Mark Twain Biography

Mark Twain Biography

Full Name: Mr. Samuel Langhorne Clemens
Date of Birth: November 30, 1835
Place of Birth: Florida, Missouri, USA
Died: April 21, 1910
Place of Death: Redding, Connecticut, USA
Classification: Artists & Entertainers


Born in Florida, Missouri, Twain had an ideal childhood of exploration and adventure once he moved to Hannibal. Much like his tales of Huckleberry Finn and the Adventures of Tom Sawyer, he spent long days beside the always busy, always interesting banks of the Mississippi River. However, upon the death of his father, who was a lawyer, young Samuel Clemens had to quit school and work as a typesetter in order for his family make ends-meet.

The issue of slavery, ethics, and morals are apparent in his works of literature and nonfiction. This is most likely attributed to the fact that Missouri had become a slave state, and being along the Mississippi would have given Twain exposure to the hard labor the slaves contributed to the growth of lower, Mid-West America.

Mark Twain then became a pilot just before the start of the American Civil War. He earned a decent living, but once the war broke out, he first gathered friends and formed a small confederate militia group, which only lasted two weeks. Following, he decided to move out west with his brother who had been appointed as governor of the new territory of Nevada. His trip west with his brother inspired much of Twain’s later work entitled, Roughing It.

Twain was also an inventor and patented a few of his useful inventions. However, he did lose a lot of money on some bad investments, especially the sum of around $200,000 to a new type of printing press that didn’t work well at all. Later, he joined the American Anti-Imperialist league and spoke out over the United States seeking out other territories, namely in the Philippines. Twain’s works are still read today in classrooms across the globe. Even though attempts to ban his literature have sometimes been agreed on, his works have been found to not only live beyond a certain time period, but are also able to remind readers where they come from and where they are going.