Mark Twain

Mark Twain’s real name was Samuel Leghorn

Clemens. He was born in 1835 in a small town in

Missouri, on the Missippi River.

                                                        

    

When he was twelve, his father died, and he went to

work for a printer. He began writing humorous stories when

he was seventeen.

19th Century Printing Office

He became a pilot (or driver) of steamboats on the Mississippi River in

1858.

When the War Between the States stopped boats

from traveling on the river, Clemens became a soldier in the southern

army.

Confederatesoldier

But he soon left the army, and in 1861 he went out west to look for gold and

adventure. There, he became a newspaper

reporter.

San Francisco in the 1800’s

In 1863 he began writing under the name of Mark

Twain. (“Mark Twain” was a phrase used on riverboats to mean “12 feet (4 yards)

deep.”)

In 1866, Twain moved to

Connecticut, where he wrote the books that made him famous.

Mark Twain’s home in Connecticut

He is best known today for his two novels about boys growing up in small towns

along the Mississippi:Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn

Illustration From the firstedition of Tom Sawyer

Illustration From the firstedition of Huckleberry Finn

Twain traveled widely in the United States and Europe. In the last years

of his life, he became famous as a public

speaker.

He died in 1910.

“Tom Whitewashes the Fence” is part of

the novel Tom Sawyer.

Here is some vocabulary for Tom

Whitewashes the Fence:

whitewash

whitewash

bucket = pail

whitewash

a water pump

whitewash

We use the same word for a modern gas pump.

marbles

treasure

kite

toy soldiers

firecrackers

orange peel