Mark Twain

While working as a steamboatman, Mark Twain met Charles Langdon who showed him a picture of his sister, Olivia. Twain began corresponding with Olivia and proposed marriage to her. Her father was against the match but Twain managed to overcome her father's initial reluctance.

The couple married in 1870 and had four children, of whom one died in childhood. He deeply loved his wife and was shattered when she died in 1904 after 34 years of marriage.

Twain’s later years were marked by personal tragedies—in addition to his wife, two of his three surviving children also predeceased him. The last decade of his life was a very difficult one, and he was plagued by depression. He died of a heart attack on April 21, 1910, at the age of 74.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born in Florida, Missouri, on November 30, 1835, to Jane (née Lampton) and John Marshall Clemens. He was one of the couple’s seven children, but only three of his siblings survived childhood. He was of Scots-Irish, English, and Cornish ancestry.

His father, an attorney and judge, died of pneumonia in 1847. The family, already a modest one, was plunged into financial crisis. The young boy, aged just 11 dropped out from school to become a printer's apprentice.

He began working as a typesetter in 1851 and occasionally contributed articles and humorous sketches to the ‘Hannibal Journal’, a newspaper owned by his brother, Orion.

He left the ‘Hannibal Journal’ at the age of 18 and began working as a printer in New York City. During this time he frequented public libraries and read voraciously in order to educate himself.

His fondest childhood dream was to become a steamboatman and he was elated when steamboat pilot Horace E. Bixby took him as an apprentice and trained him in navigation. After more than two years of rigorous training, Clemens became a licensed river pilot in 1858.

He loved his job—it was exciting and well-paying. However, the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 brought a standstill to the river trade and he was forced to take up an alternative occupation.

He struggled to re-establish himself and became a miner. However, this occupation did not suit him and he started to write for newspapers. During this time Samuel Langhorne Clemens adopted the pen name of “Mark Twain”—a term for 12 feet of water in steamboat slang.

He first tasted success as a writer in 1865 when his humorous story ‘The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County’, was published in a New York weekly, ‘The Saturday Press.’ The story brought him national attention and laid the foundation for his successful career as a writer.

One of Mark Twain’s most popular works is the novel ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’, a story about the boyhood adventures of two friends, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. The book inspired several stage, television, and film adaptations.

His novel, ‘The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn’, a direct sequel to ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’, is commonly named among the Great American Novels. The book which explores notions of race and identity is both controversial and extremely popular.

Twain’s first attempt at historical fiction, ‘The Prince and the Pauper’, is another one of his most popular works. Set in the mid-16th century England, it tells the tale of two young boys who are identical in appearance, but born into two entirely different social classes. The story has inspired numerous theatrical production and films.