Samuel Clemens was born in 1835 in Missouri. He had grown up in a family with six siblings, three of whom had passed away in his youth. His father, John Clemens, had died of illness when he was only eleven. Growing up, Samuel went into the printing industry and eventually moved to New York to work in a printing union.
Despite this line work being the majority of his education, Samuel Clemens would do plenty of travelling and find work training to be a steamboat pilot and later as a miner. He would go on to publish many memoirs about his experiences under the pen name “Mark Twain.” Later, he would go on to print articles for newspapers and would give lectures on writing and storytelling.
Twain moved to Connecticut where he would settle with his wife Olivia and his three daughters. Mark and Olivia birthed a son but he would not live past infancy due to illness. It was in Connecticut that Twain would go on to publish many novels including his two most popular stories based on his childhood, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Mark Twain began to write a final recollection of his life in an autobiography toward the end of his life. He didn’t wish for it to be published in its completion until long after he was gone. Twain’s biography is written traditionally. It is not a linear narrative of his life but a series of memories from key points in his life. Volume 2 of his autobiography makes many mentions of his daughter Susy’s biography. He takes much pride in her writing and uses her own observations of their family to examine his life.
“It is as I have said before. This is a frank historian. She doesn’t cover up one’s deficiencies, but gives them an equal showing with one’s handsomer qualities. Of course I made the remark which she has quoted–and even at this distant day I am still as much as half persuaded that if the lady mentioned had been present when the Creator said ‘Let there be light’ she would have interrupted him, and we shouldn’t ever have got it,” (Twain, Vol. 2)
Mark Twain’s eldest daughter Susy and wife Olivia had passed away almost a decade before he did. His middle daughter, Clara, had moved to Europe, leaving him with just his youngest daughter, Jean. The two had spent much time together and were close. On Christmas Eve of 1909, his daughter Jean had suffered an epileptic seizure in the bathroom and died.
“Why did I build this house, two years ago? To shelter this vast emptiness? How foolish I was. But I shall stay in it. The spirits of the dead bless a house for me. It was not so with other members of my family. Susy died in the house we built in Hartford. Mrs. Clemens would never enter it again. But it made the house dearer to me. I have entered it once since, when it was empty and silent, but to me it was a holy place and beautiful. It seemed to me that the spirits of the dead were all about me and would speak to me and welcome me if they could. Clara and Jean would never enter the New York hotel which their mother had frequented in earlier days. They could not bear it. But I shall stay in this house. It is dearer to me tonight than ever it was before. Jean’s spirit will make it beautiful for me always. Her lonely and tragic death—but I will not think of that now,” (Twain, Vol. 3, Ch. 32)
Twain had experienced much death throughout his life. He lost father and two siblings in his youth and his brother died on the steamboat they both worked on. Mark Twain’s life shows such qualities that we can find in creative people (Finley, 2020, slide 45, Creativity, Excellence, and Passion). His childhood was fraught with hardship and death, he was mentored in printing and later decided to follow his dream and work to be a riverboat captain. Regardless, Twain had always been intrinsically motivated by family and friends, never staying too far away from them and always coming back to see them, writing about them, or using them as characters like his childhood friend, Tom Blankenship, the inspiration for Huckleberry Finn.
Mark Twain has been attributed as the Father of American Literature for writing works of fiction that not only have a compelling narrative, but capture the essence of commentary on America in touching and satirical ways. Mark Twain changed the domain of American literature and is seen as the inspiration for all American authors following his life according to Ernest Hemmingway. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was credited as the first great American novel, a required read in some American English courses.
Mark Twain’s life had been difficult in his youth. He was surrounded by death but dared to explore and follow his passions. His creative output would inspire him to write classic novels and he has been cemented as one of the greatest authors of all time.
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