A Brief Introduction of Mark Twain

Mark Twain, formerly known as Samuel Langhorne Clemens;

Mark Twain (1835165438+1October 30-1965438+April 2 1 00) is an American humorist, novelist, writer and famous speaker./kloc Although his family wealth is not much, it does not damage his humor, wit and fame. He is one of the most famous people in America. He has a wide range of friends, including William Dean Howells, Booker Washington, nikola tesla, Helen Keller and Henry Roger. He was once called Lincoln in the history of literature. Helen Keller once said, "I like Mark Twain-who doesn't like him?" Even God will love him, give him wisdom and draw a rainbow of love and faith in his heart. William faulkner called Mark Twain "the first real American writer, and we all inherited him". He died in 19 10 at the age of 75 and was buried in Aymara, new york.

Writing style: combining humor and satire, full of unique personal wit and one-liners, and there is no lack of profound social insight and analysis. It is not only a humorous and spicy masterpiece, but also a serious sympathy!

[Edit this paragraph] pen name

"Mark Twain" is his most commonly used pseudonym. It is generally believed that this pen name comes from his early sailor term. Samuel (that is, "Mark Twain") was once a navigator. When measuring the water depth with my partner, my partner shouted "Mark Twain!" It means "two targets", that is, the water depth is two meters (1 about 1, 1 m), which is a necessary condition for the safe navigation of ships.

Another reason is that his captain Cyrus, a well-respected navigator, writes essays on the story of the Mississippi River for newspapers under the pen name "Mark Twain" from time to time.

1859, Captain Cyrus published an article predicting that New Orleans would be flooded. Naughty Samuel decided to play a joke on him and wrote a very sharp satirical sketch after imitating his style. Who knows that this game article deeply hurt the old captain's heart, and the old captain gave up writing, and the pseudonym "Mark Twain" disappeared from the newspaper.

Four years later, Samuel, who became a journalist, learned the bad news of Captain Cyrus' death, regretted the prank that year, and decided to make up for it. So he inherited the pseudonym "Mark Twain" and began his writing career.

But there is also a saying that when he was wandering in the west, he often bought two glasses of wine in the hotel and asked the bartender to write "two marks" on the bill. However, whether it is true or false, or both, is impossible to verify. His real name is Samuel wrangham.

all one's life

childhood

Mark Twain was born in a poor lawyer's family in rural Florida, Missouri, USA on June 30th, 1835+065438. He ranks sixth among seven children in his family. He only has two brothers and sisters who can survive his childhood. His two brothers and sisters are his elder brother Olian (1825 July17-1897 February 1 1) and his younger sister Pamela. His father is a local lawyer with a small income and a poor family. Little Samuel had to work when he was at school. His father died when he was twelve, and he began to live an independent working life. He first worked as an apprentice in a printing factory, a newspaper delivery man and a compositor, and later as a sailor and helmsman on the Mississippi River. Childhood poverty and long working life not only accumulated material for his later literary creation, but also cast a just heart. His mother Margaret died when he was four years old, and his brother Benjamin (1832 June 8-1842 May12) also died three years later. His other brother plesent (1828- 1829) was born only three months before Twain. After this class of Bimark Twain's older brothers and sisters, Twain has a younger brother-Henry Clemens (1838 July13-1858 June 2 1). When Twain was 4 years old, his family moved to Hannibal, Missouri, a port city on the Mississippi River, which became the inspiration for St. Petersburg in his later works The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Tale of a Wanderer. At that time, Missouri was a federal slave-holding state, and young Twain began to understand slavery, which became the theme of his adventure novels.

