Today we will talk about one world famous American writer, public figure and journalist. Mark Twain's real name is Samuel Clemens. He was born in Missouri, Florida, in 1835, November 30. Samuel died in 1910, April 21. His work includes many genres - satire, humor, journalism, philosophical fiction and others, and everywhere he takes an unchanged position - a democrat and a humanist.
Mark Twain reviews by other writers
William Faulkner said that Samuel Clemens (real name Mark Twain) was the first of truly American writers. And Ernest Hemingway believed that American literature of our time came entirely from one of Twain's books entitled "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." In Russia, among domestic writers, Alexander Kuprin and Maxim Gorky spoke particularly warmly about Samuel Clemens.
Alias origin
The real name of the writer Mark Twain was not used by him when publishing works. He always signed with a pseudonym. The author himself claimed that the name by which he began to call himself in his youth - Mark Twain - comes from the term river navigation. At that time, the future writer served as an assistant pilot on the Mississippi, and this cry (from the English language the translation “mark twain” sounds literally as “mark two”) signified that the lowest depth suitable for passing various river vessels was reached at the marking on mothlin, amounting to 2 fathoms (approximately 3.7 meters).
But there is another version about the allegedly literary origin of this pseudonym: in one of the American magazines in 1861 a humorous story "North Star" by Artemus Ward appeared, telling about three sailors, the name of one of which was Mark Twain (what is the real name of Mark Twain, we already found out). Samuel was very fond of the humorous department of this magazine called "Vanity Fair". The writer in his first speeches (which is described below) read exactly the works of Artemus Ward.
Besides the aforementioned pseudonym, in 1896 Samuel once signed with the name "Sier Louis de Comte". Under it, he published one of his novels.
The childhood and youth of the writer
Samuel was born in a small town called Florida, located in the United States, in Missouri. Later, he joked that he had increased the population by one percent with his birth. The child was the third of four children in the family of Jane and John Clemens. When he was still very young, his parents moved in search of a better life to the city of Hannibal in the same state. It was he and its inhabitants who were later immortalized in the famous works of Samuel Clemens, especially in the novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, published in 1876.
First work
In 1847, Clemens's father died of pneumonia, while leaving the children a lot of debt. The eldest son, named Orion, soon began to publish his newspaper, and Sam began to make a feasible contribution to the matter as a typesetter, and sometimes the author of various articles. It turned out that some of the most controversial and lively texts of the newspaper were written just by his younger brother when Orion was away. Sam, too, sometimes traveled to New York and St. Louis.
The period before the beginning of the career of a writer
The Mississippi call ultimately attracted Mark Twain, and he began to serve on the ship as a pilot. This was a profession, which, as Clemens admitted, he would like to devote his whole life, but the civil war began, which put an end to private shipping in 1861. The future writer was therefore forced to look for another occupation.
Joining the Masonic Lodge
He joined the North Star Freemasons box in May 1861 in St. Louis. Samuel sent a “hammer” to the box during his next trip from Palestine to which he attached a humorous-style letter. In it, he informed the brothers that the handle of this malleus was cut by him from the trunk of a Lebanese cedar, which Gottfried of Bouillon planted near the walls of Jerusalem.
Mark Twain (the writer’s real name and surname is Samuel Clemens) after a brief acquaintance with the people's militia (the experience that he colorfully described in 1885), left the war in July 1861 to the west. At this time, his brother Orion was invited to become secretary to the governor who administers the territory of Nevada. Orion and Sam rode the prairies for two weeks in a stagecoach to Virginia, the mining town where silver was mined.
In the West
Twain as a writer formed precisely this experience of living in the western United States. He formed the basis of the second book he created. Hoping to get rich in Nevada, Clemens became a miner and began to mine silver. The writer had to live long in a camp with other workers - this way of life was described by him later in the literature. But he failed to become a successful prospector, Samuel, he was forced to leave the booty and get a job in a newspaper in Virginia, where Mark Twain, who glorified him, first began to use it. The writer in 1864 moved to California, San Francisco, where he began to publish articles for several newspapers simultaneously. In 1865, Twain made his first success in the field of literature, when the humorous story he created was considered the best work in America in the humorous genre and was reprinted throughout America.
