MARK TWAIN

1. MARK TWAIN

2. A Legend is Born • Born on Nov. 30, 1835 • The small town of Florida, Missouri witnessed the birth of its most famous son • Samuel Langhorne Clemens was welcomed into the world as the sixth child of John Marshall and Jane Lampton Clemens

3. Childhood • When Samuel was 4, the Clemens family moved 35 miles east to the town of Hannibal • Hannibal was a growing port city along the banks of the Mississippi • Hannibal was a frequent stop for steam boats arriving both day & night from St. Louis & New Orleans

4. Childhood (Cont.) • Samuel's father was a judge • As a boy, Samuel was kept indoors because of poor health • By age nine, he recovered from his ailments and joined the rest of the town's children outside • He then attended a private school in Hannibal

5. Childhood (Cont.) • When Samuel was 12, his father died of pneumonia • At 13, Samuel left school to become a printer's apprentice • After two years, he joined his brother Orion's newspaper as a printer and editorial assistant • It was here that Samuel found he enjoyed writing

6. Life on the Mississippi • At 17, he left Hannibal for a printer's job in St. Louis • While in St. Louis, Clemens became a river pilot's apprentice • Twain studied 2,000 miles of the Mississippi for more than two years before he became a licensed river pilot in 1858. • 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 • Clemens' pseudonym, Mark Twain, comes from a river term which means two fathoms or 12-feet. "Mark twain" means that is safe to navigate

7. Young Adulthood • The river trade was brought to a stand still by the Civil War in 1861 • 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 • Clemens began working as a newspaper reporter for several newspapers all over the United States • In 1870, Clemens married Olivia Langdon

8. Descendents • Samuel and Olivia had four children • One child died in infancy and two who died in their twenties • Their surviving child, Clara, lived to be 88, and had one daughter • Clara's daughter died without having any children, so there are no direct living descendants of Samuel Clemens

9. Success as a Writer • Twain began to gain fame when his story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calavaras County" appeared in the New York Saturday Press on November 18, 1865 • Twain's first book, The Innocents Abroad, was published in 1869 • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in 1876 • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in 1885 • A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court in 1889 • He wrote 28 books and numerous short stories, letters and sketches

10. Death • Mark Twain passed away from a heart attack on April 21, 1910 • “I came in with Halley's 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 don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.‘”

11. Miscellaneous • He wrote in the Realism & Naturalism period of American literature • He is called as the "greatest American humorist of his age" • His childhood home is open to the public as a museum in Hannibal • Calavaras County in California holds the “Calavaras County Fair and Jumping Frog Jubilee” every third weekend in May