Mark Twain's Biography
Considered by many, to be one of the greatest American writers, Mark Twain is perhaps best known for The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885) and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876).
The sixth of seven children, Mark Twain began work as a printer's apprentice for a local newspaper.
Mark Twain was later hired as a journalist for a Nevada newspaper in Virginia City. Soon, wanting a complete change, he began travelling around Europe and the Middle East and turned these travels into adventure books. The Innocents Abroad (1869) and Roughing It (1872) are the most notable examples. Success with his work and the financial security he gained, enabled him to marry Olivia Langdon in 1870 and together they moved to Connecticut.
Years of literary success followed and Mark Twain moved his family to Europe in the 1890s and he embarked on extensive lecture tours. However, in 1897 disaster struck with the death of his daughter, Susie. Twain continued to write, producing novels and short stories, as well as many articles.
In his last years Mark Twain settled in New York where he became quite a celebrity. However, ill health plagued him throughout this time.
At the time of his death in 1910, Mark Twain was regarded as the quintessential American author.
Indeed, Ernest Hemingway wrote that, "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn."
In May 2010 The Independent reported that the first volume of Mark Twain's autobiography, which had been in a vault in the University of California, Berkeley, would be published in November 2010, on the 100th anniversary of his death.
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