MARK TWAIN

831 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: History of American literature

MARK TWAIN

Mark Twain also known as Samuel Clemens. He was born in Florida, Missouri on Nov 30,1835, the sixth child of John and Jane Clemens. Several years later, in 1839, the family moved to nearby Hannibal, where Clemens spent his boyhood years. Clemens boyhood dream was to become a steamboatman on the river. Clemens' newspaper career began while still a boy in Hannibal. In 1848, a year after his father death, he was apprentice to printer Joseph Ament, who published the Missouri Courier. Did tragedy make Samuel Clemens (Cox Clinton).

Missouri Courier only last for a few weeks before he started working for his brother at Orion's Western Union, for which he wrote his first published sketches and worked as a printer. Over the next two years he continued at the Western Union, occasionally taking stints as editor in Orion's absence. In 1852, Sam published several sketches in Philadelphia's Saturday Evening Post. Clemens left Hannibal in 1853, at age 18, and worked as a printer in New York City and Philadelphia over the next year. During his trip east he published letters in the Hannibal Journal. Upon returning to the Midwest in 1854, Clemens lived in several cities on the Mississippi: the most prominent of these was Keokuk, Iowa where his brother Orion founded the Keokuk Journal.

In April 1861 came the start of civil war river traffic on the Mississippi was suspended, and Clemens steamboat career came to an end. He joined a volunteer militia group called the Marion Rangers, which drilled for two weeks before disbanding. Sam accompanied Orion to the Nevada Territory by stagecoach: President Lincoln had appointed Orion as secretary of the new Territory, and Sam was to be his secretary. (Cox Clinton).

During the 1880s and early 90s, Clemens became heavily involved with investing in the Paige Compositor, an automatic typesetting machine. He poured great amounts of money in the machine, and even founded a company in 1886 to manufacture and distribute it. The advent of the linotype machine, however, sent the Paige Compositor to its doom. After the second model of the machine failed a test run at the Chicago Herald in 1894 where 32 linotypes were running smoothly, the machine was scrapped. Clemens contributed to the bankruptcy of his publishing company when he shifted funds from that firm into the compositor.

Show More
Related

  • Sam R. Watkins' Story

    946 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sam R. Watkins was a Confederate soldier from Columbia, Tennessee. At age twenty-one, Watkins joined the First Tennessee Regiment along with one hundred and nineteen other young men and boys. He was one of only seven men to survive every one of its battles. He writes a memoir twenty years after being in the war about his experience as a private. Watkins juxtaposes stories of horror and gruesome death with humorous memories throughout his four years in the war.

    Read More

  • How Did Presley Influence The World

    678 Words  | 2 Pages

    Elvis Aaron Presley was raised by his mother Gladys, to have a strong faith in God. And while he was still very young, Presley, attended the Assembly of God Church with his parents, where gospel music became an enormous influence on him. His musical talents and instrumental prowess soon began to impress his parents, peers and even his teachers at Humes High School in Memphis, that he earned his first guitar at the early age of ten. After graduating in 1953, Presley decided to get his hands on some paying jobs. He worked a number of jobs while pursuing his musical dream. He recorded his first demo record at what later became known as Sun Studio that same year, his persistence paid off when, Sam Phillips, the record label owner, decided to take him under his wing. Presley soon began touring and recording, trying to catch his first big break. Then, his First Single called "That's All Right" was recorded in 1954.

    Read More

  • Profiles in Courage: Sam Houston

    643 Words  | 2 Pages

    Sam Houston earned his place in Profiles in Courage by his refusal to support the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854. This bill repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 and would have allowed the residents of territories from Iowa to the Rocky Mountains to decide the slavery issue themselves.

    Read More

  • Elvis Presley Influences

    994 Words  | 2 Pages

    At the age of nineteen years old Presley began his music performing at the “Hillbilly Cat.” After being discovered Presley signed with Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee in 1954. Then his contract was sold in 1955 to RCA Victor. His musical influences were a mix of multiple genres. He was influenced by gospel threw church; black R&B threw Beale Street in Memphis. He combined all the genres to create the early rock n roll that would arouse many people around the world.

    Read More

  • The Differences and Similarities of the Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe

    2130 Words  | 5 Pages

    While taking the class of Early Modern European History there was two states that really stuck out and peaked my interest the most. They were the Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe. If you compare and contrast both the Ottoman Empire and Early Modern Europe during the 16th Century through the 18th Century, you will see that there are a number of similarities as well as differences when you look at the expansion of the states. You will also see many of these contrasts as well when you look in terms of each states military and commerce. Although the Ottoman Empire existed before the 16th century and continued to exist past the 18th century and in great decline until the early 20th century, when looking at the state as a whole the time period of 1500’s through the 1700’s is a period of growth and strength. It is perhaps even known as a golden era for the state, when taking in to comparison the Early Modern Europeans where the same time period marks a change in how society thought and how people were treated.

    Read More

  • Sam Houston

    2167 Words  | 5 Pages

    On his twentieth birthday Sam Houston enlisted in the regular army as a private. Within the year, he was promoted to Third Lieutenant to the 39th Infantry Regiment where Houston was badly wounded twice at The Battle of Horseshoe Bend during the War of 1812. The battle took place on the Tallapoosa River near present-day Alexander City, Alabama. His courage in combat caught the attention of General Andrew Jackson who promoted him to Second Lieutenant. In 1816 Houston was named an Indian sub-agent in Tennessee and soon after was promoted to First Lieutenant. Houston led a delegation of Cherokees to Washington, D.C. to meet with Secretary of War John C. Calhoun and President James Monroe. While there...

