12 questions · Literature
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, born in 1835 in Florida, Missouri, and raised in the Mississippi town of Hannibal, came into the world as Halley's Comet stood in the sky and later prophesied he would go out with it too. Before becoming America's most famous author he was a printer's apprentice, a Mississippi riverboat pilot, a luckless silver prospector and a reporter in the Wild West. His pen name comes from the river: 'Mark twain!' the leadsmen cried at two fathoms of depth: safe water. With the tall tale of the 'Celebrated Jumping Frog' and the travel book 'The Innocents Abroad', Twain became a star humorist. Then he immortalised his Mississippi childhood: 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer' (1876), with the legendary fence scene, in which Tom gets his friends to pay him for the privilege of doing his whitewashing chore. The sequel surpassed everything: 'Adventures of Huckleberry Finn' (1884), the raft journey of the runaway Huck with the escaped slave Jim down the Mississippi: told in Huck's own vernacular. Hemingway judged: 'All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.' Twain was also an inventor (three patents!), a world traveller and a catastrophic investor: a typesetting machine devoured his fortune, and at nearly 60 he trudged around the world on a lecture tour to repay his debts to the last cent. Private blows (the deaths of his wife and two daughters) darkened the late years of his era's most famous humorist. He died in 1910: indeed one day after Halley's Comet returned. Did you know that countless famous sayings are attributed to Twain that he never said? He would probably have laughed hardest about that himself.
Practise for freePurFact brings every card back right before you would forget it. That's how knowledge sticks.
Huckleberry Finn
Hemingway: 'All modern American literature comes from this one book.'
💡 Did you know? Hemingway said all modern American literature comes from this one book.
He makes others paint (and pay)
The most famous scene from 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer' (1876).
💡 Did you know? The fence-whitewashing scene became the emblem of selling work as pleasure: the “Tom Sawyer effect.”
from the leadsman's call
His real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens and he was himself a Mississippi pilot.
💡 Did you know? “Mark twain” was the leadsman's call for “two fathoms deep”: just deep enough for safe passage.
Mississippi
The town of Hannibal, Missouri became the model for Tom's and Huck's St. Petersburg.
💡 Did you know? Twain's boyhood town of Hannibal on the Mississippi provided the setting for Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.
riverboat pilot
Before that a printer's apprentice; afterwards a luckless silver prospector and Wild West reporter.
💡 Did you know? Twain was a proud steamboat pilot until the Civil War shut down river traffic in 1861.
Halley's Comet
Born in 1835 at its appearance, died in 1910: one day after its return.
💡 Did you know? Twain was born in 1835 during Halley's Comet and predicted he would “go out with it”: in 1910 it came true exactly.
the Jumping Frog
Published in 1865: the start of his career as America's most famous humorist.
💡 Did you know? The jumping-frog story made Twain nationally known in 1865: his first big success.
a typesetting machine
At nearly 60 he trudged around the world on a lecture tour to repay his debts to the last cent.
💡 Did you know? Twain held three patents himself, including one for an adjustable garment strap.
Many are only attributed to him
Twain is literary history's great quote magnet.
💡 Did you know? Genuine (roughly): 'The report of my death was an exaggeration.'
The Prince and the Pauper
The heir Edward and the beggar boy Tom Canty in Tudor London: filmed many times.
💡 Did you know? The prince-and-pauper switch has been filmed and imitated countless times.
Samuel Clemens
Born in 1835 in Florida, Missouri; raised in Hannibal on the Mississippi.
💡 Did you know? As a publisher, Samuel Clemens lost a fortune on a failed typesetting machine and had to write his way out of debt.
Foto: Unknown author · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Mark Twain
Mark Twain (1835 to 1910), born Samuel Clemens, was an American writer and humorist. With “Tom Sawyer” and “Huckleberry Finn” he created classics of world literature.
💡 Did you know? In his lifetime Twain was a world-famous lecturer: a stage star like almost no author before him.
Home · All topics · Legal notice · Privacy · Terms · Contact
