[Name] Mark Twain (American humorist, novelist, writer and speaker)

Mark Twain, formerly known as Samuel Langhorne Clemens;

Mark Twain (1835165438+1October 30-1965438+April 2 1 00) is an American humorist, novelist, writer and famous speaker./kloc Although his family wealth is not much, it does not damage his humor, wit and fame. He is one of the most famous people in America. He has a wide range of friends, including William Dean Howells, Booker Washington, nikola tesla, Helen Keller and Henry Roger. He was once called Lincoln in the history of literature. Helen Keller once said, "I like Mark Twain-who doesn't like him?" Even God will love him, give him wisdom and draw a rainbow of love and faith in his heart. William faulkner called Mark Twain "the first real American writer, and we all inherited him". He died in 19 10 at the age of 75 and was buried in Aymara, new york.

Writing style: combining humor and satire, full of unique personal wit and one-liners, and there is no lack of profound social insight and analysis. It is not only a humorous and spicy masterpiece, but also a serious sympathy!

[Edit this paragraph] pen name

"Mark Twain" is his most commonly used pseudonym. It is generally believed that this pen name comes from his early sailor term. Samuel (that is, "Mark Twain") was once a navigator. When measuring the water depth with my partner, my partner shouted "Mark Twain!" , which means "the second standard", that is, the water depth is Erxun (1 about 1. 1 m), which is a necessary condition for the safe navigation of ships.

Another reason is that his captain Cyrus, a well-respected navigator, writes essays on the story of the Mississippi River for newspapers under the pen name "Mark Twain" from time to time.

1859, Captain Cyrus published an article predicting that New Orleans would be flooded. Naughty Samuel decided to play a joke on him and wrote a very sharp satirical sketch after imitating his style. Who knows that this game article deeply hurt the old captain's heart, and the old captain gave up writing, and the pseudonym "Mark Twain" disappeared from the newspaper.

Four years later, Samuel, who became a journalist, learned the bad news of Captain Cyrus' death, regretted the prank that year, and decided to make up for it. So he inherited the pseudonym "Mark Twain" and began his writing career.

But there is also a saying that when he was wandering in the west, he often bought two glasses of wine in the hotel and asked the bartender to write "two marks" on the bill. However, whether it is true or false, or both, is impossible to verify. His real name is Samuel wrangham.

[Edit this paragraph] Life

childhood

Mark Twain was born in a poor lawyer's family in rural Florida, Missouri, USA on June 30th, 1835+065438. He ranks sixth among seven children in his family. He only has two brothers and sisters who can survive his childhood. His two brothers and sisters are his elder brother Olian (1825 July17-1897 February 1 1) and his younger sister Pamela. His father is a local lawyer with a small income and a poor family. Little Samuel had to work when he was at school. His father died when he was twelve, and he began to live an independent working life. He first worked as an apprentice in a printing factory, a newspaper delivery man and a compositor, and later as a sailor and helmsman on the Mississippi River. Childhood poverty and long working life not only accumulated material for his later literary creation, but also cast a just heart. His mother Margaret died when he was four years old, and his brother Benjamin (1832 June 8-1842 May12) also died three years later. His other brother plesent (1828- 1829) was born only three months before Twain. After this class of Bimark Twain's older brothers and sisters, Twain has a younger brother-Henry Clemens (1838 July13-1858 June 2 1). When Twain was 4 years old, his family moved to Hannibal, Missouri, a port city on the Mississippi River, which became the inspiration for St. Petersburg in his later works The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Tale of a Wanderer. At that time, Missouri was a federal slave-holding state, and young Twain began to understand slavery, which became the theme of his adventure novels.

Mark Twain was color blind, which caused his humorous jokes in social circles. 1847 In March, Twain 1 1 years old, his father died of pneumonia. The following year, he became a printing apprentice. 185 1 year, he became a compositor, contributed articles, and began to write articles for Hannibal Daily founded by his brother Olian. /kloc-at the age of 0/8, he left Hannibal and worked as a printer in new york, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Cincinnati. Twain returned to Missouri at the age of 22. On the trip from the lower Mississippi River to New Orleans, the ship's navigator "bisbee" asked Twain to be a ship's navigator for life, which was the third highest paid occupation in the United States at that time, with a monthly salary of $250 (equivalent to the current $65,438+055,000/year).

