Birth: November 30, 1835

Death: April 21, 1910

Place of Birth: Florida, Missouri

Known For: Humorous, often satirical writing that exposes hypocrisy and corruption while examining small-town life in America in the 19th century

Milestones:

• 1847 Worked as a printer’s apprentice in Hannibal, Missouri, and thereafter began working at his brother Orion’s newspaper
• 1853-1856 Traveled to St. Louis, New York, and Philadelphia, working as a journeyman printer
• Late 1850s Wrote for the Keokuk Post
• 1857-1861 Apprenticed himself to a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River and earned his pilot license
• 1861-1864 Moved to Nevada with his brother to explore mining possibilities, and continued on to San Francisco where he worked as a journalist
• 1867 Published his first book, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, and other Sketches
• 1876 Published the novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the story of a young boy’s escapades while growing up along the Mississippi River
• 1882 Published the novel The Prince and the Pauper
• 1884 Published the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, considered to be his masterpiece
• 1889 Published the novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
• 1894 Published the novel The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson

Did You Know:

• Mark Twain, the pseudonym used by Samuel Langhorne Clemens, first appeared on February 3, 1863, in a piece he contributed to the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise.
• Prior to adopting Mark Twain as his pen name, Clemens wrote under the pen name Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass for three humorous pieces he contributed to the Keokuk Post.
• On the Mississippi River, ‘mark twain’ meant ‘two fathoms deep.’
• Twain received an honorary doctorate from Oxford University in 1907.
• To pay off debts accumulated as a result of failed business ventures, Twain toured the world as a lecturer, publishing his experiences in Following the Equator (1897).

Twain’s Family Tree