Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30 1835 – April 21 1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was a famous and popular American humorist, novelist, writer and lecturer.

Career overview

Twain's greatest contribution to American literature is generally considered to be the novel Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. As Ernest Hemingway himself said:

Related Topics:
American literature - Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Ernest Hemingway

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

:"All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. ...all American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Also popular are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and the non-fictional Life on the Mississippi.

Related Topics:
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - The Prince and the Pauper - A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court - Life on the Mississippi

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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 had a fascination with science and scientific inquiry. Twain developed a close and lasting friendship with Nikola Tesla. They spent quite a bit of time together from time to time (in Tesla's laboratory, among other places). A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court featured a time traveller from the America of Twain's day who used his knowledge of science to introduce modern technology to Arthurian England. Twain also patented an improvement in adjustable and detachable straps for garments.

Related Topics:
Science - Nikola Tesla - Time travel - Arthurian - Straps for garments

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Twain was a major figure in the American Anti-Imperialist League, which opposed the annexation of the Philippines by the United States. He wrote "Incident in the Philippines", posthumously published in 1924, in response to the Moro Crater Massacre, in which six hundred Moros were killed.

Related Topics:
American Anti-Imperialist League - Philippines - Moro Crater Massacre

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In recent years, there have been occasional 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, some with only superficial familiarity of his work have condemned it as racist for its accurate depiction of the language in common use in the United States in the 19th century. Expressions that were used casually and unselfconsciously then are often perceived today as racism (in present times, such racial epithets are far more visible and condemned). Twain himself would probably be amused by these attempts; in 1885, when a library in Massachusetts banned the book, he wrote to his publisher, "They have expelled Huck from their library as 'trash suitable only for the slums', that will sell 25,000 copies for us for sure."

Related Topics:
Local color - Racism - Imperialism - 19th century - Epithet - Library

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Many of Mark Twain's works have been suppressed at times for one reason or another. 1880 saw the publication of an anonymous slim volume entitled ' Twain was among those rumored to be the author, but the issue was not settled until 1906, when Twain acknowledged his literary paternity of this scatological masterpiece.

Related Topics:
1880 - 1906

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Twain at least saw 1601 published during his lifetime. Twain wrote an anti-war article entitled 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.

Related Topics:
The War Prayer - Spanish-American War - March 22 - 1905 - Harper's Bazaar - 1923

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In his later life Twain's family suppressed some of his work which was especially irreverent toward conventional religion, notably Letters from the Earth, which was not published until 1942. The anti-religious The Mysterious Stranger was published in 1916.

Related Topics:
Letters from the Earth - 1942 - The Mysterious Stranger - 1916

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Perhaps most controversial of all was Mark Twain's 1879 humorous talk at the Stomach Club in Paris entitled Some Thoughts on the Science of Onanism (masturbation), which concluded with the thought "If you must gamble your lives sexually, don't play a lone hand too much." This talk was not published until 1943, and then only in a limited edition of fifty copies.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~