By David G Fletcher Birth and Early Life Born on November 30 1835 in Florida Missouri His real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens Raised in the river town Hannibal Missouri His father John Marshall Clemens was a lawyer and a shopkeeper ID: 564440
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Slide1
The Life of Mark Twain
By David G FletcherSlide2
Birth and Early Life
Born on November 30, 1835, in Florida, Missouri
His real name was Samuel Langhorne
Clemens
Raised in the river town Hannibal, Missouri
His father, John Marshall Clemens, was a lawyer and a shopkeeper
Young Samuel left school at age 12 after his father died
Worked to support himself and his familySlide3
Early Work
Worked several odd jobs before becoming an established writer
Worked for brother, Orion, as a printer
In 1853 he began a three year journey across America
Served as an apprentice to a steamboat pilot
Brief stint as a volunteer soldier in Civil War
Became a reporter and traveling journalistSlide4
Early Writing Career
His pen name is a river term meaning “two fathoms deep” or “safe water”
Wrote travel sketches, short stories, novels, satires, and essays
Fiction based on experiences in youth and in travel
Early writings often characterized as humorous and witty
First published short story in 1865: “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”
First book,
Innocents Abroad
, published in 1869Slide5
Rise in Popularity
1870: Twain married Olivia Langdon and moved to Hartford, Connecticut
Published
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
in 1876 and
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
in 1884
Instantly recognized by literary establishment as one of the greatest American writers
Continued writing popular books for the next decade
Published
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
in 1889 and
The Tragedy of
Pudd’nhead
Wilson
in 1894
Works interrogate issues of race, class, and genderSlide6
Later Work and Later Life
Twain’s later works are often characterized as pessimistic and cynical
A series of family tragedies threatened Twain’s sanity and health
Twain began a lecture tour to pay off his debts
Published many sardonic and embittered stories and treatises
His opinions were sought out by the press on political, military, and social subjects.
Was awarded honorary degrees by Yale and Oxford Slide7
Death and Afterlife
Twain died of a heart attack on April 21, 1910 at the age of 74
Much of his literary work was left unfinished and (until recently) unpublished
“Corn Pone Opinions” was written in 1901, but was published posthumously in 1923 in the collection
Europe and Elsewhere
Scholars today are beginning to reconsider the creativity of Twain’s later works
On Twain’s orders his autobiography was not published until 2010 – 100 years after his death
Today, the Mark Twain Project Online serves as a living archive of Twain scholarship.Slide8
Sources
Bantam Classics. “Mark Twain.”
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
By Mark Twain. New York: Bantam Books, 1981.
i
. Print
Baym
, Nina, ed. “Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens) 1835-1910.”
The Norton Anthology of American Literature Sixth Edition.
New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2003. 212-215. Print
.
Dover Publications. “Note.”
Pudd’nhead
Wilson.
By Mark Twain. Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc., 1999. iii. Print.
Mark Twain Project Online. Berkeley: UC Press.
Marktwainproject.org
, 2007-2013.
Web.