Mark Twain was an amazing, interesting man. He had many jobs, traveled the world, and met celebrities, all while writing as many books as he could to keep from going bankrupt. Mark Twain was humorous and had a great many quotes, too. As you will soon see, Mark Twain was a remarkable person.
Mark Twain was born Samuel Clemens on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri, at the passing of Halley’s Comet. He was one of six children in his family. When little Samuel Clemens was four, he and his family moved to Hannibal, Missouri. He grew up to be more like his mother than his father, who was said to have been stern and puritanical. Being one of six children is never easy, and Samuel Clemens’s life was no exception.
When his father died, Clemens left school at age 14 to work. He started work as a printer, and worked in this job for several years. Clemens had seen the steamboat pilots for years on the Mississippi and became one himself (this is where he got his pseudonym), and also worked as an army volunteer, a gold prospector, a timber prospector, and journalist. It was in journalism that Mark Twain found his true calling. His first few writings were in a newspaper under the name “Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass,” but it was when he started writing under the pseudonym Mark Twain that his best writings came out. Twain’s journalism capability was first noticed from his literature “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” From then on, Mark Twain wrote more than 30 books. That is what makes Mark Twain one of the most famous writers in American Literature.
Mark Twain’ work let him travel all around the world. He started traveling at just 18 years old. He went to cities in the United States like St. Louis, Philadelphia, New York, Keokuk, Iowa, and Cincinnati, as well as other countries like England. Mark Twain spent a lot of time in England, and became more well-known there than in America! Later, he met and married Olivia Langdon. This calmed his books down, and he wrote more serious things, like The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Twain has been considered “philosophically naïve, but extremely intelligent” because of his sometimes rash decisions. Mark Twain was definitely a great writer and self-schooled man with many an insight on life.
