 1893-1894. The writer's business could not withstand the severe blow and went bankrupt. Back in 1891, Mark Twain was forced to move to Europe in order to save money. From time to time he comes to the United States, trying to improve his financial situation. After the ruin, he does not recognize himself as bankrupt for a long time. In the end, he manages to negotiate with creditors to defer the payment of debts. During this time, Mark Twain wrote several works, among which his most serious historical prose is "Personal Memoirs of Joan of Arc by Sieur Louis de Comte, Her Page and Secretary" (1896), as well as "Coot Wilson" (1894), " Tom Sawyer Abroad (1894) and Tom Sawyer Detective (1896). But none of them could achieve the success that accompanied Twain's previous books.
Later years
The star of the writer inexorably rolled into decline. At the end of the 19th century, a collection of works by Mark Twain began to be published in the United States, thereby elevating him to the category of classics of bygone days. However, the fierce boy who sat inside the elderly, already completely gray-haired, Samuel Clemens did not think to give up. Mark Twain entered the twentieth century with a sharp satire on the powers that be. The writer marked the stormy revolutionary beginning of the century with works designed to expose untruth and injustice: “To a Man Walking in Darkness”, “The United Lynching States”, “The Tsar's Monologue”, “King Leopold's Monologue in defense of his dominance in the Congo”. But in the minds of Americans, Twain remained a classic of "light" literature.
In 1901, he received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from Yale University. The following year, an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Missouri. He was very proud of these titles. For a man who had left school at 12, the recognition of his talent by pundits of famous universities flattered him.
In 1906, Twain acquired a personal secretary, who became A. B. Payne. The young man expressed his desire to write a book about the writer's life. However, Mark Twain has already sat down to write his autobiography several times. As a result, the writer begins to dictate the story of his life to Payne. A year later, he was again awarded a degree. He receives an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Oxford.
At this time, he is already seriously ill, and most of his family members die one after another - he survived the loss of three of his four children, his beloved wife Olivia also died. But even though he was in a deep depression, he could still joke. The writer is tormented by severe attacks of angina pectoris. Ultimately, the heart gives out and on April 24, 1910, at the age of 74, Mark Twain dies.
His last work, the satirical story The Mysterious Stranger, was published posthumously in 1916 from an unfinished manuscript.
Information about the works:
Mark Twain was born in 1835, the day when Halley's comet flew near the Earth, and died in 1910, the day of its next appearance near the earth's orbit. The writer foresaw his death back in 1909: "I came into this world with Halley's comet, and next year I will leave it with it."
Mark Twain foresaw the death of his brother Henry - he dreamed about it a month before. After this incident, he became interested in parapsychology. He subsequently became a member of the Society for Psychical Research.
At first, Mark Twain signed with another pseudonym - Josh. This signature was followed by notes about the life of miners who flooded into Nevada from all over America when the Silver Rush began there.
Twain was fond of science and scientific problems. He was very friendly with Nikola Tesla, they spent a lot of time together in Tesla's laboratory. In his work A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Twain describes a time travel that brought many modern technologies to Arthurian England.
Having received recognition and fame, Mark Twain spent a lot of time searching for young literary talents and helping them to break through, using his influence and the publishing company he acquired.
A crater on Mercury is named after Mark Twain.
Bibliography
Screen adaptations of works, theatrical performances
1907 Tom Sawyer
1909 The Prince and the Pauper
1911 Science
1915 The Prince and the Pauper
1917 Tom Sawyer
1918 Huck and Tom
1920 Huckleberry Finn
1920 The Prince and the Pauper
1930 Tom Sawyer
1931 Huckleberry Finn
1936 Tom Sawyer (Kyiv Film Studio)
1937 The Prince and the Pauper
1938 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
1938 Tom Sawyer, detective
1939 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
1943 The Prince and the Pauper
1947 Tom Sawyer
1954 Million Pound Bank Note
1968 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
1972 The Prince and the Pauper
1973 Completely lost
1973 Tom Sawyer
1978 The Prince and the Pauper
1981 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn
1989 Philip Traum
1993 Hack and the King of Hearts
1994 Eva's Magical Adventure
1994 Million for Juan
1994 Charlie's Ghost: Coronado's Secret
1995 Tom and Huck
2000 Tom Sawyer
Mark Twain is a writer who has made many contributions to journalism and social work. His work was not limited to a certain direction. He wrote humorous and satirical works, journalism and even science fiction. On the other hand, the author has always adhered to a democratic and humanistic position. The description of life should begin with the fact that the real name of Mark Twain is completely different. The initials by which he is known to the whole world is a pseudonym. The history of its origin is quite interesting. The real name of the writer is Samuel Langhorne Clemens.
