Mark Twain 1304010820 1304010818 Mark Twain 1835 1910

Mark Twain 杨菁（1304010820） 严荣林（1304010818）

Mark Twain (1835 -1910) Mark Twain (1835— 1910) • • • American writer humorist journalist lecturer essayist

Twain was popular, and his wit and satire earned praise from critics and peers. Upon his death he was lauded as the "greatest American humorist of his age"，and William Faulkner called Twain "the father of American literature".

• • • Mark Twain's names Mark Twain's life A mysterious relationship Mark Twain's death & Assessment Share—Mark Twain’s saying

Mark Twain's names Real name: Samuel Langhorne Clemens Mark Twain: Two fathoms of water— "The water is 12 feet (3. 7 m) deep and it is safe to pass". (It was in Virginia City on February 3, 1863, that “Mark Twain” was born when Clemens, then 27, signed a humorous travel account with that pseudonym. A riverman’s term) Different pen names before Mark Twain: Josh Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass

Mark Twain's Life-The Early Years 1835 • Born in Florida, Missouri on November 30, 1835. • The third son • The sixth of seven children, only three of his siblings survived childhood. • Twain’s father was an attorney and a local judge. • Halley’s comet(哈雷彗星) visible from earth.

1839 (4) • Moves to Hannibal, Missouri, which later serves as the model town for Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. A view of Hannibal from the Mississippi Boyhood Romance River life Ideal place

1847 • Father dies of pneumonia(肺炎) , leaving family in difficult circumstances. • Shortly thereafter he left school‚ having completed the fifth grade.

1848 (13) • Becomes a printer's apprentice(印刷学徒 ).

1851 (16) • Begins work as a journeyman printer with the Hannibal Gazette(owned by his brother Orion). Publishes first articles and humorous sketches. 1853 (18) • Visits St. Louis, New York, and Philadelphia as an itinerant(巡回的, 流动 的) printer.

Twain’s Young Adult Life 1857 (22) • Returns to Missouri. Becomes a cub-pilot for Horace Bixby. Spends next two years “learning” the river, later described in Life on the Mississippi.

• Later he was to say, “In that brief, sharp schooling, I got personally and familiarly acquainted with about all the different types of human nature… When I find a welldrawn character in fiction or biography, I generally take a warm personal interest in him, for the reason that I have known him before. I’ve met him on the river. ”

1858 (23) • Brother Henry was killed in steamboat accident on the Pennsylvania. 1861 (26) • Civil War breaks out, halting river trade. Clemens serves two weeks with Confederate irregulars(非正规军), then moves to Nevada with his brother Orion.

• Lured by the infectious hope of striking it rich in Nevada’s silver rush‚ Sam traveled across the open frontier from Missouri to Nevada by stagecoach.

1862 (27) • Travels around Nevada and California. After failing as a silver prospector‚ takes job as reporter for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise. 1864 (29) • Forced to leave Nevada for breaking dueling laws. Prospects(勘探) in Calaveras County, settles in San Francisco. Writes for magazines and newspapers.

1865 (30) • Writes “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog. ” Wins notice in eastern magazines. Sam’s first “big break”.

1866 (31) • Takes trip to Hawaii as correspondent(通讯记者) of the Sacramento(萨克拉门托，加州首府) Alta Californian. Reports on shipwreck of the Hornet. Gives first public lecture. 1867 (32) • Travels as correspondent to Europe and the Holy Land on the Quaker City. Sees a picture of Olivia Langdon (Livy). Sam fell in love at first sight. Publishes The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, and Other Sketches. Sales are light.

In 1867 (32) Olivia Langdon (Livy)

• Olivia Langdon Clemens (1845 – 1904) was the wife of the famous American author, Samuel Langhorne Clemens. • Her father Jervis was a very wealthy coal businessman. • Her health was poor. • She rejected Twain's first proposal of marriage.

1868 (33) • Lectures across the United States. Meets and falls in love with Livy in Elmira(埃尔迈拉), New York. 1869 (34) • Engaged to Livy. The Innocents Abroad published as a subscription book. It's an instant best seller.

