Biography Of Mark Twain – One Of The Most Influential Writers In Modern Literature

Mark Twain, originally Samuel Clemens, was a very interesting and influential writer who changed modern literature in many ways. He wrote several books relating back to his own childhood and experiences. An extremely popular book written by him was The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn which is about a boy learning difficult life lessons and battling many different challenges which ultimately teaches about the issues of racism and the lack of education in Twain’s day. Mark Twain had a very fascinating childhood that gave him a different look on life and all it has to offer. Mark Twain was born on November 30, 1835 in a village located in Florida, Missouri. His parents were John and Jane Clemens were both good people who made steady income but never reached the point of great wealth. His father was a judge and lawyer among other small jobs that were mostly meant to keep busy. His mother was a stay at home mom who was very nice and caring towards her children. Twain’s household was an extremely packed one with him having five other siblings. When Twain was four, his family moved to Hannibal where he started to experience society’s unfairness and indifference to others. Hannibal was right next to the Mississippi River, and Twain took great advantage of this by spending a majority of his time there, while wasting away the days. Living in Hannibal made Twain a very mature and hard person. When he was a boy he witnessed a cattle rancher and slave being murdered by a normal man and a slave owner. Mark Twain did not have a very high degree of education mainly because he had to drop out of school at the age of twelve and start working to support his low income family. Mark began an apprenticeship at the Hannibal Courier as a printer.

Next when Twain was fifteen he decided to be a printer and a writer for his brothers News Paper, “The Hannibal Western Union. ” When Mark became a man, he got a job as a Mississippi River steamboat pilot, which was his idea of the perfect job. When Twain was still young, the civil war started and flipped his whole life upside down. Marks comfortable River life turned into him joining the confederate army for a few weeks before his group was discharged. When Twain wanted to start anew he decided to move to California to look for gold and silver. After his misfortune in looking for gold he went broke and had to find a way to make more money. Twain’s career, as a writer, took a good amount of time to take off and actually catch grip in the literary world. When Twain started getting serious about writing he decided to work at a newspaper bureau as a sketcher, writer, and a comic. Most of his first stories had elements of humor, satire, and originality. Mark wasn’t very well known or admired until he wrote an article called, “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog,” which was sent to different bureaus around the United States. The Innocents Abroad was a book written by Twain, when he went on voyage over the ocean, that gave Americans a view of the entire outside world through his eyes. Through this book he was officially a well known author and literature enthusiasts were all waiting for his next piece to be published. His next piece, written in 1876, of literary gold was a book called The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. After this work Twain’s literary style was developed and he knew his true passion of writing was on the right track to success.

Then books from the infamous Mark Twain were being written left and write leading to one of his most popular books, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Mark lived a simple life. He married a 24 year old wife, Olivia Langdon, at he age of 34. He had his financial ups and his downs but he always persevered through tough times and kept his passions close at heart. Twain has a very sad life that was haunted by all of the people in his family who had died. Not very long after Twain and Olivia has gotten married their first son Langdon, named after Olivia’s lineage, died of diphtheria. Later down the road his daughter Susy, died of spinal meningitis and the fact that this was his favorite daughter didn’t do anything but add more weight to his heart.

When Twain’s wife died so did his want for writing: leaving unfinished pieces of literature, unaimed spouts of anger and rage, and depression covered in gambling and smoking. Mark died a very lonely death with most of his family already gone and the distant ones out of his life. He died April 21, 1910, in Elmira, New York.