The emergence of a pseudonym
How did the idea for another name come about? Samuel Clemens himself said that "Mark Twain" was taken from the terminology of river navigation. In his youth, he served as a pilot's mate on the Mississippi. Each time the message that the minimum mark was reached, which was acceptable for the passage of river vessels, sounded like "mark twain". It turns out that there is nothing unusual in this story.
However, there is another version of why the writer changed his real name to Mark Twain. In 1861, the North Star magazine published a story composed in a humorous direction by Artemus Ward. One of the main characters was named Mark Twain. Clemens really liked the humorous section, and for his early performances he chose the stories of this particular author.
Childhood and youth
Samuel Clemens (real name Mark Twain) was born on November 30, 1835 in a small town in Florida, which was located in Missouri. When the boy was 4 years old, his parents, in search of a way to improve their lives, decided to move to the city of Hannibal. He was in the same state. The image of this particular town and its inhabitants was later reflected in most of Mark Twain's published books.
Clemens' father died in 1847 of pneumonia, leaving a large amount of debt. To improve the financial situation of the family, the eldest son decided to publish a newspaper, to which young Samuel made a great contribution. The boy was engaged in typing, and sometimes published as an author of articles. The most lively and interesting works were written by the future Mark Twain. Usually such materials were published when his brother was away. Clemens also occasionally traveled to St. Louis and New York.
Pre-literary activity
The biography of Mark Twain is interesting not only for his literary creations. Before devoting himself to the work of a writer, he worked as a pilot on a steamship. Clemens himself later said that if it were not for the Civil War, he would have continued to work on the ship. Since private shipping was prohibited, the young man had to change his type of activity.
May 22, 1861 is marked in the biography of Mark Twain by the fact that he joined the Masonic brotherhood. The writer knew firsthand about the people's militia, which he vividly described in 1861. In the summer of that year, he went west. Interesting facts of his biography include the experience of working as a miner in Nevada, where silver was mined. But the mining career did not work out, so Clemens decided to try himself as a newspaper employee.
The beginning of a literary career
In the Virginian newspaper, Clemens (Mark Twain's real name was listed a little higher), was first published under a pseudonym. In 1864 he moved to San Francisco, where he began working with several newspapers at once. 1865 was marked by the fact that Mark Twain had his first success as a writer. His story, written in a humorous genre, was published and recognized as the best.
In the spring of 1866, Twain went on a trip to Hawaii. On behalf of the newspaper, he had to tell in letters about what happened to him during the trip. After returning to their native lands, these descriptions were a huge success. Soon the writer received an offer to go on a tour of the state with interesting lectures that the public listened to with pleasure.
Publication of the first book
Twain received his first real recognition as a writer for another book that also contained his travel stories. In 1867, as a correspondent, he set off to travel around Europe. Clemens also visited Russia: in Odessa, Yalta, Sevastopol. Interesting facts about Mark Twain include his visit as part of a ship delegation when he visited the residence of the Emperor of Russia.
The author sent his impressions to the editor, then they were printed in the newspaper. Later they were combined into one book called "Simples Abroad". It was released in 1869, which immediately made a great success. For all his creative activity, Twain traveled to Europe, Asia, America and Australia.
In 1870, when Mark Twain was at the height of his popularity, he married and moved to Buffalo, then to Hartford. At this time, the writer lectured not only in America, but also abroad. After that, he began to work in the genre of sharp satire, criticizing the American government.
creative career
Mark Twain's books are still loved by readers all over the world to this day. The greatest contribution to American literature was made by The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. It is difficult to find a person who would not be familiar with this work. "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer", "The Prince and the Pauper" and other books also enjoy popular love and success. Today they are in the home libraries of many families. Most of his public speeches and lectures have not survived.