    Read More

  • Elvis: Americas King

    2454 Words  | 5 Pages

    Born to a poor Mississippi family in the heart of Depression, Elvis had moved to Memphis by his teens, where he absorbed the vibrant melting pot of Southern popular music in the form of blues, country, bluegrass, and gospel. After graduating from high school, he became a truck driver, rarely if ever singing in public. Some 1953 and 1954 demos, recorded at the emerging Sun label in Memphis primarily for Elvis' own pleasure, helped stir interest on the part of Sun owner Sam Phillips.

    Read More

  • Elvis Presley: The King of Rock and Roll

    756 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout Elvis’s childhood and into his teenage years, the Presley family struggled to get by, but they never left their strong Christian faith. Elvis was inspired by gospel music and loved singing in church. When he was ten years old, he sang on stage for the first time at the Mississippi-Alabama Fair and Dairy Show in Tupelo and received a standing ovation. A few months later for his eleventh birthday, Elvis’s mom bought him a gift that would forever change history (www.history.com). It was a guitar that she purchased from the Tupelo Hardware Store for $6.95 because it was all that they could afford. Two years later, in search of a better life, the Presley family packed up everything they owned and moved to Memphis, Tennessee. Elvis attended L.C. Humes High School and graduated on June 3, 1953. That summer, he stopped by The Memphis Recording Service and recorded a demo for $4 as a gift for his mom. The owner was pleased with Elvis and wanted him to team up with two local musicians, Scotty Moore and

    Read More

  • Elvis Presley Influences

    1108 Words  | 3 Pages

    Elvis Presley was born on January 8, 1935 in Tupelo, Mississippi. Unfortunately the parents of Presley suffered the devastating loss of Elvis’s stillborn twin brother, Jessie Garon. Presley was first influenced to music by the First Assembly of God Church and the entertainment of the radio. (Elvis Aron Presley). Through the enjoyment that Presley had listening to music it had brought to want to play guitar. His mother had bought him a guitar and an instructional book and Presley taught himself how to play the guitar. That same year Elvis Presley had won the Children Mississippi-Alabama and Dairy fair singing “Old shep” at ten years old. (Elvis Aron Presley)

    Read More

  • The Mark Twain Thesis

    688 Words  | 2 Pages

    Mississippi Twain tells us of a man with a dream. As imperfection has it this

    Read More

  • Elvis Influencer And Influence

    1299 Words  | 3 Pages

    “[He h]ad a major impact not just on the future Beatles but virtually all popular music performers with his frank sexuality and his clear debt to the influence of ‘black’ music.” (Burrows, 7) This began with his upbringing in Memphis Tennessee where he was mostly spent his time in the African american part of the town. His is believed to be what inspired him to become “a white man with the Negro sound and the Negro feel.” (“Elvis Presley Biography”) Early on in his career, it was discovered that he could perform blues songs while also keeping his southern roots. This unique blend of styles along with Elvis’ popularity became a catalyst for a musical revolution. Black music needed to be introduced by a white artist to a large audience, and Elvis was the one who could do it (McKeen). He had the charisma, the charm, the look, the

    Read More

  • Elvis Presley Biography

    903 Words  | 2 Pages

    It wasn’t easy to get to where he was. Mississippi born and raised, Presley didn’t live in luxury. His wealth and fame was a massive step from his struggling Mississippi life (Stones). This influenced others to pursue their dreams as well. Since he was raised this way, and grew up as a generous and kind person, he would always donate to the needy, which sparked the role model in him (Bergmooser). Only ten years old, Presley finally made his first public performance. He sang “Old Shep” for a contest and received fifth place (Stones). Later in his life, he made his first record working with Sun Records in 1953 (Stones). This eventually led to exposure in the music industry. More and more people listened and bought his albums as the years flew by. Added up, Elvis Presley sold more than a billion records worldwide (RIAA). Throughout his career, he performed many times and at countless different locations. In 1972, he sold out four Madison Square Garden shows (McShane). This is the place many artists only dream of achieving. Step by step, Presley grew his fame and aspired others to strive the same way. Without har...

    Read More

  • Persuasive Essay: The Death Penalty Must Be Abolished

    1497 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are currently 32 states, including California, in America that actively use the death penalty. Since 1976, there have been 1378 executions, carried out in a number of different ways. The government has used gas chambers, firing squads, hangings, electrocution chairs, and lethal injections with the goal of providing an instantaneous and painless death. Lethal injection is the most common of these methods, using a fatal cocktail of drugs to immediately stop the victim’s breathing and heartbeat. This technique, however, will now undergo immense scrutiny and may even be outlawed in the wake of the Oklahoma incident.

    Read More

  • Huckleberry Finn Book Report

    1094 Words  | 3 Pages

    Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens on November 30, 1835, in Florida, Missouri. When Samuel Clemens was four years old, his family moved to Hannibal, Missouri, where he spent his childhood. Clemens first approach to literature was through typesetting for a newspaper in 1851. At the time Orion, his brother, was a newspaper publisher in Hannibal. From 1857 until 1861, he served as the pilot of a riverboat on the Mississippi River. He later used this experience in creating his novels. His first writings appeared in a newspaper on February 2, 1863 under the pen name “Mark Twain.';

    Read More

  • Mark Twain and Edgar Allan Poe: Impact on American Literature

    553 Words  | 2 Pages

    3, 1835. He was raised in Hannibal, Missouri, where he worked as a typesetter and writer for his brother, Orion. When he was old enough, he started training as a river pilot on the Mississippi River, and two years later, he earned his pilot’s license. In 1861, traffic on the Mississippi was stopped because of the American Civil War. As he didn’t want to be involved in the war, he moved to the Nevada Territory. It was there that Clemens began his career as a writer. In addition, he made a living as an orator and writer of humor and

    Read More

More about MARK TWAIN

Open Document