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Mark twain short biography. Brief biography of mark twain, an outstanding american writer M twain brief information about the writer

Mark Twain (eng. Mark Twain, pseudonym, real name Samuel Langhorne Clemens - Samuel Langhorne Clemens; 1835-1910) - an outstanding American writer, satirist, journalist and lecturer. At the peak of his career, he was probably the most popular figure in America. William Faulkner wrote that he was "the first truly American writer, and since then we have all been his heirs", and Ernest Hemingway wrote that "all modern American literature came out of one book by Mark Twain called The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ". Of the Russian writers, Maxim Gorky and Alexander Kuprin spoke especially warmly about Mark Twain.

Clemens claimed that the pseudonym "Mark Twain" (Eng. Mark Twain) was taken by him in his youth from the terms of river navigation. Then he was a pilot's assistant on the Mississippi, and the term "mark twain" was the minimum depth suitable for the passage of river vessels (this is 2 fathoms, 365.76 cm). However, there is an opinion that in reality this pseudonym was remembered by Clemens from the time of his fun days in the West. They said “Mark Twain!” when, after drinking a double whiskey, they did not want to pay immediately, but asked the bartender to write it down on the account. Which of the variants of the origin of the pseudonym is correct is unknown. In addition to "Mark Twain", Clemens signed once in 1896 as "Mr. Louis de Conte" (fr. Sieur Louis de Conte).

Sam Clemens was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri, USA. He was the third of four surviving children of John and Jane Clemens. When Sam was still a child, the family was looking for a better life moved to the city of Hannibal (in the same place, in Missouri). It was this city and its inhabitants that were later described by Mark Twain in his famous works, especially in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876).

Clemens' father died in 1847, leaving many debts. The eldest son, Orion, soon began publishing a newspaper, and Sam began to contribute as much as he could as a printer and, occasionally, as a writer of articles. Some of the newspaper's liveliest and most controversial articles had just come from the pen of a younger brother, usually when Orion was away. Sam himself also occasionally traveled to St. Louis and New York.

But the call of the Mississippi River eventually drew Clemens to a career as a steamboat pilot. A profession that, according to Clemens himself, he would have practiced all his life if the civil war had not put an end to private shipping in 1861. So Clemens was forced to look for another job.

After a short acquaintance with the people's militia (he colorfully described this experience in 1885), Clemens left the war for the west in July 1861. Then his brother Orion was offered the position of secretary to the governor of Nevada. Sam and Orion traveled across the prairies in a stagecoach for two weeks to a Virginia mining town where silver was mined in Nevada.

The experience of living in the Western United States shaped Twain as a writer and formed the basis of his second book. In Nevada, hoping to get rich, Sam Clemens became a miner and began mining silver. He had to live for a long time in the camp with other prospectors - this way of life he later described in literature. But Clemens could not become a successful prospector, he had to leave silver mining and get a job at the Territorial Enterprise newspaper in the same place in Virginia. In this newspaper, he first used the pseudonym "Mark Twain". And in 1864 he moved to San Francisco, California, where he began to write for several newspapers at the same time. In 1865, Twain had his first literary success, his humorous story"The Famous Jumping Frog of Calaveras" was reprinted nationwide and titled " the best work humorous literature created in America up to this point.

In the spring of 1866, Twain was sent by the Sacramento Union newspaper to Hawaii. During the journey, he had to write letters about his adventures. Upon their return to San Francisco, these letters were a resounding success. Colonel John McComb, publisher of the Alta California newspaper, invited Twain to tour the state, giving exciting lectures. The lectures immediately became wildly popular, and Twain traveled all over the state, entertaining the audience and collecting a dollar from each listener.

Twain's first success as a writer was on another journey. In 1867 he begged Colonel McComb to sponsor his trip to Europe and Middle East. In June, as Alta California correspondent for the New York Tribune, Twain travels on the Quaker City steamer to Europe. In August, he also visited Odessa, Yalta and Sevastopol (in the "Odessa Herald" of August 24, the "Address" of American tourists written by Twain is placed). Letters written by him on a trip to Europe were sent and printed in a newspaper. And upon his return, these letters formed the basis of the book "Simples Abroad". The book was published in 1869, distributed by subscription and was a huge success. Until the very end of his life, many knew Twain precisely as the author of "Simples Abroad". During his writing career, Twain traveled to Europe, Asia, Africa and even Australia.

In 1870, at the height of the success of The Stupid Abroad, Twain married Olivia Langdon and moved to Buffalo, New York. From there he moved to the city of Hartford, Connecticut. During this period, he lectured frequently in the United States and England. Then he began to write sharp satire, sharply criticizing American society and politics, this is especially noticeable in the collection of short stories Life on the Mississippi, written in 1883.