Interesting facts about Mark Twain include the fact that some works were banned by the writer himself for publication during his lifetime. The lectures were interesting to the audience because Clemens had a talent for speaking in public. When he achieved fame and recognition, he began to look for young talents and helped them take their first steps in the literary field. The writer used useful contacts in literary circles and his own publishing company.
For example, he was very friendly with Nikola Tesla. Mark Twain was interested in science, which confirms the description of various technologies in books. Periodically, his works were banned by censors. Some creations that could hurt people's religious feelings were not published at the request of the writer's family. Mark Twain himself, with his characteristic sense of humor, took censorship lightly.
The last years of the writer's life
Mark Twain survived the loss of three of his four children, the death of his wife. Despite his depressed state, he never lost his ability to joke. His financial situation was not in the best condition. Most of the savings were invested in a new model of the machine, which was never released. The rights to Mark Twain's books were stolen by plagiarists.
In 1893, the writer was introduced to the famous oil tycoon Henry Rogers. Soon their acquaintance grew into a strong friendship. His death deeply upset Twain. Samuel Clemens, who is known throughout the world as Mark Twain, died on April 21, 1910. This is the same year that Halley's comet flew by.
The biography of Mark Twain is rich in bright events, ups and downs. However, he always treated everything with humor. And his contribution to literature - not only American, but worldwide - is great. And now all the boys, and girls, too, like adults, continue to read about the adventures of two mischievous guys - Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.
The famous writer Mark Twain (real name Samuel Langhorne Clemens) was born on November 30, 1835 in an American large family. His parents were John and Jane Clemens, natives of Missouri. Samuel was the sixth child, in addition to him, four more boys and two girls grew up in the family.
But not all children were able to survive the difficult years, three of them died at an early age. When Sam was four years old, the Clemens family moved in search of a better life in the city of Hannibal. Later, this city with its funny inhabitants and Samuel's funny adventures in it will be reflected in the famous work of the writer "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer".
From a young age, Mark Twain was attracted by the water element, he could sit for a long time on the banks of the river and look at the waves, he even drowned several times, but he was safely rescued. He was especially interested in steamships, Sam dreamed that when he grew up, he would become a sailor and sail on his own ship. It was thanks to this predilection that the pseudonym of the writer was chosen - mark twain, which means “deep water”, literally “measure two”.
In Hannibal, Samuel met Tom Blankenship, the son of an old tramp and alcoholic who lives in a cabin near the river. They became best friends, over time, a whole company of the same adventure lovers gathered. Tom became the prototype for Huckleberry Finn, the protagonist of many of the author's popular children's books.
When Sam was 12 years old, his father died suddenly of pneumonia. Shortly before his death, John Clemens took on the debts of a close friend, but was never able to pay them in full. Samuel was forced to look for work to help his family. His older brother Orion got him a job as a typesetter in the printing house of a local newspaper. Sam tried to print his own poems and articles in the newspaper, but at first this only irritated Orion. In addition to the local press, the young writer sent his first works to other editorial offices, where they were willingly printed.
Youth and early career
In 1857, Mark Twain became a pilot's apprentice, and two years later received the rights to his own driving a ship. However, due to the civil war that broke out in 1861, he was forced to leave his favorite job and look for a new job. In the same year, Mark Twain went with his brother Orion to the west, to the state of Nevada. There he worked for almost a year in the silver mines in a mining town, hoping to get rich, but luck was not on his side.
In 1862, Twain got a job at the editorial office of a local newspaper, in which he first used his creative pseudonym for a signature. A few years later, his works and articles were published in several publications. In 1865, Mark Twain became famous, his humoresque “The Famous Jumping Frog of Calaveras” became popular throughout America, many publishing houses published it repeatedly.
At the height of his writing career, Mark Twain traveled a lot, visited England, Australia, Africa and even Odessa, traveled all over Europe. During these wanderings, he sent letters to his hometown, which were then published in the newspaper. Later, these letters will become the basis for the book "Simples Abroad", which was the first serious creation of the writer. She saw the light in 1869 and brought Twain a well-deserved great success.
At the height of his fame from publishing his first book, Mark Twain married Olivia Langdon, the daughter of a successful entrepreneur. But first, the writer had to try hard to win over Olivia's parents. In 1870 they got engaged. Mark Twain was madly in love with his wife and considered her a perfect and ideal woman, took care of her and never criticized her. Olivia, on the other hand, considered him an eternal boy who would never grow up. In 30 years of marriage, they had four children.
