Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835-April 21, 1910), better known by
pen name Mark Twain, was a famous and popular American humorist, writer and
lecturer. He was also a steamboat pilot, gold prospector and journalist.

Career Overview

Twain's classics Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are
widely read in schools across the U.S., as well as in many other western
countries. Also popular are The Prince and the Pauper, A Connecticut Yankee
In King Arthur's Court and the non-fictional Life on the Mississippi. His
1876 novel titled 1601 was banned from publication on the grounds it was
obscene.

Twain began as a writer of light humorous verse; he ended as a grim, almost
profane chronicler of the vanities, hypocrisies and acts of killing
committed by mankind. At mid-career, with Huckleberry Finn, he combined rich
humor, sturdy narrative and social criticism in a way almost unrivaled in
world literature.

Twain was a master at rendering colloquial speech, and helped to create and
popularize a distinctive American literature, built on American themes and
language.

Twain wrote The War Prayer during the Spanish-American War. It was submitted
for publication, but on March 22, 1905, Harper's Bazaar rejected it as "not
quite suited to a woman's magazine." Eight days later, Twain wrote to his
friend Dan 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." Because he had an exclusive contract with Harper & Brothers, Mark
Twain could not publish "The War Prayer" elsewhere and it remained
unpublished until 1923.

Twain had a fascination with science and the scientific inquiry. Twain
developed a close and lasting friendship with Nikola Tesla. They spent quite
a bit of time together from time to time (in Tesla's laboratory and among
other places).

Twain led the Anti-Imperialist League which opposed the annexation of the
Philippines by the United States. He wrote "Incident in the Philippines"
(1924) in response to the Moro Crater Massacre, in which six hundred Moros
were killed.

The name "Mark Twain" is a pun reference to a riverboat depth measurement
meaning two fathoms. He also used the pseudonym "Sieur Louis de Conte" for
his fictional autobiography of Joan of Arc.

In recent years, there have been attempts to ban Huckleberry Finn from
various libraries, because Twain's use of local color offends some people.
Although Twain was against racism and imperialism far in front of public
sentiment of his time, ironically some with only superficial familiarity of
his work have condemned it as racist for its accurate depiction of the
language in common use in the United States in the 19th century. The casual
parts of the language then could be precieved today as racism (in present
times, such racial epithets are far more visible and condemned).

In his later life Twain's family suppressed some of his work which was
especially irreverent towards conventional religion; notably Letters from
the Earth was not published until decades after Twain's death.

Twain's Hartford, Connecticut home is a museum and National Historic
Landmark, known as The Mark Twain House

Mark Twain as a character

   * Sam Clemens is a character in Philip Josˇ Farmer's Riverworld.
   * The journalist Clemens makes an appearance in Neil Gaiman's The Sandman
     #31, "Three Septembers and a January", where he is proclaimed Royal
     Storyteller by the Emperor of the United States, Norton I.
   * Samuel Clemens is a character in the Star Trek: The Next Generation
     episodes "Time's Arrow," parts I and II.

Additional Works by Twain

   * The $30,000 Bequest (fiction)
   * Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (fiction)
   * Adventures of Tom Sawyer (fiction)
   * Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven (fiction)
   * A Connecticut Yankee In King Arthur's Court (fiction)
   * Following the Equator (non-fiction travel)
   * A Horse's Tale (fiction)
   * Innocents Abroad (non-fiction travel)
   * King Leopold's Soliloquy (political satire)
   * Life on the Mississippi (non-fiction)
   * Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg (fiction)
   * The Mysterious Stranger (fiction, published posthumously)
   * The Prince and the Pauper (fiction)
   * Pudd'n'head Wilson (fiction)
   * Roughing It (non-fiction)
   * Tom Sawyer Abroad (fiction)
   * Tom Sawyer Detective (fiction)
   * A Tramp Abroad (non-fiction travel)
   * What Is Man? (essay)

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