Who was Mark Twain?

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Who was Mark Twain?
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And why are we learning about him?

• To find out more about the author who wrote the
  book we are about to start reading.
• To see if anything in his life might have
  influenced his writing.

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By the end of this powerpoint you should know

• Mark Twains real name
• A bit about his childhood
• A few of the crazy jobs he held throughout his
  life
• Why he chose Mark Twain as his pen name
• Some of his most famous writings and why they
  were important
• How he lived his life

And then, once you have finished reading the
novel
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You will be able to answer the question

• Did Mark Twains life influence his writing?

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The Early Years

• Mark Twain was born on November 30th, 1835 in a
  two-room house in Florida, Missouri.
• His real name was
• Samuel Langhorne
• Clemens.

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When Sam was four, his family moved to Hannibal,
Missouri.
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Hannibal, Missouri

• A small town that overlooked the Mississippi
  River
• Sam called it a boys paradise.
• He often skipped school to swim, fish, and play
  in the woods with his friends.

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Sams childhood home
Hannibal, MO
The Mississippi River
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Hannibal had one other thing that young Sam loved

• STEAMBOATS

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Steamboats

• Sam lived in a time before cars or cross-country
  railroads or highways.
• Steamboats were like the cars and trucks of his
  day.
• Rivers were like highways.

Sam was fascinated by steamboats and dreamed of
one day becoming a steamboat pilot.
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Slavery

• Although Sam thought that Hannibal was a
  wonderful place for a boy to grow up, things were
  not good for everyone.
• Slavery was still legal and there were slaves in
  Sams town.
• Sam once wrote, In my schoolboy days, I was not
  aware there was anything wrong about slavery.
• Later in his life, he would change his mind.

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Sam starts to work

• When Sam was twelve, his father died. Sam went
  to work as a printers apprentice at a newspaper.
• He continued to work for newspapers in St. Louis
  (MO), New York (NY), Philadelphia (PA), Keokuk
  (IA), Chicago (IL), and Cincinnati (OH).
• But Sam thought this work was very boring and he
  wanted to earn more money.

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A childhood dream come true

• Sam decided to leave the newspaper business and
  started working on steamboats, eventually
  becoming a steamboat pilot.
• He thought it would be an easy job, but

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Being a steamboat pilot was tough work!

• A pilot had to

• Memorize hundreds of miles of river
• Know the locations of all the shallows,
  shipwrecks or reefs, where the steamboat might
  run aground
• Be able to read the surface of the water
• Keep track of the changing currents, shorelines,
  and water levels
• Know the rivers shape and landmarks so well that
  he could steer at night, in the rain, or in thick
  fog

• WHEW!

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Life as a steamboat pilot

• Sam made a lot of money as a steamboat pilot.
• He loved relaxing on the deck, telling stories to
  the passengers and learning about their lives.
• Sam learned a lot about human nature during this
  time many people think it helped him write
  characters who seemed like real people!

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But what about that nameMark Twain?

• Remember, being a steamboat pilot was hard,
  dangerous work. You had to make sure that the
  boat never hit the bottom of the river!
• At certain spots in the river, there was a man
  whose job it was to drop a weighted line off the
  boat to the bottom of the river. The line was
  knotted every six feet to measure the waters
  depth.
• A steamboat had to travel in water that was at
  least twelve feet deep which was the second
  knot on the line.
• When a pilot heard the man yell, MARK TWAIN!
  (twain meant two), he knew that the boat was in
  water that was just barely deep enough and that
  he was in danger of running aground.
• Samuel Langhorne Clemens felt that, in many ways,
  this was the way he had lived his life just
  barely out of danger so he chose Mark Twain
  for his pen name!

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Sam might have stayed a steamboat pilot forever,
but

• In the spring of 1861, the Civil War began.
• All commercial traffic on the Mississippi stopped
  because of the war.

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Sam tried out a lot of jobs

• He and some of his childhood friends formed a
  small unit of Confederate soldiers, but they
  didnt do much fighting and quickly decided they
  didnt want to be soldiers anymore

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He decided to travel west

• His older brother, Orion had just been named
  Secretary of the U.S. Territory of Nevada (it
  wasnt a state yet!).
• Sam decided to follow Orion to Nevada and be his
  secretary.
• They took a stagecoach from Missouri to Nevada
  (the trip took three weeks!).

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and caught Silver Fever!

• Working for his brother got boring, so Sam
  started looking for something better.
• When one of the worlds largest silver deposits
  (the Comstock Lode) was found in Nevada, Sam
  joined thousands of others in digging for silver,
  trying to get rich.

A man digging for silver in the mountains in
Nevada.
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I succumbed and grew as frenzied as the
craziest.

• Sams quote above shows just how obsessed he grew
  with striking it rich in Nevada.
• After six months of searching, Sam had found no
  silver and was out of money.
• He needed to find a real job.

