Mark Twain ~ 1835 - 1910
Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in the small village of Florida, Missouri, Clemens spent his young years working at various jobs. His job as a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River would give him the name that later would make him famous. Big steamboats needed about 12 feet of water - two fathoms, or "mark twain" in the cry of the leadsman who measured the river's depth - to float safely.
Mark Twain would become a prolific writer of the adventures of young boys. His most beloved works no doubt being Tom Sawyer and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, in which Twain told the tale of an abused boy and a runaway slave who became friends while riding a raft on the Mississippi River.
Other works by Twain included A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Pudd'nhead Wilson and Life on the Mississippi.
When Twain was four his family moved to the town of Hannibal, Missouri, a port town on the Mississippi River. The Mark Twain Library and Museum is located in this town where his boyhood home can still be viewed today.
I never ever heard that about his name before. Amazing. (And how could I have missed this bit of information? Duh.) The stamp is great. It looks majestic. Very nice.
ReplyDeleteI should have posted this in the blog, for those that would like more with just one click:
ReplyDeletehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain
A rather nice Wikipedia piece on one Samuel Langhorne Clemens.
Did you know Mark Twain was head of something called The Anti-Imperialist League? A friend of mine turned me on to some of his quite radical late in life writings.
ReplyDeleteCheck out his essay "To the Person Sitting in Darkness."
oops
ReplyDeletehttp://people.virginia.edu/~sfr/enam482e/totheperson.html
Thanks for the link, I will finish reading it tomorrow. Just the beginning is a 'WOW' - I have never heard of this writing before.
ReplyDeleteEven his children's stories really carried with them adult messages. He was a most interesting person.