Personal

Mark Twain (a.k.a., Samuel Longhorne Clemens) was born in the little town of Florida, Missouri, on
November 30, 1835, shortly after his family had moved there from Tennessee. When Twain was
about four, his family moved again, this time to Hannibal, Missouri, a small town of about five
hundred people.

Twain's father was a lawyer by profession but was only mildly successful. He was, however, highly
intelligent and a stern disciplinarian. Twain's mother, a southern belle in her youth, had a natural
sense of humor, was emotional, and was known to be particularly fond of animals and unfortunate
human beings. Although the family was not wealthy, Twain apparently had a happy and secure
childhood.

Twain's father died when Twain was twelve years old and, for the next ten years, Twain was an
apprentice printer and then a printer both in Hannibal and in New York City. Hoping to find his
fortune, he conceived a wild scheme of making a fortune in South America. On a riverboat to New
Orleans, he met a famous riverboat pilot who promised to teach him the trade for five hundred
dollars. After completing his training, Twain piloted riverboats along the Mississippi for four years.
During this time, he became familiar with the towns along the mighty River and became
acquainted with the characters that would later inhabit many of his novels, especially Tom Sawyer
and Huck Finn.

When the Civil War began, Twain's allegiance tended to be Southern due to his Southern heritage,
and he briefly served in the Confederate militia. Twain's brother Orion convinced him to go west
on an expedition, a trip which became the subject matter of a later work, Roughing It.

In July 1861, Twain climbed on board a stagecoach and headed for Nevada and California, where
he would live for the next five years. At first, he prospected for silver and gold, convinced that he
would become the savior of his struggling family and the sharpest-dressed man in Virginia City and
San Francisco. But nothing panned out, and by the middle of 1862, he was flat broke and in need
of a regular job.

Clemens knew his way around a newspaper office, so that September, he went to work as a
reporter for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise.

Twain became one of the best-known storytellers in the West. He honed a distinctive narrative
style friendly, funny, irreverent, often satirical and always eager to deflate the pretentious. He got
a big break in 1865, when one of his tales about life in a mining camp, "Jim Smiley and His Jumping
Frog," was printed in newspapers and magazines around the country (the story later appeared
under various titles).
In February 1870, he improved his social status by marrying 24-year-old Olivia (Livy) Langdon, the
daughter of a rich New York coal merchant. Writing to a friend shortly after his wedding, Twain
could not believe his good luck: "I have ... the only sweetheart I have ever loved ... she is the best
girl, and the sweetest, and gentlest, and the daintiest, and she is the most perfect gem of
womankind." Livy, like many people during that time, took pride in her pious, high-minded,
genteel approach to life. Twain hoped that she would "reform" him, a mere humorist, from his
rustic ways. The couple settled in Buffalo and later had four children.

In 1883 he put out Life on the Mississippi, an interesting but safe travel book. When Huck Finn
finally was published in 1884, Livy Clemens gave it a chilly reception. After that, business and
writing were of equal value to Mark Twain as he set about his cardinal task of earning a lot of
money. In 1885, he triumphed as a book publisher by issuing the bestselling memoirs of former
President Ulysses S. Grant, who had just died.

Mark Twain's last 15 years were filled with public honors, including degrees from Oxford and Yale.
Probably the most famous American of the late 19th century, he was much photographed and
applauded wherever he went. Indeed, he was one of the most prominent celebrities in the world,
traveling widely overseas, including a successful 'round-the-world lecture tour in 1895-'96,
undertaken to pay off his debts.

But while those years were gilded with awards, they also brought him much anguish. In 1896, his
favorite daughter, Susy, died at the age of 24 of spinal meningitis. The loss broke his heart, and
adding to his grief, he was out of the country when it happened. His youngest daughter, Jean, was
diagnosed with severe epilepsy. In 1909, when she was 29 years old, Jean died of a heart attack.
For many years, Twain's relationship with middle daughter Clara was distant and full of quarrels. In
June 1904, while Twain traveled, Livy died after a long illness.

Twain became somewhat bitter in his later years, even while projecting an amiable persona to his
public. In private he demonstrated a stunning insensitivity to friends and loved ones. "Much of the
last decade of his life, he lived in hell. He wrote a fair amount but was unable to finish most of his
projects. His memory faltered. He had volcanic rages and nasty bouts of paranoia, and he
experienced many periods of depressed indolence, which he tried to assuage by smoking cigars,
reading in bed and playing endless hours of billiards and cards.

Samuel Clemens died on April 21, 1910, at the age of 74, at his country home in Redding,
Connecticut. He was buried in Elmira, New York.
Writing Career

Three thousand years among microbes

2014
Year 1601
2013
Dick Baker's Cat
2012
Letters from Earth
2012
Diary of Adam and Eve
2012
Selected Stories
2010
Passing fatigues
2010
Mark Twain's Dictionary
2003
Travel around the world, following the Ecuador
2001
Love letters
2000
Chronicler of his time
2000
The three R
2000
Selection of short stories by Mark Twain
2000
A mystery, a death and a marriage
2000
The Bible According to Mark Twain
1995 (2002)
Tom Sawyer across the world
1985
The bad boy and the good boy
1982
Reflections against religion
1963
New stories
1947
Autobiography
1924
The curious republic of Gondour and other strange short stories
1919
The Mysterious Stranger
1916
Letter to California Pioneers
1911
The Jubilee of Queen Victoria
1910
Irreverent writings
1909 (2010)
The Storm Captain
1909
Has Shakespeare died?
1909 (2010)
The story of a horse
1907
Adam and Eve Journals
1906
A legacy of $ 30,000
1906
What is Man?
1906
War prayer
1905
Soliloquy of King Leopold. A defense of his dominion of Congo
1905
Tale of a dog
1904
Extract from Adam's diary
1904
Two detectives before a barrel
1902
The person sitting in the dark
1901
English as they are taught
1901
The man who corrupted Hadleyburg and other accounts
1900 (2011)
The man who corrupted a city
1900 (1947)
The troubles of the humble life
1900
The Hadleyburg Corruptor
1899
Tom Sawyer Detective
1897 (2014)
Travel around the world following the equator
1897
Personal memories of Joan of Arc
1896
Head
1894
The American Earl
1892
The American Suitor
1892 (2013)
A sensational report and other stories
1890 (1947)
A Yankee at King Arthur's court
1889
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
1884
Life in the Mississippi
1883
The Prince and the Pauper
1882
The White Elephant Theft and Other Stories
1882 (2013)
A curious adventure
1881
A vagabond abroad
1880
Drill, brothers, drill
1878
A quiet outing
1878
Tom Sawyer's adventures
1876 (2008)
The golden age
1873
The innocent in your country
1873
Humorous stories
1872 (2010)
A strange dream
1872
A hard life
1872
The innocent abroad
1869
Guide for innocent travelers
1868 (2009)
The famous jumping frog of the district of Calaveras
1865