In 1871, Mark Twain and his wife moved to Hartford, where he spent the most peaceful and happy years of his life. In this city, he founded his own publishing company, which began to bring a good income. Mark Twain himself in these years became interested in satire, wrote long stories, ridiculing the vices of American society.
The idea to create an autobiographical novel has matured with the writer for a long time, and after several unsuccessful attempts, in two years with short breaks, Mark Twain created The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The novel is based on childhood memories of the author. But the novel “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is considered the most significant contribution of the writer to literature. Some critics call this work the pinnacle of American literary art, the characters of the novel's characters were so vividly and vividly written.
All his life, Mark Twain was interested in the Middle Ages, he was worried about some of the questions and problems of those years. In 1882, the writer's story "The Prince and the Pauper" was published, where Twain denies the world of social inequality with great enthusiasm and aplomb. And in 1889, another historical novel, A Yankee in King Arthur's Court, was published, on each page of which there was enough sharp irony and satire.
Mark Twain was personally acquainted with Nikola Tesla, his lively mind was interested in the scientific achievements of our time. They often carried out experiments and experiments in the Tesla laboratory. Some technical details in his novels, for example, about time travel, appeared precisely due to close communication with Nikola Tesla.
Also, the writer's contemporaries noted his addiction to pipe smoking. According to many, often in Twain's office there was such a rich tobacco smoke that nothing could be seen in it, as if in a fog.
In 1904, Olivia, Twain's beloved wife, died suddenly. Even in her youth, having unsuccessfully fallen on the ice, she became disabled, and with age her condition only worsened. The writer suffered the loss of his wife very hard, his physical and mental health deteriorated. He did not want to live without his beloved Olivia. After the death of his wife, Mark Twain completely stopped communicating with the female sex, although there were contenders for his heart, but he remained faithful to his wife. In addition, three of his children were tragically killed. All these sad events led to the fact that the writer began a severe depression. The works published at the end of his life were slightly different in genre from the previous ones; poisonous irony and even sarcasm were noticeable in them, or, conversely, bitterness and fatigue. Mark Twain's financial situation also worsened - his publishing company, in which he invested most of his funds, collapsed.
One of the most famous and read works of Mark Twain
The great writer was born on November 30, 1835 in the small town of Florida in the southern United States, on the banks of the Mississippi River. His real name is Samuel Lenhorn Clemens.
Samuel was the sixth child in the family. When he was four years old, his family moved to the small town of Hannibal. When Samuel was 12 years old, his father died of pneumonia and in order to somehow survive, the boy had to leave school and earn money. He got a job at a publishing house. He really liked this job and he and his brother began to publish newspapers, first in their hometown, then moved to Iowa. There was not enough money, and in 1857 the future writer returned home and became a pilot's apprentice - this was his childhood dream. In 1859, Samuel Lenhorn gets a pilot's license, has a high salary and enjoys his work. For many years, Sam served on ships and it was here that he found his literary pseudonym.
At the age of 18, he already knew Ch. Dickens, V.M. Thackeray, V Scott, Disraeli, E. Poe. But most of all he appreciated W. Shakespeare and M. de Cervantes.
In 1861, he had to become a Confederate soldier, because at that time the war between the North and the South began. But two weeks later, Samuel deserts and heads west to join his brother in Nevada. Here he works in a silver mine and writes humorous stories for the Territorial Enterprise newspaper in Virginia City. In 1862, in the same publishing house, he received an invitation to work and was looking for a pseudonym for himself. Thus, a writer was born who, with his work, managed to win world significance.
The writer learned the skills of a comedian, he liked to tease the audience, told something other than what was in the title, made non-logical, absurd conclusions. But, despite this, he was a realist in his stories, as well as - the first and standing realist in American literature.
One of the young writer's most famous stories was "A Journalist in Tennessee" which made people laugh to tears.
The early writings of Mark Twain were cheerful, mischievous and mocking, which amazed their readers. Twain lived by the ideas of his country and his time. He was convinced that America had a great future.
Mark Twain came to literature late. He became a professional journalist at the age of 27. The writer published his first book at the age of 34. His early publications were printed from the age of 17 and were in the nature of the rough humor of the American hinterland. Samuel tried to write with humor, otherwise he quickly got tired. In 1866, after a trip to Hawaii, there was a transformation from an amateur to a true professional. In Hawaii, his duties included writing letters to the editor about his trip while traveling. Mark Twain's recordings, published after his return, were a resounding success.
