MARK TWAIN
American author (1835-1910)
Biography:
Samuel Langhome Clemens was born in Florida (Missouri) in 1835. He grew up in Hannibal, a quiet village by the River Mississipi, which he later depicted in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885).
He lost his father at the age of 12, left his studies and became aprrentice of typography in a printing house. There he began writing articles for newspapers. When he was 18, he left his house and wandered the area, earning a living by his typographies. He dreamt of going to New Orleans and Brazil, in search for the Amazone sources. But when he finally set off, he decided to leave this project and become a steamboat pilot. During tha war of 1861, as he was standing up neither for the North nor for the South, he went westwards, to Nevada mountains, where he became a gold digger.
When he came back to his hometown, he called himself Mark Twain, an old nautical term meaning "two fathoms deep", and became journalist. It was in a newspaper that The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County(1865), an old story modernized by Twain, first appeared. But his life lacks adventure. He goes to San Francisco, where he met Bret Harte, to Hawai, Holy Land and Italy. Roughing it! (1892), his second travel book, gives us a clear idea of the American life at a time when crossing the country meant many days in a six-horsed stagecoach.
In 1873, he wrote The Golden Age. That same year he lost his wife and one daughter, and his other daughter went mad, which drove him to change his literary style. He died in Redding (Connecticut) in 1910.
Mark Twain, author of illustrated books:
Tom Sawyer, illustrated by Fabiano Bepi, Milan, Corticelli, 1939.
Célèbre Grenouille sauteuse, illustrated by Roger Blachon, Gallimard, 1978.
The Prince and the Pauper (abridged), illustrated by Thea Kliros, Dover Children's Thrift Classics, 1997.
Mark Twain on the Internet:
Web on Mark Twain (in English)