Twain's greatest contribution to the American and world literature considered the novel "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn". Many consider it to be the best literary work ever created in the USA. Also very popular are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and the collection real stories"Life on the Mississippi". Mark Twain began his career with humorous couplets, and ended with terrible and almost vulgar chronicles of human vanity, hypocrisy and even murder.

Twain was an excellent orator. He helped create and popularize American literature as such, with its characteristic themes and vivid unusual language. Having received recognition and fame, Mark Twain spent a lot of time searching for young literary talents and helping them to break through, using his influence and the publishing company he acquired.

Twain was fond of science and scientific problems. He was very friendly with Nikola Tesla, they spent a lot of time together in Tesla's laboratory. In his work A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Twain introduced time travel that brought many modern technologies to Arthurian England. You had to have a good understanding of science to create such a plot. And later, Mark Twain even patented his own invention - improved braces for pants.

Two other well-known hobbies of Mark Twain were playing billiards and smoking pipes. Visitors to Twain's home sometimes said that there was such tobacco smoke in his office that Twain himself could no longer be seen.

Twain was a prominent figure in the American Anti-Imperial League which protested the American annexation of the Philippines. In response to the massacre, which killed about 600 people, he wrote The Philippines Incident, but the work was not published until 1924, 14 years after Twain's death.

However, the success of Mark Twain gradually began to fade. Until his death in 1910, he suffered the loss of three of his four children, and his beloved wife, Olivia, also died. In their later years Twain was in deep depression but could still joke. In response to an erroneous obituary in the New York Journal, he delivered his famous phrase: Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated. Twain's financial situation was also shaken: his publishing company went bankrupt; he invested a lot of money in new model a printing press that was never put into production; plagiarists stole the rights to several of his books.

In 1893, Twain was introduced to the oil tycoon Henry Rogers, one of the directors of the Standard Oil Company. Rogers helped Twain to profitably reorganize his financial affairs, and the two became close friends. Twain often visited Rogers, they drank and played poker. We can say that Twain even became a family member for the Rogers. The sudden death of Rogers in 1909 deeply shocked Twain. Although Mark Twain repeatedly publicly thanked Rogers for saving him from financial ruin, it became clear that their friendship was mutually beneficial. Apparently, Twain significantly influenced the mitigation of the tough temper of the oil magnate, who had the nickname "Cerberus Rogers." After Rogers' death, his papers showed that friendship with famous writer made a real philanthropist and philanthropist out of a ruthless miser. During his friendship with Twain, Rogers began to actively support education, organized educational programs especially for African Americans and talented people with disabilities.

Twain himself died on April 21, 1910 from angina pectoris (angina pectoris). A year before his death, he said: "I came in 1835 with Halley's Comet, a year later it arrives again, and I expect to leave with it." And so it happened.

In the city of Hannibal, Missouri, the house in which Sam Clemens played as a boy, and the caves that he explored as a child, and which were later described in the famous Adventures of Tom Sawyer, have been preserved, tourists now come there. Mark Twain's home in Hartford has been turned into his personal museum and declared a National Historic Site in the United States.

Already from his first steps, Twain was not deprived of the attention of either readers or critics. Volume critical literature dedicated to Twain is huge. "Twenian" represents a special independent trend in the history of American studies. And although the researchers of his work have done significant analytical and publishing work, the most famous American writer is still not fully understood.

Mark Twain lived at a turning point for national history country, when its whole appearance changed sharply and rapidly. The beginning of Twain's work coincided with civil war(1861-1865) - a key event in the life of the United States, which was called the second American revolution. As a result of the collapse of slavery, broad opportunities opened up for the capitalist development of the country. The pace accelerated industrial production increased influx of immigrants to the United States. The structure of the American economy was changing; the first monopolies and trusts appeared. Twain witnessed the first strikes, the birth of influential political parties that expressed the interests of both industrial workers and farmers. At the end of the 19th century, Twain was among those who condemned the Spanish-American war, which was openly aggressive. Before his eyes, the economic power of the country was strengthening, its scientific potential was growing.

Twain's life experience was exceptionally rich, unique in its own way. This found a diverse reflection in his books, in which there is a pronounced autobiographical beginning. This life experience was one of the decisive factors that determined the constant interest of the writer in history, in its lessons. Twain had a sense of life in its movement, internal dynamics.

Twain traveled constantly. More than ten times the writer crossed the Atlantic. He traveled all over Europe, becoming a witness to the most important socio-political conflicts and upheavals. It can be said that history was unfolding before his eyes.