Mark Twain was color blind, which caused his humorous jokes in social circles. 1847 In March, Twain 1 1 years old, his father died of pneumonia. The following year, he became a printing apprentice. 185 1 year, he became a compositor, contributed articles, and began to write articles for Hannibal Daily founded by his brother Olian. /kloc-at the age of 0/8, he left Hannibal and worked as a printer in new york, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Cincinnati. Twain returned to Missouri at the age of 22. On the trip from the lower Mississippi River to New Orleans, the ship's navigator "bisbee" asked Twain to be a ship's navigator for life, which was the third highest paid occupation in the United States at that time, with a monthly salary of $250 (equivalent to the current $65,438+055,000/year).

Because ships are made of very flammable wood, they can't turn on the lights at night. Pilots need to have a wealth of knowledge about ever-changing rivers, so that they can avoid hundreds of ports and woodlands along the coast. Twain spent more than two years meticulously studying the 2000 meters of the Mississippi River before he got his pilot's license (1859). During the pre-license training, Twain persuaded his brother Henry Clemens to work with him on the Mississippi River. Henry died on June 2 1 65438 because the ship where Henry worked exploded. Twain felt extremely guilty about this and felt responsible for the rest of his life. However, he continued to work on the river and remained a navigator until the civil war broke out in 186 1, which reduced the traffic on the Mississippi River.

Travel and family

Missouri is a slave-holding state, which is regarded as a part of the south by most people, but Missouri has not joined the union. At the beginning of the war, Twain and his friends joined a federal militia (described in the short story Private History of a Lost Battle 1885) and joined a war in which one person was killed. Twain found that he couldn't stand killing himself, so he left. His friend joined the confederate army; Twain went to his brother Olian, and Olian was appointed as the secretary of the governor of Nevada, in charge of the western region.

Twain and his brother spent more than two weeks crossing the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains by coach. They came to the Mormon church in Salt Lake City. These experiences became the main part of the book Hard Times, and provided information for the famous frogs in Ka City. Twain's journey ended in a silver mine in Virginia, Nevada. There, he became a miner.

After giving up his job as a miner, Twain worked for Enterprise, a newspaper in Virginia City.

Twain later went to San Francisco, California, where he continued to be a reporter and began to give speeches. He met other writers, such as Brett Harder. Once he was sent to Hawaii, which became his first speech. At 1867, a local newspaper offered a boat trip to the Mediterranean region.

During his travels in Europe and the Middle East, he wrote the famous travel letter series "Fool Travel" collected in 1869. He also met Charles Langdon and saw a photo of Langdon's sister Ou Li Langdon. Twain fell in love with her at first sight They met 1868 and got engaged a year later. 1870 got married in Aymara, new york. Ou Li via gave birth to her son Langdon, but Langdon died of diphtheria in1September.

187 1 year, the twains moved to Hartford, Connecticut. Olivia gave birth to three daughters there: Susie, Clara and Joan. Twain also became a good friend of writer William Dean Howells.

Twain then traveled to Europe, which was described in 1880, a book called Wandering Overseas. /kloc-returned to the United States in 0/900 and paid off the debts to his old club. Twain's marriage lasted for 34 years until Olivia died on 1904.

1906, Twain began to write his autobiography for North American Review Monthly. A year later, Oxford University awarded him a doctorate in literature.

Twain lived longer than Joan and Susie. He experienced a period of melancholy, which began when his beloved daughter Susie died of meningitis on 1896. Ou Li died in 1904, and Joan died in1909+February 24, which made Twain more melancholy.

Writer's career

Mark Twain's first masterpiece, The Famous Frog in Cartown, was first published in new york Saturday on June 1865+0 18 10/8. The only reason why this work was published there was that it was finished too late and was not included in Artes Ward's collection of American Western Works.

Later, the Sacramento Federal newspaper sent Mark Twain to Hawaii, then known as the Sandwich Islands, as a reporter and wrote to the Federal newspaper to tell about things there. Later, when he worked for the California Land Newspaper in San Francisco, he also wrote according to these humorous letters, because the California Land Newspaper sent him from San Francisco to new york City as a roving reporter via the Panama Canal. At that time, he kept writing to the newspaper and publishing, satirizing and humorously recording what he saw and heard. 1On June 8, 867, Twain went to Philadelphia by yacht and stayed for five months. This trip led to the birth of a fool's trip.

