Mark Twain

Mark Twain (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Twain)

Mark Twain was born in Florida, Missouri on November 30, 1835. He had 6 siblings, but only 3 of the children survived. Later, the family moved to Hannibal, where Twain lived for the rest of his childhood. Mark Twain was born Samuel Clemens, but he published over 30 works under the pen name Mark Twain.

When Twain was 18 when he left Hannibal to work as a printer. While at St. Louis, he took a job as a river pilot's apprentice, where his pseudonym was derived. Mark Twain means two fathoms when the depth of water for a boat is being sounded.

Due to the Civil War, river trade was at a standstill, so Samuel took a job on a newspaper. He met a woman named Olivia Langdon, and in 1870, they were married! They had 4 children, but only one of them survived beyond their twenties, and that was their daughter Clara, who lived to be 88 years old. Clara's daughter had died without bearing any children, and so ended the family.

Twain's first noted work was The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, featured in the New York Saturday Press. One of his best works is the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Mark Twain made quite a bit of money, but blew much of it on failed inventions. He went on a round-the-world tour to pay off debts, even though he wasn't under any legal obligation.

Twain outlived two of his daughters, and entered a stage of depression. His wife's death years later added to his grief. He later made a statement that he came in with Halley's Comet, and he expected he would go out with it the following year. His last wish came true, as he died of a heart attack in 1910.