The artist endowed great strength fantasy, Twain worked in various literary genres: was a novelist, storyteller, publicist, memoirist. huge role in creative heritage Twain is occupied with documentaries. The writer actively performed in the genre of travel essay. He was an educator and humanist, an artist sensitive to all social and political events, which was confirmed by the publication of the writer's archive. For a long time, Twain was assigned the “image” of a comedian, a minion of fate, alien to the formulation of serious historical and philosophical problems.

Twain's literary school was the newspaper, and his favorite genres for a long time were satirical essays, comic sketches, humoresque, often using narrative moves and techniques typical of folklore. A special role in the development of Twain was played by the folklore created on the “frontier” (the border advancing to the West, beyond which lay territories where civilization had not yet arrived). The "frontier" in Mark Twain's childhood was Hannibal, at the time of his youth - Nevada and California, where he became famous as an outstanding journalist and coryphaeus of humor.

Starting with the textbook story "The famous galloping frog of Calaveras" (1865), they decided creative features, preserved in Twain's early essay books (Simples Abroad, 1869, Light, 1872, Life on the Mississippi, 1883): proximity to the forms of a folklore anecdote story, an abundance of vivid everyday details that create a picture of reality with its contrasts and paradoxes, a sense of the powerful, inexhaustible energy of life, humor, understood as "the ability to make people laugh while maintaining full seriousness." Under the onslaught of humor, the writer believed, "nothing can resist." Embodied in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the philosophical tale The Prince and the Pauper (1882), Mark Twain's ideal is freedom from everything conditional and lifeless, organic democracy, faith in the rationality of history and in the spiritual powers of an ordinary person. The mockery of artificiality and decayed forms of relationships that would be swept away by progress corresponded to the mindset that prevailed in America at that time, ready to recognize Twain as its national genius.

However, the reputation of Mark Twain began to change with the release of a book about Huck Finn, which contained tragic episodes in which young heroes the real everyday life of the outback opens up with its stupidity and self-interest, a problem arises moral choice in the face of injustice, violence and racism.

Having moved from California to Hartford in 1870, Mark Twain was constantly in contact with the world of industrialists and businessmen, in which, after his marriage, he himself became involved. The writer was imbued with an increasingly undisguised disgust for the "Gilded Age", as he called the then era of rapid economic growth, accompanied by rampant corruption and trampling on democratic principles. The novel "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" (1889), the story "Coot Wilson" (1896), pamphlets and satirical stories of the same period, they speak of an increase in the accusatory beginning in Twain's prose, who gradually becomes the most implacable critic of American social institutions and mass social psychology. Mark Twain's dominant metaphor was a hoax, growing to universal proportions: both the moral standards established in society, society itself, and spiritual values turn out to be fakes, which in fact speak only of the self-delusion of a person who does not want to realize how insignificant and miserable he is in his aspirations. .

Twain's increasing misanthropy, of which the repeatedly remade "The Mysterious Stranger" remained a monument, was partly due to the fact that unsuccessful business ventures led him to bankruptcy in 1894, as a result of which he had to undertake exhausting trips to read his stories for the sake of money, and then a round-the-world tour, described in the book of essays Along the Equator (1897). This trip turned Mark Twain into a passionate opponent of imperialism and the colonial ambitions of America, which he sharply condemned in a series of pamphlets written in the early 1900s.

Not all of them were published: Twain's entourage sought to preserve in public consciousness the image of an unshakable lover of life and a carefree humorist, forcing him to hide especially angry pages even from his family, in particular the chapter of his autobiography, which he dictated to his secretary in last years life. The mood of these years is conveyed by the epigraph to the book “Along the Equator”: “Everything human is sad. The secret source of humor is not joy, but sorrow. There is no humor in heaven."

Mark Twain, during his lifetime, became something of a "major icon of American culture" and a "national monument." The critic Brander Matthews was the first to recognize him as a great writer in his voluminous preface to the collected works of Twain at Harper's in 1899. He ranked Twain on a par with Chaucer and Cervantes, Molière and Fielding, and declared that no other writer expressed such full of all the diversity of the American experience.

In the very first responses to Mark Twain's death in 1910, the writers Hamlin Garland and Booth Tarkington in the USA, Alexander Kuprin and Korney Chukovsky in Russia expressed the general opinion that he was the true embodiment of America. B. Tarkington wrote: “... when I think about the true United States, Mark Twain became part of this concept for me. For while he was a full citizen of the world, he was also the Soul of America." Garland, emphasizing that Twain "remained to the last American of the Midwest", called him "a representative of our literary democracy ... along with Walt Whitman."

Archibald Henderson in 1910 put it this way: Mark Twain and Walt Whitman, "the two great interpreters and incarnations of America," represent "democracy's highest contribution to world literature." In the future, this idea will become a commonplace for many discussions about the place of Twain in US literature. Two years later, Albert B. Payne, Twain's literary executor and author of the most comprehensive biography of him, declared that Mark Twain is "the most characteristic American in his every thought, in every word, in every deed."

