Mark Twain

Paper Summary:

This paper presents an account of the life of the American author Samuel Langhorne Clemens born on the 30th of November 1835, otherwise known as Mark Twain. It provides a picture of a young writer, brilliant yet brash, who was about to set upon a writing and speaking career that would carve out a special literary and humor-related place for him in the annals of American history. It looks at how even the rejection of his work early in his career " and the censorship of his later work, an editorial blasphemy only recently discovered " cannot take away from the power of his words, his thoughts and lasting legacy.

From the Paper:

"How loved and how famous had Mark Twain become late in his life? The New York Times, after his passing, wrote that Twain had been "quoted in common conversation oftener, perhaps, than any of his fellow-countrymen, including Benjamin Franklin and [Abraham] Lincoln." Another American cultural icon of the times, Thomas Edison, said, about the death of Twain: "An American loves his family. If he has any love left over for some other person, he generally selects Mark Twain." Twain's demise was prominently eulogized and memorialized in nearly every newspaper in America and throughout much of the western World. He was remembered as a literary giant, as the conscience of a generation, an astute social critic, and an entertaining humorist, a fellow who smoked up to 40 cigars a day."

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