Mark Twain. Detailed biography

Childhood

Mark Twain, whose brief biography is the topic of our article, was born in Missouri in the fall of 1845. After some time, the family changed their place of residence, moving to the city of Hannibal. In his books, he described the inhabitants of this city most often. Soon the head of the family died, and all responsibility passed to the young boys. The older brother took up publishing in order to somehow provide for the family. Mark Twain (real name Samuel Langhorne Clemens) tried to make his contribution, so he worked for his brother as a typesetter, and later as an article author. The guy decided to write the most daring and striking articles only when his older brother Orion left somewhere for a long time.

When the Civil War began, Samuel decided to try himself as a pilot on a ship. Soon he returned from the voyage and decided to get as far away from the terrible events of the war as possible. The future writer often repeated that if not for the war, he would have devoted his entire life to working as a pilot. In 1861 he went west - to where silver was mined. Not feeling a true attraction to his chosen business, he decides to take up journalism. He is hired to work for a newspaper in Virginia, and then Clemens begins writing under his pseudonym.

Pre-literary activity

The biography of Mark Twain is interesting not only for his literary creations. Before devoting himself to the work of a writer, he worked as a pilot on a steamship ship. Clemens himself later said that if it had not been for the Civil War, he would have continued to work on the ship. Since private shipping was prohibited, the young man had to change his type of activity.

May 22, 1861 is marked in the biography of Mark Twain by the fact that he joined the Masonic fraternity. The writer knew firsthand about the people's militia, which he vividly described in 1861. In the summer of that year he went west. Interesting facts from his biography include his experience as a miner in Nevada, where silver was mined. But his mining career did not work out, so Clemens decided to try himself as a newspaper employee.

Before starting a literary career

But the call of the Mississippi River still led Clemens to work as a pilot on a steamship. It was a profession that Clemens himself admitted that he would have practiced all his life if the Civil War had not put an end to private shipping in 1861. So Clemens was forced to look for another job.

Twain entered Freemasonry at North Star Lodge No. 79 in St. Louis on May 22, 1861. During one of his travels, he sent a “gavel” from Palestine to his lodge, to which was attached a letter in a humorous spirit. Twain informed the brothers that “The handle of the hammer was carved by Brother Clemens from the trunk of a Lebanese cedar tree, at one time planted by Brother Geoffrey of Bouillon near the walls of Jerusalem.”

After a short acquaintance with the people's militia (he colorfully described this experience in 1885), Clemens left the war west in July 1861. Then his brother Orion was offered the position of secretary to the governor of the Nevada Territory. Sam and Orion traveled for two weeks across the prairies in a stagecoach to a Virginia mining town where silver was being mined in Nevada.

Nickname "Mark Twain"

Clemens claimed that the pseudonym Mark Twain was taken by him in his youth from river navigation terms. Then he was an assistant pilot on the Mississippi, and the cry of “mark twain” (literally - “mark two”) meant that, according to the mark on the lotline, the minimum depth suitable for the passage of river vessels had been reached - 2 fathoms (≈ 3 .7 m).

However, there is a version about the literary origin of this pseudonym: in 1861, a humorous story by Artemus Ward was published in Vanity Fair magazine .

) (real name Charles Brown) "North Star" is about three sailors, one of whom was named Mark Twain. Samuel was very fond of the humorous section of this magazine and read Ward's works in his first appearances.

In addition to 'Mark Twain', Clemens once in 1896 signed himself as 'Sieur Louis de Conte' (French: Sieur Louis de Conte) - under this name he published his novel “Personal Memoirs of Joan of Arc of Sir Louis de Conte, her page and secretary."

First book

Twain achieved his first success as a writer on another journey. In 1867, he begged Colonel McComb to sponsor his trip to Europe and the Middle East. In June, as a correspondent for Alta California and the New York Tribune, Twain traveled to Europe on the Quaker City. In August, he also visited Odessa, Yalta and Sevastopol (the “Odessa Bulletin” of August 24, 1867 contains the “Address” of American tourists, written by Twain). As part of the ship's delegation, Mark Twain visited the residence of the Russian Emperor in Livadia.

Letters written by Twain while traveling through Europe and Asia were sent to his editor and published in the newspaper, and later formed the basis of the book “Simps Abroad.” The book was published in 1869, distributed by subscription and was a huge success. Until the very end of his life, many knew Twain precisely as the author of “Simps Abroad.” During his writing career, Twain had the opportunity to travel throughout Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.

In 1870, at the height of his success from Innocents Abroad, Twain married Olivia Langdon and moved to Buffalo, New York. From there he moved to Hartford (Connecticut). During this period he often lectured in the USA and England. He then began to write biting satire, sharply criticizing American society and politicians, most notably in the collection Life on the Mississippi, written in 1883.