Paradoxically, such desperate antagonists as Van Wyck Brooks and Bernard De Voto agreed on this: one of the few points of agreement they had was the perception of Twain as “ national writer». famous book Brooks' The Torture of Mark Twain (1920), which argued that Twain had failed as a great satirist because his development had been shackled and held back by the influence of a stagnant puritan environment, began by stating that Mark Twain "was undeniably the epitome of character and modern America", "something like an archetype of national character over a long era". But so did De Voto, who programmatically titled his book "Mark Twain's America" (1932), he just had a different attitude towards the old America of the frontier. If Brooks saw spiritual poverty in it, Devoto found just fruitful creative impulses for literature. He called an entire chapter of this work "The American as an Artist" and argued that it was in Twain's work that " american life became great literature", because "he was more familiar than other writers with the national experience in its most diverse manifestations." The best works of Twain, according to Devoto, were "born of America and this is their immortality. He wrote books in which the very essence of national life was expressed with undeniable truthfulness.

The greatest American writers of the 20th century recognized Twain as the founder of the national literary tradition. "The true father of American literature" and "the first genuine American artist of royal blood” called Twain Henry Lewis Mencken in 1913. This opinion was shared to varying degrees by Theodore Dreiser, Carl Sandburg, Thomas Wolfe, Waldo Frank and others. Two great writers of the word, two antagonists, as you know, not inclined to agree with each other on most issues, Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner agreed that real American literature was born from the work of Mark Twain. Hemingway stated this in 1935, Faulkner twenty years later. A similar convergence can be noted in two more antipodes, in two great poets: Twain's novel "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" admired both Thomas S. Eliot, a native of Missouri, who moved to England and became a British subject, and Wystan Hugh Auden, an Englishman who took root in United States. Eliot in 1950 and Auden in 1953 declared Twain's hero to be the embodiment of the national character.

Since then, this opinion has become self-evident. One need only take any history of American literature, any collection of critical works on Twain, to be convinced of this. In the 1984 anniversary collection of works on Twain's main novel, his characters - Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, the Connecticut Yankee and Dupe Wilson - and a hundred years after their creation are perceived as "symbols of a new nation, its rudeness, immaturity and moral uncertainty."

The culmination in the study of Mark Twain in his homeland was probably the jubilee year 1985, when it was 150 years since his birth and 100 years since the publication of his main novel. By this time, a very extensive and diverse literature about Twain had already accumulated, so meticulous bibliographers calculated that in a hundred years about 600 articles and books about The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn alone appeared. It would seem that after this the flow of publications should subside at least for a while, as happened with other figures and anniversaries, but over the past twenty years it has not only not dried up, but even increased and, I must say, very impressively, so that in terms of the amount written - more than a hundred books dedicated to Twain - these two decades can argue with the three quarters of a century that have passed since the death of the writer. The fact is that American literary criticism in the second half of the 20th century, having adopted the tradition of meticulousness and fundamentalism of German science of the century before last, added to this its own enterprise and acquired a completely industrial character. Now it is the most powerful and massive, the most branched and specialized, and, finally, the most technically equipped and advanced literary criticism in the entire history of this field of activity. It has developed the most various directions and layers - from textual criticism to literary theory. Of course, this could not but affect the study of the main national writer of the United States.

Mark Twain.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, best known as Mark Twain, was born November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri. American journalist, writer and public figure; outstanding satirist; humanist and democrat.
Origin pseudonym still causes a lot of controversy, on the one hand - the term of river navigation, on the other - the main character of the novel by Artemus Ward.
Parents: John Marshall Clemens and Jane Lampnon. The family had 4 children, three more died in early childhood.
At the age of 4, Samuel and the entire Clemens family moved to the city of Hannibal. After his father's death in 1947, Orion's older brother began publishing a newspaper. This newspaper started creative way Samuel, as the author of articles, he also went on business trips around the country.

Life outside of creativity.

After working in his brother's newspaper for some time, Samuel began work as a pilot on a steamer, but the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 led to the destruction of the private shipping company.
Samuel, after two weeks of participation in the war on the side of the militia, went to his brother to the west (Nevada), where he tried his hand at silver mining. His efforts did not bring special success.

literary career.

