Mark Twain Essay Research Paper John Tomlinson

Mark Twain Essay, Research Paper

John Tomlinson Phenom6969@aol.com

Mark Twain

Samuel Clemens, better known by his pin name Mark Twain, was perhaps one of

the most infantile writers this country will ever have. He accomplished allot throughout his

life, and was able to travel around the world and live many adventures of his own. He also

spent some good time exposing the inhumanities of slavery and the bad treatment of

Chinese immigrants. So not only was he a very good writer but he was also cared about

the well being of other humans.

When Samuel Clemens was twelve years old, his father died. After his death

Clemens went to become a printers apprentice. His boyhood dream while growing up

along the banks of the Mississippi River was to one day become a steamboat salesman,

and ride along the river all day up and down the stream. Clemens had this goal achieved

early in life until the Civil War came along putting him out of business. The Civil War

pushed Clemens out west in search of gold but ended up becoming a reporter for the

Virginia City newspaper. While in this city Clemens wrote under many pin names, after he

went through many different names he finally came along the name Mark Twain which

stuck with him. Shortly he moved to San Francisco where he began writing articles against

how the law was treating Chinese immigrants and laborers. This stirred up some trouble so

Twain decided to move out to the Sandwich, that are now known as Hawaii. After a short

stay there he went back to the states and began giving the Sandwich Island lectures in

which he sold out crowds all over the place. While Twain was traveling the nation with his

lectures he decided to take place on the first Trans Atlantic pleasure cruise where he met

the brother of his future wife Olivia. While trying to earn Olivia’s love, Twain wrote over

two-hundred love letters wooing her and trying to earn her fathers respect and have

permission to marry her. He then after this wrote his very first best seller which was

labeled “ Innocence Abroad”. Through many writers Twain was slowly becoming our

countries first celebrity and became a house hold name. He earned the first private

telephone and began investing in many inventions, trying to make money off of many plans

of all types. Out of all the plans he had, the one that worked best was to sell his name,

becoming spokespersons for all different types of products, and putting his face on

anything which companies thought would help sell there products quicker and for higher

prices. While Twain was away from the public life though, he was hard at work at home

writing away and being able to create two very well known classics: “ Tom Sawyer” and

“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”. However at one point in time, Twain experienced

financial problems and had to declare bankruptcy. His next money making scheme was to

travel the world and make money giving lectures which then made him a world celebrity.

During this trip however his wife became very ill and died along it one of his daughters.

When he returned home he was perhaps one of the loneliest people one could know and

began to stay to himself though.

Through the turn of the century, Mark Twain was the most influential person in

the country. This man who started out as a printers apprentice and a steamboatman was

able to rise and become the most well known person. Sadly though, Twain died in 1910

and is still today a very respected and well known writer.