Samuel Clemens led the Sacramento Union newspaper in the spring of 1866 in Hawaii. He was supposed to write letters about his adventures during his journey. Unexpected success awaited them upon the writer’s return to San Francisco. John Mack Combe, Colonel, publisher of a newspaper called "Alta California," suggested that Mark Twain go on a state tour with entertaining lectures. They immediately gained enormous popularity, and the writer, entertaining the audience and collecting from each listener a dollar, traveled the whole staff.
First published book
Mark Twain (the writer’s real name and surname were presented above) as a writer achieved his first success in his other journey. In 1867, he begged Maca Comb to sponsor his trip to the Middle East and Europe. As a correspondent in June of this year, he sailed on the ship Cracker City to the Old World. In August, the writer also reached Sevastopol, Yalta and Odessa. Mark Twain (Twain's real name is Samuel Clemens) as part of the ship's delegation visited the residence of the Emperor of Russia in Livadia.
The letters he wrote during his trip to Asia and Europe were sent to the editorial office and published in the newspaper, after which they became the basis of one of the books entitled "Simpletons Abroad." She was born in 1869, was a resounding success. Many knew this writer until the end of his life precisely as the creator of this work.
In 1870, Samuel married Olivia Langdon and went to live in the city of Buffalo, which is located in the US state of New York. He later moved to Hartford (Connecticut). This period was marked by lecturing in England and the USA. After that, the writer began to create a sharp satire, criticizing politicians and American society. This is especially true for the 1883 collection entitled Life on the Mississippi.
Creative career
The most notable contribution of this writer to the literature of America and the world is his novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The Prince and the Pauper, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Yankees from Connecticut, and the aforementioned Life in the Mississippi collection, consisting of autobiographical stories, have been and remain very popular. The writer began his career with humorous unpretentious verses, and ended with essays of human mores, full of subtle irony, as well as satirical pamphlets and philosophical reflections on the fate of all civilization.
Numerous lectures and public speeches were either not recorded or lost, individual letters and works were forbidden for publication by the creator himself during his lifetime, and also for decades after the death of the writer.
Mark Twain was an excellent speaker. Having earned fame and recognition, he devoted much time to searching for young talents, whom he helped to break through with the help of his influence and the publishing company acquired by the writer.
Interest in science and friendship with Nikola Tesla
Samuel was fond of scientific problems. He was friends with Nikola Tesla, spent a lot of time in his laboratory. In a work entitled "Yankees from Connecticut," the writer included a time travel that led to the emergence of modern technology during the time of King Arthur in England. The technical details given in the novel indicate that the author was well aware of the achievements of science of his era.
Censorship debate
Sometimes individual works of Mark Twain were banned by American censorship for publication for various reasons. This was mainly due to the active social and civic position of the author. Some of them could offend the religious feelings of contemporaries, and therefore Twain did not print these works. For example, until 1916, the Mysterious Stranger remained unpublished. Some works of an anti-religious orientation until the 1940s were not published.
In the 2000s, attempts were again made in the United States to ban the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn due to the fact that it contains naturalistic descriptions, as well as verbal expressions that are offensive to blacks. Despite the fact that the author was an opponent of imperialism and racism, and in his rejection of the latter went much further than most of his contemporaries, the words that in the days of this author were in general use today sound like racial insults. In February 2011, the USA published the first edition of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, created by a writer under the pseudonym Mark Twain (real name and surname is Samuel Langhorn Clemens), in which similar expressions were replaced by other politically correct ones .
Such, in brief, is the biography of this writer.
So, we found out the real name of Mark Twain. Foreign literature (4th grade) introduces us to this author for the first time. The works of the novelist are liked by elementary school students. However, in the lower grades, they rarely mention that Mark Twain is a pseudonym. Now you will know the real name of Mark Twain from the tale "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" - a work that is usually included in the school curriculum.