Mark Twain
AUTHOR

Mark Twain

Literature & Fiction | Children's Audiobooks | Teen & Young Adult

Mark Twain is the pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835 - 1910). He was born and brought up in the American state of Missouri and, because of his father's death, he left school to earn his living when he was only twelve. He was a great adventurer and travelled round America as a printer; prospected for gold and set off for South America to earn his fortune. He returned to become a steam-boat pilot on the Mississippi River, close to where he had grown up. The Civil War put an end to steam-boating and Clemens briefly joined the Confederate army - although the rest of his family were Unionists! He had already tried his hand at newspaper reporting and now became a successful journalist. He started to use the alias Mark Twain during the Civil War and it was under this pen name that he became a famous travel writer. He took the name from his steam-boat days - it was the river pilots' cry to let their men know that the water was two fathoms deep. Mark Twain was always nostalgic about his childhood and in 1876 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was published, based on his own experiences. The book was soon recognised as a work of genius and eight years later the sequel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, was published. The great writer Ernest Hemingway claimed that 'All modern literature stems from this one book.' Mark Twain was soon famous all over the world. He made a fortune from writing and lost it on a typesetter he invented. He then made another fortune and lost it on a bad investment. He was an impulsive, hot-tempered man but was also quite sentimental and superstitious. He was born when Halley's Comet was passing the Earth and always believed he would die when it returned - this is exactly what happened.

Read more Read less

Best Sellers

  • Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: A Signature Performance by Elijah Wood cover art

    Regular price: £22.89

    Try for £0.00
  • Mark Twain - The Complete Novels cover art

    Regular price: £0.89

    Try for £0.00
  • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer cover art

    Regular price: £18.79

    Try for £0.00
  • The Complete Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn Collection cover art

    Regular price: £19.29

    Try for £0.00
  • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn cover art

    Regular price: £0.89

    Try for £0.00
  • A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court cover art

    Regular price: £27.49

    Try for £0.00
  • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer cover art

    Regular price: £0.89

    Try for £0.00
  • The Innocents Abroad cover art

    Regular price: £27.09

    Try for £0.00
  • Mark Twain Collection cover art

    Regular price: £27.49

    Try for £0.00
  • The Autobiography of Mark Twain cover art

    Regular price: £28.89

    Try for £0.00
  • HorrorBabble's Classic Horror: Volume 1 cover art

    Regular price: £14.49

    Try for £0.00
  • Joan of Arc cover art

    Regular price: £23.39

    Try for £0.00
  • An Anthology of Classic Stories cover art

    Regular price: £49.99

    Try for £0.00
  • The Best Short Stories of Mark Twain cover art

    Regular price: £20.29

    Try for £0.00
  • Is Shakespeare Dead? cover art

    Regular price: £25.09

    Try for £0.00
  • Great Classic Stories II cover art

    Regular price: £14.89

    Try for £0.00
  • Mark Twain Collection cover art

    Regular price: £27.49

    Try for £0.00
  • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn cover art

    Regular price: £22.89

    Try for £0.00
  • Letters from the Earth cover art

    Regular price: £13.19

    Try for £0.00
  • The Mysterious Stranger cover art

    Regular price: £0.89

    Try for £0.00

Are you an author?

Help us improve our Author Pages by updating your bibliography and submitting a new or current image and biography.
Visit Amazon Author Central