Mark Twain 1835-1910

Samuel Langhorne Clemens

1847-1851 Clemens father dies leaving the family in hardship. Clemens family owned household slaves. Clemens left school and began working for a printer. He worked for his brother Orion’s newspaper Hannibal Journal. Clemens outgrew the small newspaper and found work in Philadelphia and New York.

Mississippi River Worked on riverboats in the Mississippi River which gave him much of his writing material for Huckleberry Finn and his autobiographical Life on the Mississippi. (1883) More importantly it is where he got his pen name- Mark Twain. He called himself this after the riverboat leadsmen’s signal “By the mark, twain” or that the water was deep enough for safe passage.

Civil war Twain worked on the river until it was shut down in 1861 due to the Civil War. Twain was a soldier in the Confederate Army for a short time. He as not an ardent one at that and when his division deserted en masse, he followed. He went out West with his brother Orion where he found his true calling-writing.

1863-1876 In 1863 Clemens began to sign articles with the name Mark Twain. 1869 published his first bestseller The Innocents Abroad. 1876 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer received even greater national acclaim and cemented Twain’s position as a giant in American literary circles. The nation prospered post- Civil War and so did Twain. The Gilded Age!

The adventures of Huckleberry Finn Twain began working on the sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer during this time in an effort to capitalize on the popularity of the first book. Due to the serious nature of the novel, Twain put it aside because its darker tone did not fit the optimistic sentiments of the Gilded Age. In the 1880’s the hopefulness of the post-Civil War years began to fade. In 1883/1884 Huck Finn was ready for publication.

Personal Troubles During the writing of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Twain and his wife Olivia lost their 19 month old son, she had become sickly and he made poor investments resulting in debilitating debt. Twain continued to write over the next ten years. During that time his wife and two of his daughters passed away. His writing from this period until his death reflects a depression and a sort of righteous rage at the injustices of the world.

1910 Despite his personal troubles he continued to enjoy immense esteem and fame and continued to be in demand as a public speaker until his death in 1910.

Crown jewel and controversy The story of Huck Finn does not end with the death of its author. Throughout the 20th century it has been classified as both. It has been banned in Southern states due to its critical take on the South and the hypocrisies of slavery. It has been dismissed as vulgar and racist due to language presented in the novel. Despite all of this it still stands today as one of the greatest works in American Literature.

Irony Irony is the contrast between appearance and reality. Irony occurs when something happens that is different from what was expected. There are three types of irony: • situational irony: a contrast between what readers or characters expect to happen and what really happens • dramatic irony: a contrast between what a character believes and what the audience knows is true. With dramatic irony, readers know more about a situation than the characters do. • verbal irony: a contrast between what the writer states and what the writer means