Starting a family

Already famous, Sam marries the daughter of a wealthy coal merchant, Olivia Langdon. Mark makes a lot of efforts to get the girl’s parents to agree to give their daughter to a simple, albeit famous writer. In 1870, a wedding ceremony took place. Mark adores his wife, considers her perfect, and surrounds her with care and love. Olivia sees him as an eternal boy who will never grow up. Mark and Olivia lived in love for 30 years. During this time they had four children.

They spend their most joyful and serene years in the city of Hartford, where the writer opens his own publishing house. The company begins to generate decent income.

Creative career

One of the things that inspired Mark Twain was the writing style of John Ross Brown.

Twain's greatest contribution to American and world literature is considered to be the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Also very popular are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and the collection of autobiographical stories Life on the Mississippi. Mark Twain began his career with unpretentious humorous couplets, and ended with sketches of human morals full of subtle irony, sharply satirical pamphlets on socio-political topics and philosophically deep and, at the same time, very pessimistic reflections on the fate of civilization.

Many public speeches and lectures were lost or not recorded, and certain works and letters were banned from publication by the author himself during his lifetime and for decades after his death.

Twain was an excellent speaker. Having gained recognition and fame, Mark Twain devoted a lot of time to searching for young literary talents and helping them break through, using his influence and the publishing company he acquired.

Twain was passionate about science and scientific problems. He was very friendly with Nikola Tesla, they spent a lot of time together in Tesla's laboratory. In his work A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Twain introduced time travel, as a result of which many modern technologies were introduced to England during the time of King Arthur. The technical details given in the novel indicate that Twain was well acquainted with the achievements of contemporary science.

Mark Twain's other two most famous hobbies were playing billiards and smoking. Visitors to Twain's house sometimes said that there was such thick tobacco smoke in the writer's office that the owner himself could hardly be seen.

Twain was a prominent figure in the American Anti-Imperial League, which protested the American annexation of the Philippines. In response to these events, in which approximately 600 people died, Twain wrote a pamphlet, The Philippine Incident, but the work was not published until 1924, 14 years after his death.

From time to time, some of Twain's works were banned by American censors for various reasons. This was mainly due to the active civic and social position of the writer. Twain did not publish some works that could offend people's religious feelings at the request of his family. For example, "The Mysterious Stranger" remained unpublished until 1916. One of Twain's most controversial works was a humorous lecture at a Paris club, published under the title "Reflections on the Science of Onanism." The central idea of the lecture was: “If you have to risk your life on the sexual front, then don’t masturbate too much.” The essay was published only in 1943 in a limited edition of 50 copies. Several more anti-religious works remained unpublished until the 1940s.

Twain himself treated censorship with irony. When the Massachusetts public library decided to retire The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in 1885, Twain wrote to his publisher:

They kicked Huck out of the library as "slum trash" and we'll no doubt sell another 25,000 copies because of it.

In the 2000s, attempts were again made in the United States to ban the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn due to naturalistic descriptions and verbal expressions offensive to blacks. Although Twain was an opponent of racism and imperialism and went much further in his rejection of racism than his contemporaries, many words that were in common use in Mark Twain's time and used by him in the novel do now sound like racial slurs. В феврале 2011 года в США вышло первое издание книг Марка Твена «Приключения Гекльберри Финна» и «Приключения Тома Сойера», в котором подобные слова и выражения заменены на политкорректные (например, слово «nigger»

(black) is replaced in the text by
“slave”
(slave)).

The last years of the writer's life

Mark Twain experienced the loss of three of his four children and the death of his wife. Despite his depressed state, he never lost his ability to joke. His financial situation was not in the best condition. Most of the savings were invested in a new model of the machine, which was never released. The rights to Mark Twain's books were stolen by plagiarists.

In 1893, the writer was introduced to the famous oil magnate Henry Rogers. Soon their acquaintance grew into a strong friendship. His death greatly upset Twain. Samuel Clemens, who is known throughout the world as Mark Twain, died on April 21, 1910. This is the same year that Halley's Comet passed by.

Mark Twain's biography is rich in bright events, ups and downs. However, he always treated everything with humor. And his contribution to literature - not only American, but also worldwide - is great. And now all the boys, and girls too, as well as adults, continue to read about the adventures of two mischievous children - Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

His first work of fiction was written based on a story he heard

While at a bar in a small town in Calaveras County, California, Mark Twain heard a man tell a story about a jumping frog contest. In February 1865, the writer's friend Artemus Ward asked him to write a short story to include in his upcoming book, and Twain decided to base it on a story he heard in a bar. But because the book was published before his work was completed, the publisher sent Twain's article to a local newspaper, where it appeared in the November 18, 1865 issue under the title "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog." The story, which was later retitled "The Famous Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," became extremely popular and was soon published in many different magazines and newspapers. This story became Twain's first great success as a writer and brought him national attention.