Because ships are made of very flammable wood, they can't turn on the lights at night. Pilots need to have a wealth of knowledge about ever-changing rivers, so that they can avoid hundreds of ports and woodlands along the coast. Twain spent more than two years meticulously studying the 2000 meters of the Mississippi River before he got his pilot's license (1859). During the pre-license training, Twain persuaded his brother Henry Clemens to work with him on the Mississippi River. Henry died on June 2 1 65438 because the ship where Henry worked exploded. Twain felt extremely guilty about this and felt responsible for the rest of his life. However, he continued to work on the river and remained a navigator until the civil war broke out in 186 1, which reduced the traffic on the Mississippi River.

Travel and family

Missouri is a slave-holding state, which is regarded as a part of the south by most people, but Missouri has not joined the union. At the beginning of the war, Twain and his friends joined a federal militia (described in the short story Private History of a Lost Battle 1885) and joined a war in which one person was killed. Twain found that he couldn't stand killing himself, so he left. His friend joined the confederate army; Twain went to his brother Olian, and Olian was appointed as the secretary of the governor of Nevada, in charge of the western region.

Twain and his brother spent more than two weeks crossing the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains by coach. They came to the Mormon church in Salt Lake City. These experiences became the main part of the book Hard Times, and provided information for the famous frogs in Ka City. Twain's journey ended in a silver mine in Virginia, Nevada. There, he became a miner.

After giving up his job as a miner, Twain worked for Enterprise, a newspaper in Virginia City.

Twain later went to San Francisco, California, where he continued to be a reporter and began to give speeches. He met other writers, such as Brett Harder. Once he was sent to Hawaii, which became his first speech. At 1867, a local newspaper offered a boat trip to the Mediterranean region.

During his travels in Europe and the Middle East, he wrote the famous travel letter series "Fool Travel" collected in 1869. He also met Charles Langdon and saw a photo of Langdon's sister Ou Li Langdon. Twain fell in love with her at first sight They met 1868 and got engaged a year later. 1870 got married in Aymara, new york. Ou Li via gave birth to her son Langdon, but Langdon died of diphtheria in1September.

187 1 year, the twains moved to Hartford, Connecticut. Olivia gave birth to three daughters there: Susie, Clara and Joan. Twain also became a good friend of writer William Dean Howells.

Twain then traveled to Europe, which was described in 1880, a book called Wandering Overseas. /kloc-returned to the United States in 0/900 and paid off the debts to his old club. Twain's marriage lasted for 34 years until Olivia died on 1904.

1906, Twain began to write his autobiography for North American Review Monthly. A year later, Oxford University awarded him a doctorate in literature.

Twain lived longer than Joan and Susie. He experienced a period of melancholy, which began when his beloved daughter Susie died of meningitis on 1896. Ou Li died in 1904, and Joan died in1909+February 24, which made Twain more melancholy.

Writer's career

Mark Twain's first masterpiece, The Famous Frog in Cartown, was first published in new york Saturday on June 1865+0 18 10/8. The only reason why this work was published there was that it was finished too late and was not included in Artes Ward's collection of American Western Works.

Later, the Sacramento Federal newspaper sent Mark Twain to Hawaii, then known as the Sandwich Islands, as a reporter and wrote to the Federal newspaper to tell about things there. Later, when he worked for the California Land Newspaper in San Francisco, he also wrote according to these humorous letters, because the California Land Newspaper sent him from San Francisco to new york City as a roving reporter via the Panama Canal. At that time, he kept writing to the newspaper and publishing, satirizing and humorously recording what he saw and heard. 1On June 8, 867, Twain went to Philadelphia by yacht and stayed for five months. This trip led to the birth of a fool's trip.

1872, Twain published his second travel literature, Hard Times, as a sequel to Fool's Travel. Hard Times is a semi-autobiographical work that describes Twain's journey to Nevada and his later life in the western United States. This book satirizes American and western society by criticizing "fools" in many countries in Europe and the Middle East. Twain's next work, Hard Times, focuses on American society. The later Gilded Age is not a travel literature, because the first two books are travel literature, and this is his first time to write a novel. This book is also famous because it is the only book written by Twain in cooperation with others. This book was written by Twain and his neighbor Charles Dudley Werner.