For several years, he travels through newspapers, moonlighting as a public reading of humorous stories. During a Mediterranean cruise on the steamer Quaker City, he collected material for his first book, Simpletons Abroad. In 1870 he married Olivia Langdon, the sister of his friend Charles Langdon, whom he had met on a cruise.
In 1871, Twain and his family settled in Hartford, Connecticut.
Samuel Clemens' next successful book was The Gilded Century, which he co-wrote with Charles Warner.
And in 1876, the world saw a new book by Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which made the author not only a famous American writer, but also made his name forever in the history of world literature. After completing the writing of Tom Sawyer, Sam began work on a historical book about the English Middle Ages, The Prince and the Pauper (1882).
Needing money, the writer accepted the offer and went with his family to Germany. For almost two years he has been traveling in Germany, Switzerland, Italy, France and England. He will tell about his journey in the book “Walking in Europe”.
In 1883, Mark Twain published Life on the Mississippi, which is dominated by the central image of a free, powerful river that becomes a powerful artistic symbol of unrestricted freedom. Many sections of this book are devoted to the secrets of this profession, its romance.
Until 1884, the writer was already a famous writer and successful businessman. He set up a publishing firm nominally headed by C.L. Webster, the husband of his niece. One of the first books published by this publisher was his Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The book with which "all American literature came out", which, according to critics, became the best in the writer's work, since it was conceived as a continuation of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Mark Twain created this work for almost 10 years. In this book, for the first time in American literature, he used the colloquial speech of the American hinterland. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn marked a turning point in Twain's creative evolution. It was this book that turned the cheerful humorist into a bitter satirist.
In 1889, the satirical masterpiece A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court was published. The writer called this work a "parable of progress", which reflects the painful process of his spiritual searches, contradictions and the bitterness of insight. It seemed to contemporaries that before them was a new social utopia. But, for Twain, this was the way for a new genre - dystopia, in which the literary parody was combined with the philosophical grotesque, and in form it resembled an adventure novel.
In 1893-1894, during the economic crisis, the writer's business could not withstand the severe blow and went bankrupt. In 1898, he manages to negotiate with creditors to defer the payment of debts. During this time, Mark Twain wrote several works, including historical prose - "Personal Memoirs of Joan of Arc" (1896), as well as "Razzyawa Wilson" (1894), "Tom Sawyer Abroad" (1894) and "Tom Sawyer detective" (1896). But, none of these works could do better than the rest of the books that were written before.
In 1896, while he and his wife were traveling around the world to write another book, Along the Equator (1897), his beloved daughter Susie died. Soon, the youngest daughter became seriously ill, a year later the elder brother died.
By the end of the 19th century, a collection of works by Mark Twain was being published in the United States, thereby reducing him to the category of writers of bygone days. But, no longer a young writer, he was not going to give up. At the beginning of the 20th century, Samuel published works in which he revealed untruth and injustice: “The Man Walking in Darkness”, “The King's Monologue”, “King Leopold's Monologue, in defense of his dominion in the Congo”.
In 1901 he received an honorary doctorate in red writing from Yale University. He was very proud of this title.
In 1904 Samuel lost his wife.
The writer took the blow of fate, responding to it with an avalanche of essays, political and critical articles, numerous speeches and sharp pamphlets.
Among the publications of the last period, the story “The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg” (1899), which violates the fundamental foundations of being, was filled with evil humor with impeccable success.
Mark Twain had long wanted to write his autobiography, but in 1906 he got a personal secretary - A.B. Payne, who really wants to write a book about the writer. As a result, the great writer begins to dictate the story of his life. A year later, Samuel again receives an honorary doctorate in red writing from the University of Oxford.
By this time, he is seriously ill, most of his family members are dying one after another. The writer suffers from angina pectoris. April 24, 1910, at the age of 74, the writer's heart gives out and he dies.
The shades of Twain's laughter are rich and changeable. Mark Twain proved the ability of comic literature to become the epic of folk life. He fully earned the reputation of "American Voltaire".
His last work, The Mysterious Stranger, was published posthumously in 1916.