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Mark Twain Quotes

The only way to stay healthy is to eat what you don't want, drink what you don't like, and do what you don't like.
Good friends, good books and a sleeping conscience - this is an ideal life.
You can't rely on your eyes if your imagination is unfocused.
Pessimism is just a word that the faint of heart uses to describe wisdom.
To be happy, you must live in your own paradise. Did you really think that the same paradise could satisfy all people without exception?
Once you give your word that you won’t do something, you will certainly want to do it.
Summer is the time of year when it is very hot to do things that were very cold to do in winter.
There's nothing more annoying than a good example.
It is wonderful that America was discovered, but it would have been much more wonderful if Columbus had sailed by.
One who does not read good books has no advantage over a person who cannot read.
Anyone who does not know where they are going will be very surprised when they end up in the wrong place.
Wrinkles should only mark the places where smiles used to be.
Thousands of geniuses live and die unknown - either unrecognized by others, or unrecognized by themselves.
The right to stupidity is one of the guarantees of the free development of the individual.
A classic is something that everyone thinks needs to be read and no one reads.
The worst loneliness is when a person is uncomfortable with himself.
To create man was a glorious and original idea. But to create a sheep after that was to repeat itself.
If all people thought alike, no one would play at the races.
Once in a lifetime, fortune knocks on every person's door, but at this time a person often sits in the nearest pub and does not hear any knock.
At 50 a person can be an ass without being an optimist, but he can no longer be an optimist without being an ass.
We like people who boldly tell us what they think, as long as they think the same as we do.
“Children and fools always tell the truth,” says the old saying. The conclusion is clear: adults and wise people never tell the truth.
April 1st is the day that reminds us of who we are for the other 364 days.
There is no more pathetic sight than a man explaining his joke.
Often the surest way to mislead a person is to tell him the honest truth.
Being good wears out a person so much!
I have been praised a great many times, and I have always been embarrassed; I felt every time that more could have been said.
When my wife and I disagree, we usually do what she wants. My wife calls it a compromise.
When I was 14, my father was so stupid that I could hardly stand him; but when I turned 21, I was amazed at how much this old man had gotten smarter in the last 7 years.
Quitting smoking is easy. I myself have thrown a hundred times.
I never allowed school to interfere with my education.
It is better to remain silent and appear a fool than to speak up and dispel all doubts.
If you need money, go to strangers; if you need advice, go to your friends; and if you don’t need anything, go to your relatives.
Set a goal to do something every day that you don't like. This golden rule will help you perform your duty without disgust.
If you notice that you are on the side of the majority, this is a sure sign that it is time to change.
Don't put off until tomorrow what you can put off until the day after tomorrow.
When in doubt, tell the truth.
When you are angry, count to four; when you are very angry, swear!
The truth should be served like a coat, not thrown in your face like a wet towel.
It takes more than three weeks to prepare a good impromptu speech.
Always do the right thing. This will please some people and surprise everyone else.
Buy land - after all, no one produces it anymore.
Never argue with idiots. You will sink to their level, where they will crush you with their experience.
Truth is the most valuable thing we have. Let's save it.
Let's live in such a way that even the undertaker will regret us when we die.

Interesting facts from life

Mark Twain was born in 1835, on the day when Halley's Comet flew near the Earth, and died in 1910, on the day of its next appearance near the Earth's orbit. The writer foresaw his death back in 1909: “I came into this world with Halley’s comet, and next year I will leave it with it.”
Mark Twain foresaw the death of his brother Henry - he dreamed about it a month before. After this incident, he became interested in parapsychology. He subsequently became a member of the Society for Psychical Research.
At first, Mark Twain signed with a different pseudonym - Josh. Behind this signature were printed notes about the lives of prospectors who flocked to Nevada from all over America when the Silver Rush began there.
Twain was passionate about science and scientific problems. He was very friendly with Nikola Tesla, they spent a lot of time together in Tesla's laboratory. In his work A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Twain describes a journey through time that brought many modern technologies to Arthurian England.
Having gained recognition and fame, Mark Twain devoted a lot of time to searching for young literary talents and helping them break through, using his influence and the publishing company he acquired.
A crater on Mercury is named after Mark Twain.
In the city of Hannibal, Missouri, the house where Twain played as a boy remains; and the caves that he explored as a child and which were later described in the famous Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Tourists come there now. Mark Twain's house in Hartford has been turned into his personal museum and declared a national historical treasure in the United States.
In Volgograd there is the only street in Russia named after Mark Twain.
On November 8, 1984, in honor of Mark Twain, the asteroid discovered on September 24, 1976 by N. S. Chernykh at the Crimean Astrophysical Observatory was given the name “(2362) Mark Twain.”

