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Mark Twain Novels; Humor/Satire; Short Stories; Plays; Essays; Letters Mark Twain (1835-1910)

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Page 1: Mark twain presentation

Mark Twain

Novels; Humor/Satire; Short Stories; Plays; Essays; Letters

Mark Twain (1835-1910)

Page 2: Mark twain presentation

IntroductionMark Twain was the most celebrated writer of his time. He was a writer,

humorist, adventurer and prankster but died a curmudgeon. He felt strongly about his beliefs and opinions. In his early life Twain found adventure, it seemed, every where he went. He was in Virginia and nearly found himself in a dual. He went to Hawaii were he spent time in a commune with beautiful Hawaiian woman. He promoted himself at every opportunity. He wore a white suit that allowed him to stand out among the populous.

He hated wealth because of its collateral damage of corruption it caused at the expense of the less fortunate. However, that didn’t deter him from trying to attain it. He poured money into get rich quick schemes of which none availed his desired hopes, in fact, it caused him to go bankrupt. He defended the slaves and the Chinese immigrants of the indignities brought upon them by the rich. He poked at that values that rich American’s held to the delight of the underdog. History would judge him on his writings causing him to hold the title of an American icon.

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Father and Mother

• John Clemens- lawyer, storekeeper, judge and land speculator

• Mother Jane was a fun and spirited woman

• She lived in poverty for years after husband died

• His father found solace in alcohol

and died suddenly from pneumonia when Sam was 11

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Childhood

Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens on November 30, 1835 in Florida Missouri

Sixth of seven children John and Jane Clemens

Moved to Hannibal, Missouri at age 4

Quit school at the age of twelve

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Childhood Father and uncle owned slaves

Spent summer days in slave quarters listening to tales and spiritual fodder

Witnessed a slave get beat to death by a white man

Worked as printer’s apprentice allowing for knowledge of world news

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Young Adult At 18 went to Philadelphia, New York

and Washington working per diem as newspaper reporter mailing his stories to his brother

His brother Orion published Sam’s work in his Muscatine Journal

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Young Adult At 21 he convinced Horace Bixby to teach him

the art of piloting a steamboat on the Mississippi River

From 1816-1870 the steamboat carried cotton and sugar also passengers

Piloted for two years before the Civil War started

Joined a confederate unit called the Marion Rangers and quit after two weeks

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Steamboat Pilot

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Young Adult In 1861, at 26 followed his brother

Orion, appointed by President Lincoln as Secretary to Nevada Territory, by stagecoach, west as his assistant

Hoped to strike it rich in Nevada's silver rush

The journey’s trials and tribulations became fodder for his book, Roughing It

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Twain’s Twenties Unable to be profitable in either

mining or assisting his brother and in of a job

Sept. of 1861 became a writer for the Virginia City Territorial, Nevada

Uses the pseudonym “Mark Twain” for first time-which is a steamboat term that means 12 feet of water

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Twain’s Twenties Wrote for the Territorial Enterprise for 3 years

under the name Mark Twain with a style of friendliness and sharp wit

Wrote editorials, articles and featured funny stories with a sharp wit

Needing a change of scenery he headed to San Francisco in 1865

Continued to write stories for local news papers becoming a favorite story teller to many fans

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Notable Quotes “Get your facts first, and then you can distort them

as much as you please.” “Grief can take care of itself, but to get the full value

of a joy you must have somebody to divide it with.” “By trying we can easily learn to endure adversity --

another man's I mean.” “Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The

minute it crops up, all our irritations and resentments slip away and a sunny spirit takes their place.”

“I thoroughly disapprove of duels. If a man should challenge me, I would take him kindly and forgivingly by the hand and lead him to a quiet place and kill him.”

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Twain’s Thirties His big break came in 1865 mocking

the mining camp he once inhabited with the publication of “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog” Later named “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County”

Became so popular he started on lecture tours

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Twain’s Thirties In 1867, hired by Alto California when

he embarked on a 5 month sea journey through the Mediterranean writing about the journey that was met with huge audience acceptance

In 1869 he finished and published “ The Innocents Abroad” becoming one of the best writers in America

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Twain’s Thirties Big names of literary America where

centered in Boston and Cambridge and Twain wanted their respect

Twain was quoted as saying, “ I want to obtain the respectful regard of high eastern civilization” and said it with a serious face

He felt like he was crude and lacking class

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Twain’s Thirties In 1870,after dating for two years he marries the

daughter of rich coal merchant, Olivia Langdon and settles in Buffalo, New York

improving his social status, asking her to help ‘”reform” his western ways

Joins the Buffalo Express as a partner, editor and writer

Becomes a father for the first time to Langdon Clemens who dies at the age of two from diphtheria

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Twain’s Thirties In 1871 the family moves to

Hartford, Ct

In 1872 his embellished tail of adventure in crossing the country by stage coach was brought to life in the story Roughing It

Twain’s first daughter, Susy, is born and a year later built a beautiful house in Hartford, CT

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Twain’s Thirties For the next 17 years Twain, his wife and three daughters made the house their home

“To us, our house… had a heart and soul, and eyes to see us with; and approvals and solicitudes and deep sympathies; it was of us,

and we were in its confidence and lived in its grace and the peace of its benediction”

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Twain’s Forties Although living in Hartford Twain

found the most solitude at his sister in-law’s house in upstate New York were he wrote most of his famous books

Twain’s style captured the conscience of America by writing about his own history, political corruption, greed, slavery and the Reconstruction era

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Notable Quotes “I am opposed to millionaires, but it would

be dangerous to offer me the position.” I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice

letter saying that I approved of it. Courage is resistance to fear, mastery of

fear - not absence of fear. I have never let my schooling interfere

with my education. A man cannot be comfortable without his

own approval.

