Mark Twain, one of the best known American writers in the nineteenth century, was born in Missouri in the middle part of the United States. Mark Twain usually wrote about his own personal experiences and things he knew about from firsthand experience. Mark Twain’s hometown lay on the banks of the Mississippi River, where he spent his childhood. When he grew up he worked as a pilot on a river boat for some time. Mark Twain is his pen name. He took it from the shout of the sailors measuring the depth of the water when the water was two marks deep on the lead line.
Mark Twain wrote a lot of novels, one of which is The Adventure of Tom Sawyer, the masterpiece which brought him fame and honor. Twain’s skill in capturing the rhythms of life along the Mississippi River before the Civil War helps make the book one of the masterpieces of American literature. Some of his writings have been translated into many languages. He and his works are deeply loved by readers throughout the world. Twain’s work was inspired by the unconventional West, and the popularity of his work marked the end of the domination of American literature by New England writers. He portrayed uniquely American subjects in a humorous and colloquial, yet poetic, language. His success in creating this plain but evocative language precipitated the end of American reverence for British and European culture and for the more formal language associated with those traditions. Mark Twain’s humor is remarkable, too. It is fun to read Twain to begin with, for most of his works tend to be funny, containing some practical jokes, comic details, witty remarks, etc., and some of them are actually tall tales.
Mark Twain suffered many mishaps in his life and was also a respectful and great writer. There is so much we can learn from him!
Mark Twain