Twain Starts a Family and Moves to Hartford 1870 (35) • Marries Livy in Elmira. Her father buys them a house in Buffalo, New York. Son Langdon is born. 1871 (36) • Moves with Livy to Hartford(哈特福特)‚ Connecticut(康涅狄格州). Publishes Roughing It《艰苦岁月》. The Clemenses’ first daughter Susy was born‚ but their son‚ Langdon‚ died at the age of two from diphtheria(白喉).

1873 (38) • Invents and patents Mark Twain’s Self. Pasting Scrapbook. Publishes The Gilded Age《镀金时代》. (Mark Twain's first novel, which he wrote with Charles Dudley Warner)

Twain's Most Famous Books While Living in Hartford 1874 -1891 (39 -56) • For the next 17 years (1874 -1891)‚ Sam‚ Livy and their three daughters (Clara was born in 1874 and Jean in 1880) lived in the Hartford home. In the fanciful Nook Farm house in Hartford.

During those years Sam completed some of his most famous books. • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) • Prince and the Pauper (1881) • Life on the Mississippi (1883) • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in London(1884) American edition comes out the next year. • A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889)《亚瑟王朝中的康涅狄格美国佬》

• Huckleberry Finn was also the first book published by Sam’s own publishing company‚ The Charles L. Webster Company. In an attempt to gain control over publication as well as to make substantial profits‚ Sam created the publishing company in 1884. • It turns out to be a bad financial move. • Continually made bad investments in new inventions. • Eventually brought him to bankruptcy. (破 产)

Twain’s Financial Ruin and Subsequent Travels 1891 (56) • In an effort to economize and pay back his debts‚ Sam and Livy moved their family to Europe. 1894 (59) • When his publishing company failed in 1894‚ Sam was forced to set out on a worldwide lecture tour to earn money. 1895 (60) • Goes on worldwide lecture tour to restore finances. 1896 (61) • Continues to lecture around the world. Daughter Susy dies. Unable to return to the place of her death, the Clemenses never returned to Hartford to live. 1898 (63) • Finishes paying off creditors. But ruins his health.

Twain’s Darkest Times and Late Life • In these later years‚ Sam’s writings turned dark. They began to focus on human greed‚ cruelty and questioned the humanity of the human race. 1902 (67) • After living in New York City for three years‚ Livy falls seriously ill. 1904 (69) • Livy dies. Begins dictating autobiography. Moves to New York City. 1908 (73) • Moves into “Stormfield” in Redding, CT. Forms the “Angelfish Club” for young girls. ( a sort of club for the daughters of several friends)

1909 • His youngest daughter‚ Jean, died from an epileptic seizure(癫痫发作). • His middle daughter Clara was married. 1910 • On April 21‚ 1910‚ Sam Clemens died at the age of 74. • Dies at Stormfield, buried in Elmira(埃尔迈拉). • Halley’s comet visible from earth.

Halley’s comet Mark Twain and Halley's Comet • “I came in with Halley’s Comet in 1835, ” Mark Twain wrote in 1909. “It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. The Almighty has said, no doubt: ‘Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together. ’” • And with this uncanny prediction, Samuel L. Clemens indeed died in the year of that rare occurrence on April 21, 1910. Postage stamp featuring Mark Twain and Halley's Comet from the Dave Thomson collection

Mark Twain / Ossip Gabrilowitsch Monument • His grave is marked by a 12 -foot (i. e. , two fathoms, or "mark twain") monument, placed there by his surviving daughter, Clara. There is also a smaller headstone. "Death is the starlit strip between the companionship of yesterday and the reunion of tomorrow. " To the loving memory of my father and my husband CCG 1937

Beloved Mark Twain & Assessments • Upon hearing of Twain's death, President William Howard Taft said, "Mark Twain gave pleasure--real intellectural enjoyment-to millions, and his works will continue to give such pleasure to millions yet to come. . . His humor was American, but he was nearly as much appreciated by Englishmen and people of other countries as by his own countrymen. He has made an enduring part of American literature. " • When he died on April 21, 1910, newspapers around the country declared, “The whole world is mourning. ”

• Helen Keller : I have been in Eden three days and I saw a king. I knew he was a king when I touched him though I had never touched a king before. Helen Keller & Mark Twain In 1909

Share—Mark Twain’s saying Good friends, good books and a sleepy conscience: this is the ideal life. -Mark Twain, Notebooks and Journals, 1898

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