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Samuel Langhorne Clemens Essay

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Samuel Langhorne Clemens

Samuel Langhorne Clemens or commonly known as Mark Twain was an American writer and humorist. Twain’s writing is also known for realism of place and language, memorable characters, and hatred of bad faith and oppression. Clemens was born in Florida and then later on moved to Hannibal, Missouri, a Mississippi river port, when he was four years old. There he received a public school education. After his father died in 1847, Clemens was assisted to two Hannibal printers, and in 1851 he began contributing sketches to his brother Orion’s Hannibal Journal. Before long he was a master printer in Keokuk, Iowa; New York City; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and other cities. Later, Clemens was a steamboat pilot on the …show more content…

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), the sequel to Tom Sawyer, is considered Twain’s masterpiece. Huckleberry Finn, which is almost entirely narrated from Huck’s point of view, is noted for its authentic language and for its deep commitment to freedom. Twain’s skill in capturing the rhythms of that life help make the book one of the masterpieces of American literature. In 1884 Twain formed the firm Charles L. Webster and Company to publish his works and other writers’ books, notably Personal Memoirs (2 volumes, 1885-1886) by the American general and president Ulysses S. Grant. A disastrous investment in an automatic typesetting machine led to the firm’s bankruptcy in 1894. Twains successful worldwide lecture tour and the book based on those travels, Following the Equator (1897), paid off his debts. Stress and sorrow came with the deaths of Twain’s daughter Susy in 1896 and of his wife in 1904. His writings of the late 1890s and 1900s became more pessimistic than ever. Significant works of this period are Pudd’nhead Wilson (1894), a novel about miscegenation and murder, and Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (1896), a sentimental biography. Some of Twain’s later writings include

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