Mark Twain
From Wikinfo
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835-April 21, 1910), better known by pen name Mark Twain, was a famous and popular American humorist, writer and lecturer. He was also a steamboat pilot, gold prospector and journalist.
Samuel Clemens
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Career Overview
Twain's classics Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are widely read in schools across the U.S., as well as in many other western countries. Also popular are The Prince and the Pauper, A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court and the non-fictional Life on the Mississippi. His 1876 novel titled 1601 was banned from publication on the grounds it was obscene.
Twain began as a writer of light humorous verse; he ended as a grim, almost profane chronicler of the vanities, hypocrisies and acts of killing committed by mankind. At mid-career, with Huckleberry Finn, he combined rich humor, sturdy narrative and social criticism in a way almost unrivaled in world literature.
Twain was a master at rendering colloquial speech, and helped to create and popularize a distinctive American literature, built on American themes and language.
Twain wrote The War Prayer during the Spanish-American War. It was submitted for publication, but on March 22, 1905, Harper's Bazaar rejected it as "not quite suited to a woman's magazine." Eight days later, Twain wrote to his friend Dan Beard, to whom he had read the story, "I don't think the prayer will be published in my time. None but the dead are permitted to tell the truth." Because he had an exclusive contract with Harper & Brothers, Mark Twain could not publish "The War Prayer" elsewhere and it remained unpublished until 1923.
Twain had a fascination with science and the scientific inquiry. Twain developed a close and lasting friendship with Nikola Tesla. They spent quite a bit of time together from time to time (in Tesla's laboratory and among other places).
Twain led the Anti-Imperialist League which opposed the annexation of the Philippines by the United States. He wrote "Incident in the Philippines" (1924) in response to the Moro Crater Massacre, in which six hundred Moros were killed.
The name "Mark Twain" is a pun reference to a riverboat depth measurement meaning two fathoms. He also used the pseudonym "Sieur Louis de Conte" for his fictional autobiography of Joan of Arc.
In recent years, there have been attempts to ban Huckleberry Finn from various libraries, because Twain's use of local color offends some people. Although Twain was against racism and imperialism far in front of public sentiment of his time, ironically some with only superficial familiarity of his work have condemned it as racist for its accurate depiction of the language in common use in the United States in the 19th century. Expressions that were used casually and unselfconsciously then are often perceived today as racism (in present times, such racial epithets are far more visible and condemned).
In his later life Twain's family suppressed some of his work which was especially irreverent towards conventional religion; notably Letters from the Earth was not published until decades after Twain's death.
Twain's Hartford, Connecticut home is a museum and National Historic Landmark, known as The Mark Twain House
Mark Twain as a character
- Sam Clemens is a character in [[Philip Jos� Farmer]]'s Riverworld.
- The journalist Clemens makes an appearance in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman #31, "Three Septembers and a January", where he is proclaimed Royal Storyteller by the Emperor of the United States, Norton I.
- Samuel Clemens is a character in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes "Time's Arrow," parts I and II.
Additional Works by Twain
- The $30,000 Bequest (fiction)
- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (fiction)
- Adventures of Tom Sawyer (fiction)
- Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven (fiction)
- A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court (fiction)
- Following the Equator (non-fiction travel)
- A Horse's Tale (fiction)
- Innocents Abroad (non-fiction travel)
- King Leopold's Soliloquy (political satire)
- Life on the Mississippi (non-fiction)
- Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg (fiction)
- The Mysterious Stranger (fiction, published posthumously)
- The Prince and the Pauper (fiction)
- Pudd'n'head Wilson (fiction)
- Roughing It (non-fiction)
- Tom Sawyer Abroad (fiction)
- Tom Sawyer Detective (fiction)
- A Tramp Abroad (non-fiction travel)
- What Is Man? (essay)
External links
- Mark Twain quotes at Wikiquote
- Ever the Twain Shall Meet, A guide to Mark Twain on the Web
- Web directory of Mark Twain e-texts from DMOZ
- The Works of Mark Twain, Chapter-indexed, searchable versions of Twain's works.
- Project Gutenberg, where more than 60 works of Twain's are freely available.
- Mark Twain and Nikola Tesla: Thunder and Lightning (PDF)
References
- Adapted from the Wikipedia article, "Mark Twain" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain November 18, 2003
