Mark Twain was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri. He was the sixth child of seven and was born two months prematurely so he wasn’t expected to live as a baby. He ended up struggling with health issues for the rest of his childhood. His real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, Mark Twain was his pen name. He had very limited education due to a full time job as an apprentice with a newspaper in Hannibal. He then became an apprentice on a steamboat named the “Pennsylvania” with his younger brother. Disaster struck, there was a boiler explosion on board the ship and his brother died, Clemens was devastated. He continued to work on steamboats and became a pilate for one. Despite his rough child hood and early life, he had a great sense of humor. So for most of his life he was a standup comedian, part of that caries into some of his works. He started off writing short stories and small works but eventually wrote incredible novels. He published his first book, “The Innocents Abroad” in 1869. He remains one of Americas best and beloved writers. He died on April 21, 1910 with no direct decedents.

Mark Twain’s greatest work is called “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.” Its about how Tom becomes bored of school so he runs away to an Island on the Mississippi River with two friends, Joe Harper and Huck Finn. They go on adventures as “pirates.” They go on all these adventures as people start looking for their bodies as they assume they are dead.

Despite Mark Twain being a pretty crazy dude he had some impactful quotes.

“When in doubt tell the truth”

“Kindness is the language which the deaf can hear and the blind can see”

and

“Continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection”

Mark Twain is arguably one of America’s greatest authors. His work showed what the world was like at the time. It dealt with racism, identity, and morality. And it gave people hope and entertainment through the hard times happening while he was alive.

I personally love Twain’s work. It keeps you captivated through the whole book. All his books are about adventures and how these characters have and the things they do to stay alive and still have fun. I also love how he puts real life current events happening in his own life into his novels and other works.

My Essential Question is “How do current real world events shape an author’s writing?”

Events in the time period a writer is writing in usually reflects into the authors work. One example of this is Mark Twain’s work. He wrote while slavery and oppression was big in the time. So, in his work he talks about these things as his characters in his books live through and ultimately fight against. This makes the author’s work more interesting and intriguing.