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HANNIBAL Samuel was born in Florida. Missouri in 1835 but the family soon moved to Hannibal in the same state. He had two brothers and a sister but it was their slave Jenny who was the greater influence as she was a gifted storyteller. His first employment was as an apprentice in a local printing shop where he found books to read. He began to think of becoming a journalist. ON THE MISSISSIPPI His new role took him to New York, Philadelphia and Cincinatti but his great ambition was to explore the Amazon. To learn more about steamboats he became a pilot on the Mississippi. Here a small boy dropped a line marked in fathoms over the side of the boat and called out depths as a warning of sandbanks. At two fathoms the call was "Mark Twain" THE WRITER The Civil War brought an end to river traffic and in 1862 Samuel moved to Carson City. He worked as a newspaper man here and in San Francisco. His first short story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" was well received and he began giving humourous lectures. He was also writing of his travels in "Innocents Abroad" |
TOM SAWYER & HUCKLEBERRY FINN In 1870 he married Olivia Langdon and they settled in Hartford, Connecticut. It was here where he began writing the classic tales of the Mississippi. In 1876 he published "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" using the pen name of Mark Twain and in 1882 his story of Tudor England "The Prince and the Pauper". However the popularity of Tom Sawyer had readers demanding more and in 1883 he wrote "Huckleberry Finn" and "Life on the Mississippi" This was his peak and although he continued to write and lecture the deaths of his wife and two daughters seemed to dim the humour and his later writing became pessimistic in style and content. he continued to travel but never came back to the land his ancestors left behind.
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