Essay on A Brief Biography of Mark Twain - 1322 Words

Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born on November 30, 1835. Clemons grew up in a town called Hannibal, Missouri. Here Sam Clemens saw an array of different type of people pass through his town. People such as: gamblers, entertainers, thieves, and even slave traders that influenced his childhood memories. We see traces of his rugged hometown deeply embedded with southern tradition. Clemens was known as a mischievous boy that smoked, led of crew of pranksters, and often played hooky from school. At the age of twelve Clemens dropped out of school after the death of his father. He later took a job as a printer where he was introduced to writing. Clemens constructed poems, reports, and humored sketches. Although young Samuel did not possess†¦show more content†¦This was his first fiction work which propelled him into the literary world. Even though much of his success was due to his previous works most Americans know Mark Twain by his two closely related novels, The Adventur es of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Ernest Hemmingway stated, â€Å"All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn ... its the best book weve had. All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since (Hemmingway and Shenton 22). The two stories are filled with raw humor, mature material, and they both draw from Samuel Clemens child hood memories. Both stories were written based on places and people found in Clemmons childhood hometown Hannibal. In both stories Mark Twain renamed the story’s town St. Petersburg. This could be symbolic of Twain’s view of Hannibal Missouri being like heaven. In Tom Sawyer, the story takes place mostly in St. Petersburg, and many places in the story mirror places found in Hannibal. Cardiff Hill is a place for children’s games such as Robin Hood, much like Hannibal’s Holliday’s Hill. Jackson’s Is land is a place where the boys play pirates which mirrors Hannibal’s Glasscock’s Island. McDougal’s Cave, the center of Tom Sawyer’s climatic ending, is closely related to Hannibal’s McDowell’s cave. PhysicalShow MoreRelatedA Brief Biography of Mark Twain668 Words   |  3 PagesMark Twain was born on November. 30, 1835 in the small town of Florida, MO. Mark’s birth name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. In 1839, the Clemens family moved 35 miles east to the town of Hannibal, in Mississippi. Mark kept to himself and in doors in his early years because of poor health and sickness. That was the case until he became years of age. He recovered from his illness and started playing outside with the rest of the children. Growing up his Father was a judge and worked a lot. He alsoRead MoreEssay about Hiram Ulysses Grant : Sloppy Drunk or Honorable Icon?534 Words   |  3 PagesMexico was a short one and Ulysses was ready to take a big step in his life. Julia Boggs Dent won his heart and they were married on August 22, 1848, in St. Louis, Missouri. As a young Lieutenant, Ulysses S. Grant was stationed in Detroit for a brief period in 1849, and then for a year in 1850-51. A short time later Grant became a general in the Civil War for the Union Army. Ulysses Grants career did not stop with the end of the Civil War. He soon found himself the president of the most powerfulRead MoreEssay about Samuel Clemens in Buffalo: A Woman and an Artist6035 Words   |  25 Pagesmost biographies, has significance because it was the final stage in a long campaign for an artistic existence free of financial worries and of the burdens of journalistic writing.† This suggestion—that his time in Buffalo inspired his development from humorist and journalist to the novelist who produced Huck Finn—intrigued me deeply. However, neither scholar went far to explicate this assumption. Thus, in my second section, I intend to examine the affect of the Buffalo experience on Mark Twain’sRead More Nature v. Nurture in Mark Twains Puddnhead Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins2229 Words   |  9 PagesNature v. Nurture in Mark Twains Puddnhead Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins What makes a person who they are is a difficult dilemma. Mark Twains novel, Puddnhead Wilson and Those Extraordinary Twins is a critical analysis of how nature and nurture can cultivate emotions and free will, which in turn affects the life of individuals. Twains faltering sense of direction began about slavery, moral decay, and deceptive realities (Kaplan 314). The debate of `nature versus nurture has beenRead MoreSt. Louis And New Orleans1606 Words   |  7 Pageshemorrhage and died two days later. With her death, Chopin’s reputation went into almost total eclipse. In literary histories written early in the century, her work was mentioned only in passing, with brief mention of her local-color stories but none at all of The Awakening. Even in the first biography of Chopin, Daniel S. Rankin’s Kate Chopin and Her Creole Stories (1932), The Awakening was passed over quickly as a â€Å"morbid† book. The modern discovery of Chopin did not begin until the early 1950’sRead MoreSilvia Parra Dela Longa. Professor: Leslie Richardson.1404 Words   |  6 PagesThis is useful to anyone. Newspaper work will no harm a young writer and could help him if he gets out it in time (biogrphy.com)†. As a journalist, for Hemingway was imperative to communicate events as soon and effective as possible, he had to be brief and clear. So he developed his â€Å"stripped down pros style (biography.com)† which would serve him in the near future, to revolutionize Ameri can and English literature. Carlos Baker, American writer (Wikipedia.com) said â€Å"†¦ as a writer of short storiesRead MoreThe Story of My Life2883 Words   |  12 Pages1988 Bantam Classic edition / June 1990 Bantam reissue / November 2005 Published by Bantam dell A Division of Random House, Inc. New York, New York All Rights Reserved B. Structure of the Book (Summary) Chapters1–5 After providing brief descriptions of her home in Alabama and her family members, Helen explains how she became disabled and that’s because a fever she had when she was only nineteen months old left her blind and deaf and her first memories of being disabled, tellingRead MoreEssay on u.s. grant2380 Words   |  10 Pagesgreat support from the black people in the Southern states. Grant moved into the White House with Julia and his beautiful daughter Nellie. His sons were also there from time to time, and his old father, now a postmaster in Covington, Kentucky, made brief visits. Grants brothers stayed with their business and were too busy to visit him. Serious problems confronted the nation. The war had brought poverty and desolation to the South, but it brought the North prosperity. There was widespread corruptionRead More William Faulkners Use of Shakespeare Essay5388 Words   |  22 PagesWilliam Faulkners Use of Shakespeare Throughout his career William Faulkner acknowledged the influence of many writers upon his work--Twain, Dreiser, Anderson, Keats, Dickens, Conrad, Balzac, Bergson, and Cervantes, to name only a few--but the one writer that he consistently mentioned as a constant and continuing influence was William Shakespeare. Though Faulkner’s claim as a fledgling writer in 1921 that â€Å"[he] could write a play like Hamlet if [he] wanted to† (FAB 330) may be dismissed asRead MoreA Rose for Emily - Biography William Faulkner3892 Words   |  16 PagesBIOGRAPHY William Faulkner (September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was a Nobel Prize-winning American author. One of the most influential writers of the 20th century, his reputation is based on his novels, novellas and short stories. However, he was also a published poet and an occasional screenwriter. Most of Faulkners works are set in his native state of Mississippi, and he is considered one of the most important Southern writers, along with Mark Twain, Robert Penn Warren, Flannery OConnor