Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorn Clemens (November 30, 1835 - April 21, 1910), better known by the pseudonym Mark Twain, was an American writer, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. Among his novels are “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” (1876) and his sequel “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” (1885), which is often called the “Great American Romance”. Twain grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, where conditions were later created for Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. After completing an internship at the printer, Twain worked as a typesetter and contributed articles to the newspaper of his older brother Orion Clemens. He later became a pilot of a riverboat on the Mississippi River, and then headed west to join Orion in Nevada. He cited the lack of success in mining with humor, turning to journalism for the Virginia Territorial Enterprise. In 1865, his humorous story, The Famous Jumping Frog of the Calaveras County, was published, based on the story he heard at the Angels Hotel in Angel's Camp, California, where he worked for a while as a miner. The story attracted the attention of the international community and was even translated into classical Greek. His wit and satire in prose and speech earned the praise of critics and peers, and he was a friend of presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty. Although Twain made a lot of money from his writings and lectures, he invested in businesses that lost a lot of money, notably Paige Compositor, a mechanical typesetter that failed due to its complexity and inaccuracy. After these financial setbacks, he filed for bankruptcy protection from his creditors, and with the help of Henry Huddleston, Rogers eventually overcame his financial problems. Twain decided to fully pay all his creditors before bankruptcy, although he did not have legal liability for this. Twain was born shortly after visiting Halley's Comet, and he predicted that he too would “go with it.” He died the day after the comet returned. He was praised as the “greatest American comedian of his time,” and William Faulkner called Twain “the father of American literature.”