Essay on Mark Twain

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Mark Twain (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910)
Twain grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, which would later provide the setting for Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. He was the son of Jane (née Lampton; 1803–1890), a native of Kentucky, and John Marshall Clemens (1798–1847), a Virginian by birth. His parents met when his father moved to Missouri and were married several years later, in 1823. He was the sixth of seven children, but only three of his siblings survived childhood: his brother Orion (1825–1897), Henry, who died in a riverboat explosion (1838–1858), and Pamela (1827–1904). His sister Margaret (1833–1839) died when he was three, and his brother Benjamin (1832–1842) died three years later. Another brother, Pleasant (1828–1829), died at six months. Twain was born two weeks after the closest approach to Earth of Halley's Comet. When he was four, Twain's family moved to Hannibal, Missouri, a port town on the Mississippi River that inspired the fictional town of St. Petersburg in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Missouri was a slave state and young Twain became familiar with the institution of slavery, a theme he would later explore in his writing. Twain's father was an attorney and judge.The Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad was organized in his office in 1846. The railroad connected the second and third largest cities in the state and was the westernmost United States railroad until the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. It delivered mail to and from the Pony Express.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, also known by his pen name Mark Twain carried around a scrapbook wherever he went. His scrapbook was filled with pictures, articles, and souvenirs of his books. Although he grew tired of the constant hassle of updating his scrapbook, Twain brought up a new idea of cutting strips of paper and gluing them to his pages. This gave Twain an easier time keeping his book up to date. * 1848: Age 13: Twain joins brother Orion in the Newspaper business as a printer. * 1852: Age 17: Twain leaves Hannibal Missouri for St. Louis for another printing job. * 1858: Age 23: Twain becomes Liscensed Boat Pilot on the Mississippi river. * 1861: Age 26: Due to the Civil War, Twain takes job as a Newspaper reporter. * 1865: Age 30: Published "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Clavaras County." * 1869: Age 30: Twain publishes his first book "The Inocents Abroad." * 1876: Age 34: Twain published "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer." * 1885: Age 41: Twain published the sequel to Tom Sawyer "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." * 1910: Age 66: Twain dies. April 21, 1910.
Quotes of Twains that inspire me, about Training, Death and Imagination
“My land, the power of training! It can bring a body up to believe anything”
-A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court
There are many variations of the “report of my death” quote. The original was written May 1897
The impartial friend: “Death, the only immortal who treats us all alike whose pity and whose peace and whose refuge are for all-the soiled and the pure, the rich and the poor, the loved and unloved”
-Mark Twain, last written statement. Moments with Mark Twain, Paine.
“You can’t depend on your judgment when imagination is out of focus”
-Mark Twain’s notebook (Harper and Brothers 1935) The character of “Huck Finn” was based on Tom Blankenship, the real life son of a sawmill laborer and sometime drunkard named Woodson Blankenship. They lived in an “ramshackle” house near the Mississippi River behind the house where the Author grew up in Hannibal Missouri. Tom Blankenship was drawn exactly to character, ignorant, unwashed, insufficiently fed, but had a good heart. He was real independent. The phrase “A huckleberry over my permission” was meant to mean “A bit beyond my abilities”. “I’m your huckleberry” is a way of saying that one is just right for a given job. Used in the Autobiography explaining why Tom
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