After working as a miner, Samuel worked for a newspaper and educated himself. In 1964 he moved to San Francisco and continued to write for several newspapers at once.
In 1965, Mark Twain's humorous short story "The Famous Jumping Frog of Calaveras" spread across the country.
This is followed by a series of travels and letters about adventures in them, as well as Mark Twain's talent as an orator and he began to lecture, which are very popular.
In 1867, he went on a business trip to Europe and the countries of the Middle East (including visited the Crimea). During the trip, the newspaper printed the letters of Mark Twain, which later compiled the book "Simples Abroad".
The next triumph went to the novel The Gilded Age, co-written with Charles Warner.
In 1876, the book "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" was published, a kind of description of Samuel's childhood in Hannibal and the city itself, and the main character was very similar to Samuel in childhood. After that, at least famous books Mark Twain - "The Prince and the Pauper", "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court".
Samuel and Nikola Tesla were friends and Clemens often visited his laboratory.
In 1884, Clemens opened his own publishing house and the first book he published was The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Helped young talented authors to break through. The publishing house went bankrupt 11 years later, during the economic crisis.

Last years.

Bankruptcy, the death of loved ones greatly affected the mental health of the author. He published several more books, but they no longer had the same success. The situation was saved by the oil tycoon Henry Rogers, with whom they became good friends.
Clemens was forced to leave school at the age of 12, and at the end of his life he received several doctoral degrees from leading US universities. On April 24, 1910, Samuel Clemens' heart gave way to another attack of angina pectoris. He died in the year when Halley's comet flew near the Earth, as the writer predicted (in 1835, when the writer was born, Halley's comet also flew near the planet).

Personal life.

During a Mediterranean cruise, Samuel met his friend's sister, Olivia. In 1970, the lovers got married. The couple had 4 children, three of them died during the life of Samuel, he also outlived his wife, after which he fell into depression. Even during this difficult period of his life, he did not stop joking.

US Literature

Mark Twain

Biography

Mark Twain (eng. Mark Twain, pseudonym, real name Samuel Langhorne Clemens - Samuel Langhorne Clemens; 1835-1910) - an outstanding American writer, satirist, journalist and lecturer. At the peak of his career, he was probably the most popular figure in America. William Faulkner wrote that he was "the first truly American writer, and we have all since been his heirs", and Ernest Hemingway wrote that "all modern American literature came out of one book by Mark Twain called The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn "". Of the Russian writers, Maxim Gorky and Alexander Kuprin spoke especially warmly about Mark Twain.

Nickname

early years

Sam Clemens was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri, USA. He was the third of four surviving children of John and Jane Clemens. When Sam was still a child, the family moved to the city of Hannibal (in the same place, in Missouri) in search of a better life. It was this city and its inhabitants that were later described by Mark Twain in his famous works, especially in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876).

The experience of living in the Western United States shaped Twain as a writer and formed the basis of his second book. In Nevada, hoping to get rich, Sam Clemens became a miner and began mining silver. He had to live for a long time in the camp with other prospectors - this way of life he later described in literature. But Clemens could not become a successful prospector, he had to leave silver mining and get a job at the Territorial Enterprise newspaper in the same place in Virginia. In this newspaper, he first used the pseudonym "Mark Twain". And in 1864 he moved to San Francisco, California, where he began to write for several newspapers at the same time. In 1865, Twain's first literary success came, his humorous story "The Famous Jumping Frog of Calaveras" was reprinted throughout the country and called "the best work of humorous literature created in America to this point."

Twain's first success as a writer was on another journey. In 1867, he begged Colonel McComb to sponsor his trip to Europe and the Middle East. In June, as Alta California correspondent for the New York Tribune, Twain travels on the Quaker City steamer to Europe. In August, he also visited Odessa, Yalta and Sevastopol (in the "Odessa Herald" of August 24, the "Address" of American tourists written by Twain is placed). Letters written by him on a trip to Europe were sent and printed in a newspaper. And upon his return, these letters formed the basis of the book "Simples Abroad". The book was published in 1869, distributed by subscription and was a huge success. Until the very end of his life, many knew Twain precisely as the author of "Simples Abroad". During his writing career, Twain traveled to Europe, Asia, Africa and even Australia.

Twain's greatest contribution to American and world literature is the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Many consider it generally the best literary work ever created in the United States. Also very popular are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and Life on the Mississippi, a collection of true stories. Mark Twain began his career with humorous couplets, and ended with terrible and almost vulgar chronicles of human vanity, hypocrisy and even murder.

Twain was an excellent orator. He helped create and popularize American literature as such, with its distinctive themes and colorful, offbeat language. Having received recognition and fame, Mark Twain spent a lot of time searching for young literary talents and helping them to break through, using his influence and the publishing company he acquired.