Attitude to religion

Twain's wife, a deeply religious Protestant (Congregationalist), was never able to “convert” her husband, although he tried to avoid sensitive topics during her lifetime. Many of Twain's novels (for example, A Yankee in King Arthur's Court) contain extremely harsh attacks on the Catholic Church. In recent years, Twain wrote many religious stories in which he satirized the Protestant ethic (for example, “Curious Bessie”).

From posthumously published materials it is clear that Mark Twain was infinitely far from any existing religious denomination. He summed up his views in 1906 in “Reflections on Religion”:

Now let's talk about the true God, the real God, the great God, the highest and supreme God, the real creator of the real universe... - a universe not handcrafted for an astronomical nursery, but created in the limitless extent of space at the command of the real God just mentioned, the God unimaginably great and majestic, in comparison with which all the other gods, swarming in myriads in the pitiful imagination of men, are like a swarm of mosquitoes lost in the infinity of the empty sky... When we explore the countless wonders, splendor, brilliance and perfection of this infinite universe (we now know that the universe is infinite ) and we are convinced that everything in it, from a stalk of grass to the forest giants of California, from an unknown mountain stream to the boundless ocean, from the course of ebbs and flows to the majestic movement of the planets, unquestioningly obeys a strict system of precise laws that know no exceptions, we comprehend - not We assume, we do not conclude, but we comprehend that God, who with one thought created this incredibly complex world, and with another thought created the laws that govern it, is endowed with limitless power...

Do we know that he is just, gracious, kind, meek, merciful, compassionate? No. We have no evidence that he possesses at least one of these qualities - and at the same time, every day that comes brings us hundreds of thousands of evidence - no, not evidence, but irrefutable evidence - that he does not possess any of them .

Due to his complete absence of any of those qualities that could adorn a god, inspire respect for him, arouse reverence and worship, the real god, the true god, the creator of the vast universe is no different from all the other gods available. Every day he makes it absolutely clear that he is not at all interested in man or other animals - except in order to torture them, destroy them and extract some kind of entertainment from this activity, while doing everything possible to prevent his eternal and unchanging monotony he didn't get tired of it.

Attitude to the Church

A person is accepted into the church for what he believes, but is expelled from there for what he knows.

He was saved from drowning nine times in Mississippi.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born on November 30, 1835 in the village of Florida in the US state of Missouri. He was the sixth of seven children of John Marshall Clemens and his wife Jane Lampton. Three of his six siblings died in childhood, leaving only his brothers Orion (1825–1897) and Henry (1838–1858), and their sister Pamela (1827–1904). Samuel was born premature and his mother did not expect him to survive childhood. His health remained poor until he was seven years old.

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When Samuel was four years old, the Clemens family moved to Hannibal, Missouri, a port city on the Mississippi River. In his autobiography, Twain later claimed that he was saved from drowning in the river nine times because he loved to play in the water, even though he could not swim. He did not remember all those who pulled him out, with the exception of a slave and a young high school student - an outstanding citizen of Hannibal.

Bibliography

"The Famous Jumping Frog of Calaveras", a collection of short stories (1867)

"The Story of Mamie Grant, Missionary Girl" (1868)

"Simplices Abroad, or the Path of New Pilgrims" (1869)

"Tempered" (1871)

“The Gilded Age” ( 1873 ), a novel written jointly with C.D. Warner

"Old and New Sketches" ( 1875 ), collection of short stories

"Old Times on the Mississippi" (1875)

"Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (1876)

"Prince and the Pauper" (1881)

"Life on the Mississippi" (1883)

"The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (1884)

"Knights of Labor" - a new dynasty" (1886)

"Letter from a Guardian Angel" ( 1887 ), published 1946

"A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court"1889)

"Adam's Diary" (1893)

"Simp Wilson" (1894)

"Personal memories of Joan of Arc by Sieur Louis de Comte, her page and secretary" (1896)

"School slide", remained unfinished (1898)

"The Man Who Corrupted Hadleyburg" (1900)

"Deal with Satan" (1904)

"Eve's Diary" (1905)

“Three thousand years among microbes (Biography of a microbe with notes written by the same hand seven thousand years later). Translation from Microbial Mark Twain. 1905" ( 1905)

"Letters from Earth" (1909)

“No. 44, The Mysterious Stranger. An ancient manuscript found in a jug. Free translation from a jug", remained unfinished ( 1902-1908)

"Innocents Abroad"

His next step on the ladder of success came in 1867, when he took a five-month sea cruise in the Mediterranean, writing humorously about the sights in American newspapers, hoping to make a book out of the trip. And so it happened that in 1869, The Innocents Abroad was published and became a bestseller.

At 34, this handsome, red-haired, affable, cunning, egocentric and ambitious journalist and traveler has become one of the most popular and famous writers in America.