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Mark Twain

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

Mark twain.jpg
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an exclusive contract with Harper & Brothers, Mark Twain could not publish "The War Prayer" elsewhere and it remained unpublished until 1923.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 led the Anti-Imperialist League[?] which opposed the annexation of the Philippines by the United States.

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 unpleasant language in common use in the United States in the 19th century.

In his later life Twain's family suppressed some of his work which was especially irreverent towards conventional religion; notably Letters from the Earth (http://www.positiveatheism.org/hist/twainlfe.htm) was not published until decades after Twain's death.

Table of contents

Mark Twain as a character

Additional Works by Twain Include:

Notable quotes

External Links

wikipedia.org dumped 2003-03-17 with terodump