IN Lately In the United States, attempts were made to ban The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn because of naturalistic descriptions and verbal expressions that offend African Americans. Although Twain was an opponent of racism and imperialism and went much further than his contemporaries in his rejection of racism, there are indeed elements in his books that in our time can be perceived as racism [source?]. Many of the terms that were in common use during the time of Mark Twain really do sound like racial slurs now[source?]. Mark Twain himself was joking about censorship. When in 1885 public library in Massachusetts decided to withdraw The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn from the fund, Twain wrote to his publisher: "They have removed Huck from the library as 'slum-only trash', because of this we will undoubtedly sell another 25,000 copies of the book."

From time to time, some of Twain's works were banned by American censors for various reasons. This was mainly due to the active civic and social position of Twain. Some works that might offend religious feelings people, Twain did not print at the request of his family. For example, The Mysterious Stranger remained unpublished until 1916. Perhaps Twain's most controversial work was a humorous lecture at a Parisian club, published under the title Reflections on the Science of Onanism. The central idea of the lecture was: "If you have to risk your life on the sexual front, don't masturbate too much." It was only published in 1943 in a limited edition of 50 copies. A few more anti-religious writings remained unpublished until the 1940s.

Mark Twain's success gradually began to fade. Until his death in 1910, he suffered the loss of three of his four children, and his beloved wife, Olivia, also died. In his later years, Twain was deeply depressed, but he could still joke. In response to an erroneous obituary in the New York Journal, he famously said, "The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated." Twain's financial situation was also shaken: his publishing company went bankrupt; he invested a lot of money in a new model of the printing press, which was never put into production; plagiarists stole the rights to several of his books.

In 1893, Twain was introduced to the oil tycoon Henry Rogers, one of the directors of the Standard Oil Company. Rogers helped Twain to profitably reorganize his financial affairs, and the two became close friends. Twain often visited Rogers, they drank and played poker. We can say that Twain even became a family member for the Rogers. The sudden death of Rogers in 1909 deeply shocked Twain. Although Mark Twain repeatedly publicly thanked Rogers for saving him from financial ruin, it became clear that their friendship was mutually beneficial. Apparently, Twain significantly influenced the mitigation of the tough temper of the oil magnate, who had the nickname "Cerberus Rogers." After the death of Rogers, his papers showed that friendship with the famous writer made a real philanthropist and philanthropist out of the ruthless miser. During his friendship with Twain, Rogers began to actively support education, organizing educational programs, especially for African Americans and talented people with disabilities.

Mark Twain House Museum in Hartford

Mark Twain (real name Samuel Langhorn Clemens) is a famous American writer and journalist. Born November 30, 1835 in the family of a judge, Missouri, Florida village. When the boy was 4 years old, the family moved to the city of Hannibal. The entire childhood of the future writer was spent in this city, which became the main source for his subsequent works, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

At the age of twelve, Sam starts working. Constant distress forces him to go to Nevada, as his older brother did. However, to put it mildly, he was unlucky, and he got a job at the editorial office of the newspaper. From that moment on, he published for the first time under the pseudonym Mark Twain.

Still, luck smiled at Mark Twain, "The famous jumping frog from Calaveras" brought special success to the writer. This story was written based on folklore. Such a triumph was consolidated by the book "Simples Abroad" (1769). Mark Twain was not only recognized by a large number of Americans, they knew the whole story of his life. And it's all thanks to the book.

In 1876, the successful works of Mark Twain came out into the world: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and in 1885 - The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Early 90s is a rather difficult period. His publishing company abruptly went bankrupt. This fact forced the writer to go to extreme measures in order to have at least some small income. He decides to speak to readers.

Mark Twain is an American writer, journalist and public figure. His work is full of sharp humor and satire, but he wrote many works in the genre of journalism and philosophical fiction.

Based on the novels and stories of Twain, dozens of feature films and animated films, and his "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" is known all over the world.

So in front of you short biography Mark Twain.

Biography of Twain

Mark Twain (real name Samuel Langhorne Clemens) was born November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri.

On the day of his birth, Halley's comet flew over the Earth. An interesting fact is that on the day of the writer's death, the same comet will again sweep over the Earth (see).

Mark Twain's father, John Marshall, worked as a judge, and his mother, Jane Lampton, was a housewife. However, despite the seemingly good position of the father, the family experienced serious financial difficulties.

In this regard, the Clemens family decided to move to the shipping city of Hannibal. It was this small town with its sights that left many pleasant and warm memories in the memory of the future writer, playing an important role in Twain's biography.

Childhood and youth

When Twain was 12 years old, his father died of pneumonia, leaving behind a lot of debt. For this reason, the children had to leave school and go to work.

Mark Twain at 15

Soon, Twain's older brother began publishing a newspaper. As a result, Mark began to work in it as a compositor. It was then that the young man began to sometimes write his own articles.

At the age of 18, Twain goes on a trip to the cities of America.

