Biography

Samuel Langhorne Clemens AKA Mark Twain

1835 born in Florida, Missouri just as Haley's comet made it's way across the sky

3-4 yr. old moved to Hannibal, MO

Rarely attended school

Father died at age 11 so his formal education ended when he had to quit school

From here on out Twain tended to get into trouble and had to serve jail time

The jail time turned out to be quite useful because it was here that he learned the art of story telling as well as in bars, dry goods stores.

At the age of 12 Twain became a printer's apprentice here he learned how to spell, punctuate, and arrange language to tell stories effectively, etc...

At 13 he started writing and traveled the East coast until the age of 22, in order to get his name out and around

After that Twain went to Keokuk, Iowa to once again work in a print shop with his older brother

1885 Twain had the chance to fulfill his childhood dreams and become a river boat pilot

He took this chance and in 1860 he received his pilot's liscense but the Civil War had started and all the river boats were removed from the river

Twain, being a Southerner, joined on the side of the South, but not one for fighting he quit soon after after a fatiguing two weeks

After this Twain could not exactly go back home so he went to the Nevada territory where his brother was Secretary of the Territory

While in Carson City he panned for gold, gambled, drank, and wrote stories, articles, and straight news

Used many different pen names then decided to use Mark Twain, which is a riverboat term for "safe water" (two fathoms deep)

1868 famous short story "The Famous Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is published

The Innocents Abroad

Twain married his friend's sister, Olivia Langdon/strong>