Mark+Twain



**Samuel Langhorne Clemens** (November 30, 1835-April 21, 1910)

Samuel Clemens was an American writer who used the pen name Mark Twain. He was born in Missouri to John and Jane Clemens. He was the sixth child of seven but only three of them would survive childhood. Clemens became a printer’s apprentice at the age of 13 where he learned a lot about the business but a voyage down the Mississippi River inspired him to become a steam pilot. He studied the Mississippi river for more than two years later receiving his license to be a steamboat pilot. This occupation gave him his pen name, Mark Twain, which is the cry for a measured river depth of two fathoms. They gave him the Clemens would later marry Olivia Langdon who was from a wealthy family. Clemens would write a lot of his most famous works in his home with his family. But even with his successful writing career and his wife’s inheritance, Clemens still faced a lot of financial problems due to bad investments (8 million dollars). His problems caused him to enter a depression state and his family slowly began to die off. In 1909, Clemens is quoted with saying “I came in with Halley’s Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together." His prediction was accurate, on April 21, 1910 Clemens died of a heart attack one day after Halley’s Comet. Clemens made an enormous impact of American Literature and his works are still widely read today. The Mark Twain is an award given annually to a book for children in grades four through eight by the Missouri Association of School Librarians. **Famous Works **
 * **"The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" **
 * **//The Adventures of Tom Sawyer //**
 * **//The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn //**
 * **//A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court //**
 * **//The Prince and the Pauper //**
 * **//Pudd'nhead Wilson //**

**Mark Twain's Wise Words ** "A person who won't read has no advantage over one who can't read."

"Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising."

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics."