Mark Twain

1. Mark Twain Mark Twain's personality was funny, out-going, and cooperative. His humorous and insightful remarks were often quoted around the world, both then and now. Mark Twain will be remembered and quoted for a long time. Class:義No.18Name:連蘭誼Celeste

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3. Biography Mark Twain (whose real name was Samuel Clemens), a well-known American writer, was born in Florida, Missouri, of a Virginian family on Nov. 30, 1835. The year he was born, Halley's Comet(*1) passed over. Twain vowed that he would not die until he saw the famous comet. Then, just before he died Halley's Comet passed over. He died the next day; April 21st, 1910, at 6:30 p.m. Mark Twain stopped breathing. Clemens held many different jobs during his lifetime. Among them, a reporter, a publisher, and a riverboat pilot. Twain was also a great writer, his three best books wereRoughing It, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,andThe Adventuresof Huckleberry Finn. His books sold many copies. One of his books, A TrampAbroad sold 25,000 copies. Now, let's take a look at this great writer's life... Early Life and Works I Early Life and Works I I Mature Works Later Life and Works

4. Biography-Early Life and Works I- After the death of his father in 1847, young Clemens was apprenticed to a printer in Hannibal, Mo., the Mississippi River town where he spent most of his childhood. He first began writing for his brother's newspaper there, and later he worked as a printer in several major Eastern cities. In 1857 Clemens began working as a cub pilot on Mississippi River steamboats and received his steamboat pilot license in 1859. For the next two years Twain worked as a steamboat pilot until 1861 when the Civil War(*2) was put a stop to travel on the river. In 1862, Clemens began writing for many magazines and newspapers under the pen name of Mark Twain, a name taken from a riverboat term. Soon the humorist “Mark Twain” emerged, a writer of tall tales(*3) and absurd anecdotes.

5. Biography-Early Life and Works II- In 1864 Twain left for California, and worked in San Francisco as a reporter. He visited Hawaii as a correspondent for The Sacramento Union, publishing letters on his trip and giving lectures. He set out world tour, traveling in France and Italy. His experiences were recorded in 1869 in The Innocents Abroad, which gained him wide popularity, and poked fun at both American and European prejudices and manners. He first won fame with the comic masterpiece “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” first published in 1865 in the New York Saturday Press and later (1867) used as the title piece for a volume of stories and sketches.

6. Biography-Mature Works- In 1870 Twain married Olivia Langdon in Elmira, New York. The couple lived in Buffalo, New York, where Clemens worked as an editor and writer for the Buffalo Express. Next year, they moved to Hartford, where Clemens wrote most of his best work. During the days in Hartford, some of Twain's best work was written and published, like The Gilded Age (1873), The Adventures of TomSawyer (1876), The Adventures of HuckleberryFinn(1884), The Prince and the Pauper (1882), Life on the Mississippi (1883). A Tramp Abroad (1880), and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889)...etc.

7. Biography-Later Life and Works- His later life was shadowed by the deaths of two of his daughters and by the long illness and death in 1904 of his wife. Some critics think that the fierce pessimism of his later works derives from these tragedies. Before he died Twain received an honorary doctorate from Oxford University. Although most of Twain's contemporaries only recognized him as a humorist, Twain is given credit today for transforming American literature into something purely American by his original use of language, setting, and colorful American characters. *1 Halley's Comet 哈雷慧星 *2 Civil War美國南北戰爭 *3 tall tale荒誕不經的故事

8. Quotes Do you know that Mark Twain is one of the most quoted men of his time? Now, let's look at what he had said... "Always tell the truth; then you don't have to remember anything. " "Anyone who can only think of one way to spell a word obviously lacks imagination." "Heaven for climate. Hell for company." "The man who does not read books has no advantage over the man that can not read them." "Love your enemy, it will scare the hell out of them." "It is best to keep your mouth shut and be presumed ignorant than to open it and remove all doubt." "Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how little we think of the other person." "It is not best that we should all think alike; it is differences of opinion that make horse races." "When people do not respect us we are sharply offended; yet deep down in his private heart no man much respects himself." "I have made it a rule never to smoke more than one cigar at a time. " “If there are no cigars in Heaven, I shall not go.”

9. "I am opposed to millionaires, but it would be dangerous to offer me the position." "When angry, count to four; when very angry, swear. " "The only way to keep your health is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you'd rather not." "Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it." "Don't let school interfere with your education." "Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform. " " If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man." "If God had meant for us to be naked, we'd have been born that way." "Golf is a good walk spoiled." "A good lie will have travled half way around the world while the truth is putting on her boots." "Always tell the truth; then you don't have to remember anything. " "When in doubt, tell the truth. " "Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with." "Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of fear -- not absence of fear." -Mark Twain

10. How can Mark Twain achieve greatness? 1.He had many jobs that gave him a good education and varied experiences with many kinds of people. 2.He was determined. He set goals to write his books and set many goals to write magazine articles, newspaper articles and other types of articles. 3.He had perseverance. That quality helped him write books because he kept on trying to think of varied ways to write his stories and articles. 4.Mark Twain learned from his experiences. He learned early on that his readers liked different writing styles. He didn't disappoint them when he wrote his humor, satire, and adventure. If his books got bad ratings, he would know not to try something different.