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Mark Twain : The Father Of American Literature

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What makes an author great? How does an Author achieve legendary status amongst peers? One hundred years after his death on April 21, 1910, "Mark Twain remains as central as ever not only in American literature but American life," writes James M. Cox, a leading Twain scholar (Greenblatt). As an example in 1996, a set of twenty-nine books containing his work was published with introductions by famous authors at the beginning of each volume. Each of the introductions references how Mark Twain directly influenced the authors of each story, poem, essay or letter. William Faulkner once said Mark Twain is "the father of American literature ... the first truly American writer, and all of us since are his heirs. (Huso) Twain was renowned for his work with humor and sarcasm, but he was a great deal more as a public moralist, famous entertainer, political philosopher, travel writer, and novelist. Twain created an American point of view in literature, bringing in aspects of real and current topics in the world; writing about the civil war, the war in the Philippines against Spain through an anti-imperialist view and breaching topics such as slavery and posing moral dilemmas between characters.

Mark Twain was one of the best-known storytellers of his time even though he had only received an education until the fifth grade due to the untimely death of his father forcing him into the working world. The icon has penned over 35 published pieces of work between 1864 and his

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