1872, Twain published his second travel literature, Hard Times, as a sequel to Fool's Travel. Hard Times is a semi-autobiographical work that describes Twain's journey to Nevada and his later life in the western United States. This book satirizes American and western society by criticizing "fools" in many countries in Europe and the Middle East. Twain's next work, Hard Times, focuses on American society. The later Gilded Age is not a travel literature, because the first two books are travel literature, and this is his first time to write a novel. This book is also famous because it is the only book written by Twain in cooperation with others. This book was written by Twain and his neighbor Charles Dudley Werner.

Twain's two later books are all about his experiences on the Mississippi River. 1875 Atlantic Monthly published a series of sketches of the old Mississippi River. The most striking feature is Twain's awakening to romanticism. Life on the Mississippi River after Twain wrote Old Times. Then Twain wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, describing his childhood in Hannibal. Twain shaped tom sawyer's character by imitating his childhood character. This book also has a supporting role, Huckleberry Finn.

Although the story of the prince and the beggar often appears in many movies and literary works today, it is not generally accepted. This is Twain's first attempt to write The Beggar. Its disadvantage is that Twain didn't have enough British social experience. During the writing of The Prince and the Beggar, Twain also started the writing of The Wandering of Naughty Boys and finished another travel book, Wandering Abroad. The Overseas Odyssey is Mark Twain's travels in Central and Southern Europe.

Twain's later work is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which makes him a more famous and great American writer. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the sequel of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and the serious atmosphere is stronger than the latter. This book has become a compulsory book for most schools in the United States, because Huck gave up obeying the rules, which is considered by many people of this age (Huck's story is set in slavery 1850 s). /kloc-in the summer of 0/876, after it was released in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Twain wrote about 400 pages of The Wandering Story of an urchin.

Twain's wife died in 1904, after which he was able to publish books that his wife didn't like as a critic and editor. One of the books is The Mysterious Stranger, which was not published in Twain's lifetime, so people found three versions of the manuscript between 1897 and 1905. These three versions made the publication of this book very confusing, and now there is the first version written by Twain.

Twain's last work is his oral autobiography. Some archivists and editors rearranged autobiographies to make them more in line with the common format, so some humorous words of Twain were deleted.

Financial problems

The friendship between Mark Twain and Henry Roger in his later years. Twain made a lot of money by publishing his works, but his improper investment made him waste a lot of money, most of which was invested in some new inventions. This includes a new iron ring, a new steam engine, a collotype (a machine for engraving printing plates) and a typesetter. Finally, there is his publishing house, which successfully sold hiram grant's memoirs at first, but later failed. When he was disheartened about investing and ready to give up, a young man found him and asked Twain to invest in his invention. Twain was a little shaken at first, but in the end he didn't invest. However, the young man who asked him to invest was the inventor of the telephone. At the beginning, all those who invested in telephone made a fortune. This is really regrettable.

Twain's works can be written, and the credit should also be attributed to one of his new friends, because he solved Twain's financial difficulties. From 65438 to 0893, he began a friendship with Henry Roger, a financier and head of Standard Oil Company, which lasted for 15 years. Roger first filed for bankruptcy for Twain. Then Roger gave the copyright of Twain's works to his wife Olivia to prevent creditors from obtaining the copyright. Finally, Roger returned all Twain's money to the creditors. Later, Twain began his global lecture tour and paid off all his debts.

[Edit this paragraph] Later generations' comments on him

Master of modern humorous literature!

A world-class writer representing American literature!

He is a pure urchin and a brave knight with a sword!

There is a library about Mark Twain.

Catalogue of works

Running for governor

Tom sawyer (1876)

The Prince and the Beggar (1882)

Street children (1884)

The famous frog in Ka County

Millions of pounds