Twain's two later books are all about his experiences on the Mississippi River. 1875 Atlantic Monthly published a series of sketches of the old Mississippi River. The most striking feature is Twain's awakening to romanticism. Life on the Mississippi River after Twain wrote Old Times. Then Twain wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, describing his childhood in Hannibal. Twain shaped tom sawyer's character by imitating his childhood character. This book also has a supporting role, Huckleberry Finn.

Although the story of the prince and the beggar often appears in many movies and literary works today, it is not generally accepted. This is Twain's first attempt to write The Beggar. Its disadvantage is that Twain didn't have enough British social experience. During the writing of The Prince and the Beggar, Twain also started the writing of The Wandering of Naughty Boys and finished another travel book, Wandering Abroad. The Overseas Odyssey is Mark Twain's travels in Central and Southern Europe.

Twain's later work is The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which makes him a more famous and great American writer. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the sequel of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and the serious atmosphere is stronger than the latter. This book has become a compulsory book for most schools in the United States, because Huck gave up obeying the rules, which is considered by many people of this age (Huck's story is set in slavery 1850 s). /kloc-in the summer of 0/876, after it was released in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Twain wrote about 400 pages of The Wandering Story of an urchin.

Twain's wife died in 1904, after which he was able to publish books that his wife didn't like as a critic and editor. One of the books is The Mysterious Stranger, which was not published in Twain's lifetime, so people found three versions of the manuscript between 1897 and 1905. These three versions made the publication of this book very confusing, and now there is the first version written by Twain.

Twain's last work is his oral autobiography. Some archivists and editors rearranged autobiographies to make them more in line with the common format, so some humorous words of Twain were deleted.

Financial problems

The friendship between Mark Twain and Henry Roger in his later years. Twain made a lot of money by publishing his works, but his improper investment made him waste a lot of money, most of which was invested in some new inventions. This includes a new iron ring, a new steam engine, a collotype (a machine for engraving printing plates) and a typesetter. Finally, there is his publishing house, which successfully sold hiram grant's memoirs at first, but later failed. When he was disheartened about investing and ready to give up, a young man found him and asked Twain to invest in his invention. Twain was a little shaken at first, but in the end he didn't invest. However, the young man who asked him to invest was the inventor of the telephone. At the beginning, all those who invested in telephone made a fortune. This is really regrettable.

Twain's works can be written, and the credit should also be attributed to one of his new friends, because he solved Twain's financial difficulties. From 65438 to 0893, he began a friendship with Henry Roger, a financier and head of Standard Oil Company, which lasted for 15 years. Roger first filed for bankruptcy for Twain. Then Roger gave the copyright of Twain's works to his wife Olivia to prevent creditors from obtaining the copyright. Finally, Roger returned all Twain's money to the creditors. Later, Twain began his global lecture tour and paid off all his debts.

[Edit this paragraph] Later generations' comments on him

Master of modern humorous literature!

A world-class writer representing American literature!

He is a pure urchin and a brave knight with a sword!

There is a library about Mark Twain.

/waiguo 2005/t/ Twain /index.html

[Edit this paragraph] Catalogue of Works

Running for governor

Tom sawyer (1876)

The Prince and the Beggar (1882)

Street children (1884)

The famous frog in Ka County

Millions of pounds

The man who destroyed Hadleyburg

Thirty thousand yuan Heritage

A case in a case

asceticism

The story of a bad boy

Eating people on the train

The fact that I recently resigned.

Tennessee press

The story of a good boy

How do I edit agricultural newspapers?

The whole story of the bulk beef contract

My experience as a senator's secretary

American Adventures in Connecticut (1889)

Goldsmith's friend has gone abroad again.

Mysterious interview

True story

The duel of the French people

Strange experience

The story of Californians

Is he still alive

Go on the road with those who change customs.

