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 cr
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.