Mark Twain: the story on HearLore

Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born on the 30th of November 1835, just two weeks after Halley's Comet made its closest approach to the sun, a celestial event he would later claim as his own destiny. He entered the world in Florida, Missouri, into a family of seven children where only three would survive childhood, a statistic that cast a long shadow over his early years. His father, John Marshall Clemens, was a lawyer and judge who died of pneumonia when Samuel was only eleven, leaving the family in financial ruin. The young boy left school after the fifth grade to become a printer's apprentice, a trade that would eventually lead him to the Mississippi River. It was there, on the steamboats that plied the waters between New Orleans and St. Louis, that he found his true calling and his famous pen name. The term mark twain was a riverboatman's cry for a measured depth of two fathoms, or twelve feet, indicating water safe for passage. This phrase, once a technical instruction for pilots, became the voice of a nation's greatest humorist. The river was not just a setting for his stories; it was the very blood of his identity, providing the material for Life on the Mississippi and the backdrop for his most famous novels. The tragedy of his life began to take shape when his younger brother Henry died in the boiler explosion of the steamboat Pennsylvania on the 13th of June 1858. Twain claimed to have foreseen this death in a dream a month prior, an event that sparked a lifelong interest in parapsychology and left him with a guilt he carried for the rest of his days. The river that once promised him a princely salary and a grand position ended up claiming the life of his brother, a loss that haunted him and shaped the dark undercurrents of his later work.

The West And The First Laugh

The American West offered Samuel Clemens a new stage, one where he would transform from a riverboat pilot into a writer who could make the world laugh. He traveled west to join his brother Orion in Nevada, a journey that took them more than two weeks across the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains. They visited the Mormon community in Salt Lake City before arriving in the silver-mining town of Virginia City. Twain failed as a miner on the Comstock Lode, a failure that would become the subject of his humorous memoir Roughing It. Instead of mining silver, he mined the absurdities of the frontier for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise. It was here, on the 3rd of February 1863, that he first used the pen name Mark Twain to sign a humorous travel account. His first major success came with The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, published on the 18th of November 1865. The story was based on a tall tale he heard at the Angels Hotel in Angels Camp, California, where he had spent time working as a miner. The story brought him national attention and launched his career as a writer of humor and satire. He moved to San Francisco in 1864, where he met writers like Bret Harte and Artemus Ward, and may have been romantically involved with the poet Ina Coolbrith. His travels to the Sandwich Islands, now known as Hawaii, provided material for his first book of travel letters, The Innocents Abroad. The journey was funded by local newspapers, and it included a tour of Europe and the Middle East. The book lampooned American and Western society, just as his earlier work had lampooned the East. The West had given him a voice, but it was the East that would give him a home and a family.

When was Samuel Langhorne Clemens born and where was he born?

Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born on the 30th of November 1835 in Florida, Missouri. He was born just two weeks after Halley's Comet made its closest approach to the sun.

When did Mark Twain first use his pen name and what does it mean?

Mark Twain first used his pen name on the 3rd of February 1863 to sign a humorous travel account. The term mark twain was a riverboatman's cry for a measured depth of two fathoms or twelve feet indicating water safe for passage.

When did Mark Twain marry Olivia Langdon and how long did their marriage last?

Mark Twain married Olivia Langdon in Elmira on the 2nd of February 1870. The marriage lasted 34 years until Olivia's death in 1904.

When did Mark Twain file for bankruptcy and when did he return to America after his lecture tour?

Mark Twain filed for bankruptcy in April 1894 after losing the bulk of his book profits and a substantial portion of his wife's inheritance. He returned to America in October 1900 having earned enough to pay off his debts.

When did Mark Twain die and what was his role in the American Anti-Imperialist League?

Mark Twain died in 1910 and served as a vice president of the American Anti-Imperialist League from 1901 until his death. He wrote many political pamphlets for the organization including King Leopold's Soliloquy about the atrocities in the Congo Free State.

The Inventor And The Bankrupt

Mark Twain was not just a writer; he was a man obsessed with the future, a lover of science and technology who developed a close friendship with Nikola Tesla. He spent much time in Tesla's laboratory, and the two shared a fascination with the possibilities of the modern world. Twain patented three inventions, including an improvement in adjustable and detachable straps for garments to replace suspenders, and a history trivia game. The most commercially successful of his inventions was a self-pasting scrapbook, which sold more than 25,000 copies. He was an early proponent of fingerprinting as a forensic technique, featuring it in his novel Pudd'nhead Wilson. However, his love for technology led to his financial ruin. He invested heavily in the Paige Compositor, a mechanical typesetter that was considered a marvel when it worked but was prone to breakdowns. He spent $300,000 on the machine between 1880 and 1894, only to see it rendered obsolete by the Linotype. He lost the bulk of his book profits and a substantial portion of his wife's inheritance. His publishing house, Charles L. Webster and Company, also failed, losing money on a biography of Pope Leo XIII. The family closed down their expensive Hartford home and moved to Europe in June 1891. Twain filed for bankruptcy in April 1894, but with the help of Standard Oil executive Henry Huttleston Rogers, he managed to pay off all his creditors in full. Rogers had Twain transfer the copyrights on his written works to his wife to prevent creditors from gaining possession. Twain accepted an offer from Robert Sparrow Smythe and embarked on a year-long around-the-world lecture tour in July 1895 to pay off his debts. The journey was long and arduous, and he was sick much of the time, mostly from a cold and a carbuncle. He traveled across northern America, then sailed across the Pacific Ocean, visiting Fiji, Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka, India, Mauritius, and South Africa. His three months in India became the centerpiece of his 712-page book Following the Equator. He returned to America in October 1900, having earned enough to pay off his debts.

The Voice Of The Anti Imperialist

Mark Twain's political views evolved from a supporter of American interests in the Hawaiian Islands to a fierce opponent of imperialism. In the late 1860s and early 1870s, he spoke out strongly in favor of American interests in Hawaii, but he reversed course in 1899. The Philippine-American War and the Boxer Rebellion changed his perspective, and he became a vice president of the American Anti-Imperialist League from 1901 until his death in 1910. He wrote many political pamphlets for the organization, including King Leopold's Soliloquy, a satirical essay about the atrocities in the Congo Free State. The abuses against Congolese forced laborers continued until the movement forced the Belgian government to take direct control of the colony. Twain was critical of imperialism in other countries as well, expressing hatred and condemnation of the white man's notion that he is less savage than the other savages. He was highly critical of European imperialists such as Cecil Rhodes and King Leopold II of Belgium. During the Philippine-American War, Twain wrote a short pacifist story titled The War Prayer, which makes the point that humanism and Christianity's preaching of love are incompatible with the conduct of war. The story was submitted to Harper's Bazaar for publication, but the magazine rejected it as not quite suited to a woman's magazine. Eight days later, Twain wrote to his friend Daniel Carter 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. It remained unpublished until 1916. Twain's political views were radical for his time, and he supported the revolutionaries in Russia against the reformists, arguing that the Tsar must be got rid of by violent means, because peaceful ones would not work. He summed up his views of revolutions in the following statement: The only way to get rid of a tyrant is to kill him, and the only way to get rid of a tyrant who is protected by the law is to break the law.