While living in Hannibal, Samuel developed a very strong bond with the Mississippi River. He had always imagined being a steamboat captain. Although he had always wanted to that, his first job was actually being a Printer’s Apprentice. He took this job in 1848 which was a year after his father had died. Once 1851 hit, he started to submit sketches to his brother’s journal “Hannibal.” Soon, he became the editor of the journal in place of Orion.
Clemens family moved to Hannibal Missouri when he was four ("Mark Twain." Wikipedia.). The first 10 years of his life, the Clemens family were not particularly healthy ("Mark Twain (American Writer)."). When ever he was healthy, he spent his younger years running around with the local boys that lived around the Mississippi River with him ("Mark Twain: Childhood."). As Clemens grew up he wanted to become steamboat pilot because he saw many of steamboats while living on the Mississippi River ("Mark Twain: Childhood.").
He persuaded Horace to take him on as an apprentice and after two years on the Mississippi, Clemens had his pilot’s license. With the start of the Civil War in April 1861, river traffic on the Mississippi was suspended. Clemens' steamboat pilot career came to an end. He had been occasionally sending letters to the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, the territory's most well known newspaper, and by September 1862, he had been accepted to be a reporter for the paper. After a short 17 months, Clemens left the Enterprise and went to San Francisco.
These books are considered to be masterpieces by a lot of people. Samuel Clemens, better known by his pseudonym Mark Twain, was born in Florida, Missouri, in 1835. When Samuel Clemens was twelve years old, his father died. After his father’s death Clemens went to become a printer’s apprentice. His childhood dream was to become a steamboat salesman, and ride along the river down the stream.
Mark Twain is not just famous for his writings, but his achievements, home life, and greatest accomplishments are what has made him the famous writer known today. Mark Twain was born on November 30, 1835 in a small town called Florida, Missouri. He was the sixth of seven children of his father, John Marshall and mother Jane Lampton Clemens and only three of his siblings would survive to adulthood. At the age of four, Mark moved to Hannibal, Missouri a port town next to the Mississippi river in hopes to a better and improved living condition. Hannibal consisted of slaveholding families that provided a mix of southern tradition and frontier life, a lifestyle that would later influence Twain’s writings, including the Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
THE ADVENTURES OF HUCKLEBERRY FINN AUTHOR’S SKETCH Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens on November 30, 1835, in Florida, Missouri. When Samuel Clemens was four years old, his family moved to Hannibal, Missouri, where he spent his childhood. Clemens first approach to literature was through typesetting for a newspaper in 1851. At the time Orion, his brother, was a newspaper publisher in Hannibal. From 1857 until 1861, he served as the pilot of a riverboat on the Mississippi River.
He was the fourth of five children. His father was a hard worker but a poor provider. The family moved to Hannibal, Mo., on the Mississippi, when young Clemens was 4 years old. It was in this river town that he grew up, and from it he gathered the material for his most famous stories. The character of Judge Carpenter is somewhat like his father; Aunt Polly, his mother; Sid Sawyer, his brother Henry; Huck Finn, a town boy named Tom Blankenship; and Tom Sawyer, a combination of several boys--including himself.
Clemens chose this term as his pen name. Twain first used his pen name while writing for the newspaper The Enterprise. After working as a riverboat pilot, Twain served as a Confederate soldier for two weeks before moving out west. During this time Twains reputation was not very good. Twain often got in fights, and spoke out against the police.
Sam’s father was a judge who built a two-story house in Hannibal in 1844 (Official Website of Mark Twain Biography,1). As a boy, Samuel was confined to this house much of the time due to poor health. Thankfully, however; by age nine Sam was rid of his ailments and able to attend private school, swim, fish, and play with the other children. The boys often played outside along the Mississippi River where they pretended to be pirates for fun, which is reflected in Clemens’s writings (Official Website of Mark Twain Biography,1). The Clemens family never had much money and usually struggled financially.
The book The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, by Mark Twain was published in 1884 and influenced by the author’s personal experiences and thoughts during that time period. Along with The Adventure’s of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain also wrote its predecessor The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. The novels became some of Mark Twain’s most popular novels. Twain was one of the most loved authors of his time and his novels are now considered American Classics (Mark Twain Biography). “A gifted raconteur, distinctive humorist, and irascible moralist, he transcended the apparent limitations of his origins to become a popular public figure and one of America’s best and most beloved writers.” (Mark Twain, History.com).