During this period of his biography, he awakens a special interest in. He spends a long time in libraries, reading different genres.

Over time, Mark Twain becomes a pilot on a ship. In his own words, he really liked this profession, which requires attention and knowledge of the fairway.

However, when the civil war broke out in 1861, private shipping fell into decline. As a result, the guy had to look for another job.

Creative biography of Twain

Over time, Mark Twain goes to the Wild West to mine precious metals. Despite the fact that the mines did not make him rich, during this period of his biography he managed to compose several witty stories.

In 1863, the writer signs his books for the first time with the pseudonym Mark Twain, taken from shipping practice. In the future, he will publish all his works only under this name, and it is with him that he will go down in the history of world literature.

The debut work in Twain's biography was The Famous Jumping Frog of Calaveras. This humorous story gained great popularity throughout America.

Mark Twain in his youth

After that, Twain began to actively engage in writing activities. He was offered to cooperate with many authoritative publications that wanted them to publish the works of a rising literary star.

Soon, Mark discovers his gift as an orator, in connection with which he often begins to speak in different halls in front of a large audience. During this period of his biography, he meets future wife Olivia, who was his friend's sister.

Twain's works

At the peak of his popularity, Mark Twain wrote several books in the realism genre, which received many positive reviews from critics.

In 1876, the famous story "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" came out from under his pen, which brought him even greater popularity. Interestingly, it contained many autobiographical episodes from the life of the author.

After that, Mark Twain's new historical novel "The Prince and the Pauper" is published. In America, the book had resounding success. Later this work will translate, thanks to which Soviet citizens will be able to appreciate this wonderful novel.

In the mid-1880s, Mark Twain opened his own publishing house, in which he printed the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Later, he publishes the best-selling book Reminiscences, which he dedicates to U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant.

Twain's printing house lasted about 10 years until it completely went bankrupt due to the economic crisis that began in the United States.

It is worth noting that latest works Twain, although they were quite popular, they no longer had such success as the first ones.

At this time, the peak of fame and recognition was observed in the biography of the writer: he was awarded doctoral degrees at various American universities and was honored in every possible way.

Friends of Mark Twain

Mark Twain was very interested. He had friendly relations with a famous inventor (see). Together with him, he could spend a long time in the laboratory, observing the research of the Lightning Lord.

Another close friend of Twain was the oil tycoon Henry Rogers. Interestingly, by nature, Henry was a very stingy person. However, after a long conversation with the writer, he changed dramatically.

The tycoon helped Mark Twain to get out of financial difficulties, and also began to donate substantial amounts of money to charity. Moreover, many of his donations became known only after the death of Rogers.

Death

IN last decade Mark Twain's life had to experience many tragedies associated with his family. He survived the death of three children and his wife Olivia, whom he loved very much.

Perhaps that is why in this period of his biography he finally lost faith in God and began to promote atheism. This was especially noticeable in the works "The Mysterious Stranger" and "Letter from the Earth", published after the death of the classic.

Samuel Clemens, known to the world as Mark Twain, died on April 21, 1910 at the age of 74.

The official cause of his death was angina pectoris. The writer was buried in the state at Woodlawn Cemetery in Elmira.

Twain's photo

Below you can see the few photos of Mark Twain that even exist.

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The famous writer Mark Twain (real name Samuel Langhorne Clemens) was born on November 30, 1835 in an American large family. His parents were John and Jane Clemens, natives of Missouri. Samuel was the sixth child, in addition to him, four more boys and two girls grew up in the family.

But not all children were able to survive the difficult years, three of them died in early age. When Sam was four years old, the Clemens family moved in search of a better life in the city of Hannibal. Later, this city with its funny inhabitants and Samuel's merry adventures in it will be reflected in famous work writer of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

WITH young years Mark Twain was attracted by the water element, he could sit on the river bank for a long time and look at the waves, he even drowned several times, but he was safely rescued. He was especially interested in steamships, Sam dreamed that when he grew up, he would become a sailor and sail on his own ship. It was thanks to this predilection that the pseudonym of the writer was chosen - mark twain, which means “deep water”, literally “measure two”.

In Hannibal, Samuel met Tom Blankenship, the son of an old tramp and alcoholic who lives in a cabin near the river. They became best friends, over time, a whole company of the same adventure lovers gathered. Tom became the prototype for Huckleberry Finn, the protagonist of many children's popular books author.

When Sam was 12 years old, his father died suddenly of pneumonia. Shortly before his death, John Clemens took on the debts of a close friend, but was never able to pay them in full. Samuel was forced to look for work to help his family. His older brother Orion got him a job as a typesetter in the printing house of a local newspaper. Sam tried to publish his own poems and articles in the newspaper, but at first this only irritated Orion. Apart from the local press, young writer sent his first works to other editions, where they were willingly printed.

