Mark Twain (1835-1910)
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
Early Life
 Born Samuel Longhorn Clemens on November 30, 1835
 Son of Jane (Kentucky) and John Marshall (Virginia)
 The sixth of seven children, but only three siblings survived
childhood
 Father was an attorney and judge until he died of pneumonia
when Twain was 11
 Twain became a printer’s apprentice and educated himself in
public libraries in the evenings
 Studied 2,000 miles of the Mississippi River before becoming
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a steamboat pilot in 1859
This occupation gave him his pen name, Mark Twain, from
"mark twain," the cry for a measured river depth of two
fathoms
He foresaw his brother Henry’s death in a dream
Developed an interest in parapsychology
Held himself responsible for Henry’s death for the rest of his
life
 Traveled all over the country as a journalist
 First success as a writer came from a humorous story published in
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a New York weekly, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras
County,” in 1865
Traveled to Hawaii, then Europe and the Middle East. Compiled a
collection of travel letters in “The Innocents Abroad” in 1869
Married Olivia Langdon, the sister of a friend he met abroad, in
1870
Four children: Langdon (died at 19 mos.), Suzy, Clara, Jean
He and Olivia were married for 34 years when she died in 1904
Major Works
 “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” (1876)
 “The Prince and the Pauper,” (1881)
 “Life on the Mississippi,” (1883)
 “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” (1885)
 “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court,” (1889)
Last Years
 Depression
 Suzy’s death in 1896 (meningitis)
 Olivia’s death in 1904
 Jean’s death in 1909
 Oxford University awarded him an honorary doctorate degree
 In 1909, Twain is quoted as 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—Twain died of a heart attack on
April 21, 1910, in Redding, Connecticut, one day after the
comet's closest approach to Earth.
“The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”
 Setting
 Begins in St. Petersburg, Missouri (based on Hannibal,
Missouri) sometime between 1835 and 1845
 Travels through Illinois, Kentucky, Arkansas
 Themes
 Racism and Slavery
 Stereotypes and Identity
 Hemingway wrote :
All modern American literature comes from one book by
Mark Twain called ”Huckleberry Finn.”