MarkTwain



Mark Twain's real name was Sam Clemens however he choose Mark Twain to be his pen name. You could describe Mark Twain as a prankster, gambler, dreamer, and a pioneer for american literature. He is describe as the first modern celebrity and often wore white suits to attract attention. Mark Twain made a living as a steam boat captain on the Mississippi river which was his dream job. The Civil War stopped all commercial trade and so Twain moved west to Nevada. His first popular short story was "The Celebrated Jumping Frog". When Twain took a job as a travel correspondent in Hawaii he became a lecturer and performer of his expierences. He loved this so much Mark Twain decided to make a living as a stand-up comedian. His first successful book //The Innocents Abroad// sold over 100,000 copies and was based on his own voyages and poked fun of European life. Mark Twain ended up going bankrupt after making some poor investments and decided to market his name on everything to get his funds back. Twain's most popular and controversial novel wasThe Adventures of Huckleberry Finn it was published in 1884 this was a daring book about a young boy dealing with his internal struggle as he helps a runaway slave to freedom. Twain then again declared bankruptcy as he put all his money into a hopeless invention called the page typesetter. He then decided to travel and lecture all around the world which gave him titles as "citizen of the world" and "America's best ambassador abroad". Twain as a way of mixing humor with serious fact and this became his favorite writing style. Although he never went to more than grade school Oxford University gave him an honorary degree in 1907. Twains personal life is a very complicated matter he was married happily to his wife Olivia in 1870 and had three daughters together. They lived in a Hartford house where Twain wrote some of his greatest works. In 1904 Olivia died of a heart disease and Twain was devestated. His writings turned dark and focused on human greed in 1908 his middle daughter was married and in 1909 his youngest daughter died of an epileptic seizure. Mark Twain died in 1910 at his home in Redding, Connecticut at the age of 75. All though he was reviewed as one of America's best humoristed he also had serious side and raised a lot of issues in his novels and used satire to show his true meanings in his writtings.
 * MARK TWAIN/SAMUAL CLEMENS**