A natural silver nugget.
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The Territorial Enterprise

• The Carson City, Nevada newspaper, the
  Territorial Enterprise, offered Sam 25 per
  week to become the city editor.

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Sam discovers his callingMark Twain is born!

• In his job as editor, Sam had to find interesting
  stories about people and events around town to
  write about.
• But if he couldnt find anything interesting
  happening, he just used his imagination and made
  stories up!
• It wasnt good journalism to make up stories, but
  people loved reading them!

• On February 3rd, 1863, Sam decided to start
  writing stories under the pen name Mark Twain.

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Mark Twain leaves town in a hurry!

• Sam wrote in Nevada for a few years, until a
  newspaperman he had made fun of challenged him to
  a duel!
• Sam left town rather than risk his life.
• He headed to San Francisco, where he landed a
  great jobin Hawaii!

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Mark Twain, Travelling Writer/Lecturer

• Sam travelled to Hawaii (then known as the
  Sandwich Islands) and wrote about his adventures
  there.
• When he returned to the United States, he
  travelled around the country talking about what
  he had seen.

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He continued to travel and write about his
experiences. He visited Italy, Greece and,
Spain, many other countries.
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Mark Twain gets married.

• On a ship heading back to the United States, Sam
  met Olivia (Livy) Langdon.
• They married one year later.

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The Hartford Home

• After losing their first child, a son named
  Langdon, Mark Twain and his family moved to
  Hartford, Connecticut.
• He built this 19-room mansion.
• The house had a billiard room, turrets, and a
  porch like a riverboat deck.
• It was a happy home for Mark, his wife, and their
  growing family.

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Mark Twains Children
Olivia Susan (Susy) Clemens
Jean Lampton Clemens
Clara Langdon Clemens
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Quarry Farm

• In the summer, the Clemens family went to Elmira,
  New York to stay with Livys sister.
• The house was called Quarry Farm.
• It was at Quarry Farm, in the study shown in the
  picture, that Mark Twain wrote what would become
  his most popular book.

Mark Twains study at Quarry Farm
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The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

• Finished in 1875, this story is about a young boy
  named Tom. Tom lives in a town on the
  Mississippi River and is always having adventures
  and getting into trouble.

Think back to what you have learned about Sams
childhood. Does this book sound familiar?
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The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

• One year after The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was
  published, Mark Twain started writing a sequel.
• This time, Toms friend Huck was the main
  character.
• Although Mark Twain intended the story to be
  another funny story of adventure, it ended up
  becoming something much more meaningful.

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• In the story, Huck is floating down the
  Mississippi with Jim, a runaway slave.
• When he was a child, Mark Twain hadnt thought
  slavery was wrong, but as an adult he saw that it
  was cruel, evil, and wrong.
• He brought up these issues in the book, making
  many people consider their own feelings about
  racism and slavery .

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Later in life

• Although Mark Twain made a lot of money from his
  writing, he invested it poorly and ended up
  deeply in debt.
• He owed so much money, that he eventually had to
  close up his house and move his family to Europe,
  where things were cheaper.

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Returning home

• In 1900, Mark Twain and his family returned home
  to Connecticut.
• His eldest daughter, Susy, had died at 24 years
  old.
• The family was happy to be back in the United
  States, but mourned Susys for a long time.

• He had repaid all of the money he had owed.

Olivia Susan Clemens (Susy) 1872-1896
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More sadness

• In 1904, Livy, Mark Twains wife died.
• Twain wrote, She was all our riches, and she is
  gone. She was our breath, she was our life, and
  now we are nothing.

Olivia Langdon Clemens 1845-1904
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Mark Twain is celebrated

• While working on his autobiography, Mark Twain
  received word that Oxford University in England
  wanted to celebrate his writing by giving him an
  honorary doctorate of letters.
• Since he had left school when he was 11 years
  old, Mark Twain was very honored by the award.

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• In 1909, Mark Twains daughter, Clara, was
  married. His daughter, Jean, died of a heart
  attack.
• Mark Twain wrote down his memories of Jean and
  then said, I shall never write any more.
• Mark Twain died on April 21st, 1910 at the age of
  74.

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People remember Mark Twain

• President William Howard Taft said, "Mark Twain
  gave pleasure  real intellectual enjoyment  to
  millions, and his works will continue to give
  such pleasure to millions yet to come...
• Writer William Faulkner called him, the father
  of American literature.
• Twain was called, the greatest American humorist
  of his age.

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So now that you have learned a bit about Mark
Twain

• Do you know
• Mark Twains real name?
• A bit about his childhood?
• A few of the crazy jobs he held throughout his
  life?
• Why he chose Mark Twain as his pen name?
• Some of his most famous writings and why they
  were important?
• How he lived his life?

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and do you think that his writings were
influenced by his life experiences?
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