Dog's self-report

Gilded age

Five talents of human beings

Fool travel

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Life on the Mississippi

[Edit this paragraph] Creation chronology

In May 1852, 1, the playboy who was surprised by the settlers was published in the handbag of humor weekly in Boston. This is Samuel Clemens' first novel. Mark Twain, a self-taught student, began to practice writing as an apprentice and typesetting in a printing factory. He was 17 years old when he published his first novel. )

June 1864 Moved to San Francisco and worked in the Morning Post. He started writing for San Francisco, when he was the editor-in-chief of novelist Brett Hart.

1865165438+1October18 new york's Saturday Post published Mark Twain's The Famous Jumping Frog of Karavila Hill. Reprinted everywhere, Mark Twain began to become famous in China.

1867 On April 25th, Charles Webb published Mark Twain's first book, The Famous Jumping Frog and Other Essays, in Rakhil, Karaoui.

1869 July, Mark Twain's Fool's Travel Abroad was published by Alicia Boris.

In February, 1872, The Difficult Journey was published by Boris Publishing Company of the United States.

/kloc-in the winter of 0/873, Mark Twain wrote The Gilded Age in collaboration with the writer Charles Terry Warner. Warner is Hartford's neighbor.

The Gilded Age was published in February. The publisher is Boris of American publishing company. It is universally acknowledged that there is no precedent in American history to give an era a humorous and sarcastic name.

/kloc-in the summer of 0/874, Mark Twain began to write The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and made The Gilded Age into a play. It was at Quarry Farm near Elmira, New York.

1876 65438+ 10 The Documentary of Crimes at the Recent Carnival in Connecticut was published in Atlantic Monthly.

/kloc-in the summer of 0/876, Mark Twain began to write Berry Finn's Adventures in haeckel at Quarray Farm.

1876 10 co-wrote the comedy A Xing with Brett Hart. /kloc-was completed in October/February, but the friendship between them was difficult to maintain.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was published by Boris in February. It was more than a year after the submission, which didn't catch up with the good business season of Christmas. Mark Twain began to consider publishing his works in another publishing house.

On July 3rd, Kloc-0/877, A Xing performed in new york Fifth Street Theater. The performance stopped after five weeks and the performers lost money.

1877 65438+1October 65438+1October began to write about the prince and the poor child.

From the spring of 1878 to the summer of 1879, the whole family traveled to Europe, especially to Germany, and collected information about traveling abroad.

In March, 1880, travel abroad was published. The publisher is Boris of American publishing company.

188 1 65438+ The Prince and the Poor Child was published in February. The publisher is James Le osgood in Boston.

1882 In April, Mark Twain revisited the Mississippi River to collect materials for the rest of his life on the Mississippi River. By the end of May, he had traveled all over the Mississippi Valley.

1883, Mark Twain wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn at Quarray Farm. Osgood published Life on the Mississippi River.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published by Whipster Publishing Company.

1885 In March, the Book Committee of Gulton, Massachusetts called The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn "a boring work that can only be read in slums". Never put it on the shelf, thus starting a history of banning books, and its influence has been so far. Nevertheless, by May, Huck had sold 5 1000 copies. (Such banned books are for individual units, not for the whole country)

1885 65438+1On October 2nd, Hewlett-Packard Company published Grant's memoirs, and the Grant family benefited 400,000 yuan, which saved them from bankruptcy. Mark Twain also believed that he had a gift for business. (General Grant,1October 65438+869—1October 65438+877. Grant has a deep friendship with Mark Twain)

10 Mark Twain started writing Yankee in Arthur's Connecticut.

1889 12 Yankee in Connecticut written by Arthur was published by Whipster Publishing Company.

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is published by Hewlett Packard Company.

1894 165438+ October Fool Wilson was published by American Publishing Company.

1896 In May, Jean Ducker was published by Harper Company.

1 896 65438+1October1Detective tom sawyer is published by Harper Company.

1 897 65438+1October1Equatorial Travels is published by American publishing company.

1901February 2, 2000, To the Man Sitting in the Dark was published in the North American Review. This is a famous article by Mark Twain against imperialist aggression all over the world.

19 10 Mark Twain's health deteriorated in winter and spring.

