Haley's comet streaked through the sky on the night of November 30th, 1835, as if to mark the birth of Samuel Longhorne Clemens, sixth child of Jane Lampton and John Marshall Clemens, who came into the world in a rented cabin near Florida, Missouri.
Samuel Clemens would later take the pen name of "Mark Twain" and write his way to success as America's most famous literary icon. In his life, he would write 28 books and numerous short stories, letters and sketches.
Four years later, in 1839, the Clemens family moved the short distance east to the town of Hannibal, Missouri, a busy port town serving steam boats that plied the muddy waters of the Mississippi between St. Louis and New Orleans. The two-story house John Marshall Clemens built there in 1844 still stands today.
Samuel suffered ill health and had to remain indoors until his health strengthened when he was nine. He could then join the rest of the town's children playing outside. Many of Samuel's rich childhood experiences provided fodder for his stories. In fact, Hannibal itself inspired the fictional town of St. Petersberg in "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn."
Samuel's father died of pneumonia when he was just 12. After that, Samuel had to leave school due to his family's financial difficulties. He become a journeyman printer, and within just a few years, Samuel became a printer and editorial assistant for his older brother, Orion, at the Hannibal Journal. Sometimes he filled in and ran the newspaper for Orion. Samuel would one day remark upon this time in his life:“So I became a newspaperman. I hated to do it, but I couldn't find honest employment.”
Samuel left Hannibal at the age of 17. He moved St. Louis, where he became a river pilot. Samuel coined his pseudonym, Mark Twain, during his days as a river pilot, taking it from a river term that indicated the water was deep enough to navigate in safety. In 1858, Samuel's brother, Henry, died in an explosion aboard the steamship, Pennsylvania. The Civil War limited river trade, and so Samuel traveled west with his brother, Orion, who had been appointed Secretary of Nevada Territory. His journey by stagecoach is described in his semi-autobiographical book, Roughing It (1872). Samuel attempted silver mining without success. He returned to newspaper work in 1864, reporting for many publications including the Territorial Enterprise, The Alta Californian, San Francisco Morning Call, Sacramento Union and The Galaxy. He traveled extensively in America, Europe, Hawaii and the Holy Land. In New York, he met Frederick Douglass, Harriet Beecher Stowe and Charles Dickens. Samuel's travels served as inspiration for his Innocents Abroad (1869) Short stories written during this time included “Advice For Little Girls” (1867) and “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calavaras County” (1867).
Samuel married Olivia Langdon in 1870, having wooed her with hundreds of love letters. Of their four children, only one, Clara, lived to a ripe old age of 88. Of the other children, Langdon died of diphtheria as a baby, while Suzy and Jean did not live past their twenties. Suzy died of meningitis at the age of 23 and Jean died of a heart attack which may have been caused by her epilepsy. Clara had one daughter, Nina Clemens Gabrilowitsch, who remained unmarried and childless. When Nina died in1966, Samuel Clemen's line died with her.
Samuel and Olivia built a home in Hartford, Connecticut in 1874, where he collaborated on The Gilded Age (1873) with Charles Dudley Warner and wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), A Tramp Abroad (1880), and The Prince and the Pauper (1882), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889), as well as many other works.
Samuel Clemens undertook a world lecture tour in 1895, traveling to Australia, Canada, Ceylon, India, New Zealand, and South Africa in an attempt to pay off debts from a series of failed investments. During his tour, upon which he based Following the Equator (1897), he met Mahatma Gandhi, Sigmund Freud, and Booker T. Washington.
When Samuel returned from his lecture tour, he settled with his family in New York. He received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree in 1901 from Yale University and in 1907 from Oxford University. Samuel Clemens wore his trademark white suit and delivered his famous birthday speech at Delmonico’s restaurant in New York on his 70th birthday in 1905. He visited President Theodore Roosevelt at the White House in 1905 and discussed copyright with the congressional committee.
Olivia Clemens passed away while traveling in Florence, Italy in 1904. Samuel died on April 21, 1910 in Redding, Connecticut. That night, Haley's Comet blazed again in the sky, as if to mark his death.
* Photo of Samuel Clemens courtesy of Free Stock Photos http://free-stock-photos.com/
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