Youth and early career

In 1857, Mark Twain became a pilot's apprentice, and two years later received the rights to his own driving a ship. However, in connection with the civil war that broke out in 1861, he was forced to leave his favorite business and look for new job. In the same year, Mark Twain went with his brother Orion to the west, to the state of Nevada. There he worked for almost a year in the silver mines in a mining town, hoping to get rich, but luck was not on his side.

In 1862, Twain got a job at the editorial office of a local newspaper, in which he first used his creative pseudonym for a signature. A few years later, his works and articles were published in several printed publications. In 1865, Mark Twain became famous, his humoresque “The Famous Jumping Frog of Calaveras” became popular throughout America, many publishing houses published it repeatedly.

In the midst of their writing career Mark Twain traveled a lot, visited England, Australia, Africa and even Odessa, traveled all over Europe. During these wanderings, he sent letters to his hometown, which were then published in the newspaper. Later, these letters will become the basis for the book "Simples Abroad", which was the first serious creation of the writer. She saw the light in 1869 and brought Twain a well-deserved great success.

At the height of his fame from publishing his first book, Mark Twain married Olivia Langdon, the daughter of a successful entrepreneur. But first, the writer had to try hard to win over Olivia's parents. In 1870 they got engaged. Mark Twain was madly in love with his wife and considered her perfect and perfect woman, took care of her and never criticized. Olivia, on the other hand, considered him an eternal boy who would never grow up. In 30 years of marriage, they had four children.

In 1871, Mark Twain and his wife moved to Hartford, where he spent the most peaceful and happy years of his life. In this city, he founded his own publishing company, which began to bring a good income. Mark Twain himself in these years became interested in satire, wrote long stories, ridiculing the vices of American society.

idea to create autobiographical novel matured with the writer for a long time, and after several unsuccessful attempts, in two years with short breaks, Mark Twain created The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The novel is based on childhood memories of the author. But the novel “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” is considered the most significant contribution of the writer to literature. Some critics call this work the pinnacle of American literary art, the characters of the novel's characters were so vividly and vividly written.

All his life, Mark Twain was interested in the Middle Ages, he was worried about some of the questions and problems of those years. In 1882, the writer's story "The Prince and the Pauper" was published, where Twain denies the world of social inequality with great enthusiasm and aplomb. And in 1889, another historical novel, A Yankee in King Arthur's Court, was published, on each page of which there was enough sharp irony and satire.

Mark Twain was personally acquainted with Nikola Tesla, his lively mind was interested in the scientific achievements of our time. They often carried out experiments and experiments in the Tesla laboratory. Some technical details in his novels, for example, about time travel, appeared precisely due to close communication with Nikola Tesla.

Also, the writer's contemporaries noted his addiction to pipe smoking. According to many, often in Twain's office there was such a rich tobacco smoke that nothing could be seen in it, as if in a fog.

In 1904, Olivia, Twain's beloved wife, died suddenly. Even in her youth, having unsuccessfully fallen on the ice, she became disabled, and with age her condition only worsened. The writer suffered the loss of his wife very hard, his physical and mental health deteriorated. He did not want to live without his beloved Olivia. After the death of his wife, Mark Twain completely stopped communicating with the female sex, although there were contenders for his heart, but he remained faithful to his wife. In addition, three of his children were tragically killed. All these sad events led to the fact that the writer began a severe depression. The works published at the end of his life were slightly different in genre from the previous ones; poisonous irony and even sarcasm were noticeable in them, or, conversely, bitterness and fatigue. Mark Twain's financial situation also worsened - his publishing company, in which he invested most of his funds, collapsed.

One of the most famous and read works Mark Twain One of the most famous and widely read works of Mark Twain is the adventures of two poor boy and prince, who changed their roles for a while.

In the image of Huck in his book, Mark Twain tried to convey the image of a carefree and noble boy, whose low social position does not prevent him from enjoying life.

Some of the writer's works never saw the light of day, many manuscripts were rejected because of their harsh content. So, for example, Twain liked to write all sorts of essays and poems with an erotic bias, but such creations were distributed only in a narrow circle of close people. most famous work in this genre is the essay “1601: conversations by the fireplace”, which deals with the English queen and her subjects.

End of life path
Mark Twain passed away in April 1910 after suffering from angina pectoris. Shortly before his death, he predicted to himself that he had a year to live.

In the city of Hannibal, the house in which little Samuel grew up is still preserved, those caves that he carefully explored with his friends, these places have become popular for tourists of the city. The house in which he lived for 20 years in Hartford is now the Mark Twain Museum, and is named in America national treasure the history of the country.

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