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Twain’s Forties Twain’s earlier life was the back drop

in his first book, “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” in which the book explores the mischievous and wild deeds of a young boy coming of age

In 1873 he wrote “The Gilded Age” that examined the conscience of American greed and political corruption that was so prevalent in that period

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Twain’s Forties In 1880, Twain writes the book “The

Tramp Abroad” depicting his travels through Europe

In 1882, he turns out another 2 books that deal with the social injustices and class relations in America called “The Prince and the Pauper and again in 1889 with “Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

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Twain’s Forties Twain rounds out his forties with two

books that bring him back to his Mississippi years “Life on the Mississippi” in 1883 and the “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” in 1885

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Twain’s Fifties After writing “A Connecticut Yankee

in King Arthur’s Court” Twain, in 1892, wrote “The American Claimant”

“The American Claimant” was written with the help of a phonographic dictation machine.

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Twain’s Fifties In 1884, Twain started his own publishing

firm in order to retain the money he was paying publishers to publish his books

Huckleberry Finn was the first book published by his new found company

Ulysses S. Grant published his memoir papers through Twain’s company and was very profitable for Twain and the Grant estate

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Twain’s Fifties Twain made some bad investments; one

being, investing $250,000 in the Paige typesetting machine

in 1891,Twain’s bad investments on new inventions was the cause of going bankrupt and having to pack up his family and move to Europe were it was cheaper to live in hopes of paying of creditors by lecturing he never returned until 1900

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Books

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Twain’s Fifties In 1894, Twain writes “Tom Sawyer

Abroad” that entails Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn traveling to Africa in a hot air balloon

This same year he published “The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson” which again took on the social issues of slavery

c. 1895 his daughter Susy dies from meningitis

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Twain’s Sixties Twain writes his last novel “Personal

Recollections of Joan of Arc” which he considers one of his most important pieces of work

In 1897, Twain writes another travel book called “ Following the Equator” describing ill treatment of weaker governments around the world by European powers

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Twain’s Sixties In 19oo Twain finishes paying off his

debts and returns to America and describes himself an anti-imperialist and becomes vice president of the Anti-Imperialist League

Twain died at the age 0f 74 of a heart attack at his home in Redding Conn. and buried far from Hannibal, MO in Elmira, New York

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Twain’s Awards Honorary M.A., 1888, Litt.D., 1901,

both Yale University; LL.D., University of Missouri,

1902; named to American Academy of Arts and Letters,

1904; D.Litt., Oxford University, 1907.

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Short Stories Tom Sawyer, Detective, as Told by

Huck Finn, and Other Stories, 1896 The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg,

and Other Stories and Essays, 1900 A Double Barrelled Detective Story,

1902 A Dog's Tale, 1904 Extracts from Adam's Diary, 1904 Eve's Diary Translated from the

Original Ms, 1906

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Twain’s Novels

The Gilded Age, 1873 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, 1876 The Prince and The Pauper, 1881 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,

1884 The Connecticut Yankee in King

Arthur’s Court, 1889 The American Claimant, 1892

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Twain’s Novels

Tom Sawyer Abroad, by Huck Finn, 1894

Puddn’head Wilson, 1894 Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc,

1896 Extract from CaptainStormfield’s

Visit to Heaven, 1909 The Mysterious Stranger: A

Romance, 1916 Simon Wheeler: Detective, 1963

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Short Stories The Celebrated Jumping Frog of

Calaveras County, 1867 Screamers: A Gathering of Scraps of

Humour, Delicious Bits, and Short Stories, 1871

Eye Openers: Good Things, Immensely Funny Sayings, and Stories, 1871

Merry Tales, 1892 The 1,000,000 Pound Bank-Note, and

Other New Stories, 1893

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Short Stories The $30,000 Bequest, 1906

A Horse's Tale, 1907

Short Stories of Mark Twain, 1967

A Story without an End, 1986

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Conclusion

Twain's last ten years of his life were probably his darkest. He became disgusted and disgruntled at how greedy people could be and the cruelty in which they treated each other in order to attain any amount of success. Some people considered Twain a traitor because of his anti- government speeches and writings. Some of his works were never published because, some say, publishing houses feared a backlash from the government or that they were trying to shield his famous him and his reputation. He became insensitive to his family and friends and demanded to be treated as an American icon from admirers. His Honorary Degree’s from both Yale and Oxford only added to his self worth.

Twain was the best known writer around the world in his time. We can form a picture in our minds from Twain’s writings of how the world was changing during the Reconstruction Era and the political atmosphere that contributed to that change.

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Biography http://www.masshist.org/

http://www.marktwainhouse.org/man/biography_main.ph

http://www.historyaccess.com/marktwain-histor.html

George Perkins/ Barbara Perkins: The American Tradition in Literature

http://www.history.com/topics/steamboat

http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/twainbio.html

http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/wilson/pwhompg.html