1910 April 2 1 Day Rimark Twain died of angina pectoris.

The Historical Fate of Mark Twain

In America, it seems that there are two Mark Twain, one is Mark Twain in the eyes of readers and the other is Mark Twain in the eyes of critics. In the reader's view, Mark Twain is humorous, witty, humorous, exaggerated as hell, but quite real, sometimes with some thorns; His American flavor is full, and men, women and children like to read it. Things are complicated for critics. What kind of writer is Mark Twain? Harmless comedian or social satirist? So optimistic in the early days, why so pessimistic later? Is he a genius who gives full play to his creativity, or a mediocre person who plays with the wind? Does he love America or hate America? ..... These issues related to his overall evaluation have not stopped arguing for nearly a hundred years, and they are a major research topic, which is called "Mark Twain Problem" in America.

In 1960s, Mark Twain appeared as an expert in telling jokes in American literature. In general review articles or literary yearbooks, he is always classified as "funny writer", "humorist" and "funny sketch author", and his specialty is "providing harmless entertainment for most people".

The most violent attack on Mark Twain was after the publication of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This work was first published in the UK (1884), and then selected into the American Century magazine (1885). In order to "protect the reader's interest", the editor deleted a lot of "rude words" and "low-level descriptions". Even though epidemic prevention measures were taken, elegant readers protested that Century magazine, which is famous for its exquisite writing, published such vulgar things. However, Mark Twain did not seem to hear such criticism, and he was not afraid of being labeled as "the main representative of destroying English style". When The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was published in the United States, he didn't change a word.

The Traveler of Kansas announced: "This book is condemned for its vulgarity and roughness" because "the era of vulgar humor is over" and "exaggerated humor will not last long because readers are becoming more and more elegant. The humor of the future must be pure and faithful. "

Alcott, the author of Little Women (1868- 1869), suggested Mark Twain: "If Mr. Clemens can't find anything good, then it's best not to write for us simple-minded boys and girls."

Why is it a masterpiece of America19th century and received such a cold reception at that time?

Mark Twain is a western writer, and all his creative materials were obtained in the west. Rough, open and humorous artistic features are also western. But at that time, the cultural center of the United States was in the East, and the fate of western writers was in the hands of eastern critics. Oriental critics sometimes appreciate western humorous works, but that's out of curiosity and recreation. They don't think it's serious literary creation. In their eyes, there is no difference between a humorist and a comedian. His specialty is gag, which is incomparable with Emerson, Longfellow, Holmes and others at that time. Their literary taste spread to America in an era called Victoria. At that time, rude Americans made a fortune at once, and had to seek some codes of conduct to cover up their rudeness and take some fashionable men and women as examples. Books must tell people what decency is, as writers do. "(1) this is basically the so-called sven tradition. How can a gentleman critic with a gentle tradition approve of taking vagrants and slaves as the main characters? How can infidelity, feud and fighting become literary themes? What is the literary language of swearing, swearing and swearing? Oriental critics can appreciate Mark Twain's humorous ability, but they don't admit that he has any serious creative purpose.

The turning point appeared in the late 1980s. At that time, Mark Twain had published four important works, such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Life on the Mississippi River (1883), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and Americans in King Arthur's Court (1889). Through creative practice, he gradually realized the role of humor and knew how to defend himself in theory. He pointed out that "the humorist, though relaxed, has a serious purpose"-"mocking hypocrisy and exposing disguise", and that the humorist is "the natural enemy of princes and nobles, privileged people and all deceptive things, and a natural friend of human rights and freedom". (2) Some outstanding critics and writers of Mark Twain, such as C.H. Weber, Brett Hart and Di Wei howells, have been recognized for a long time, and their original opinions are increasingly accepted by most people, especially W·d· Howells. As an influential critic, he pointed out that Mark Twain is different from ordinary humorists because "jokes contain serious meanings, which is the expression he adopted after repeatedly thinking about the absurdity of politics and society". 19 10 year, that is, the year when Mark Twain died, howells gave Mark Twain the highest evaluation at that time in his book My Mark Twain:

Emerson, Longfellow, Lowell, Holmes-I know all these people, and I also know other wise men, poets, prophets, critics and humorous writers; They are similar to each other, like other literati; But Clemens is unique and unattainable. He is Lincoln in our literature.

Just as Mark Twain met with Cervantes, Moliere and other comedy masters in heaven, bad news came from mankind. 1920, a critic named Van Vic Brooks dissected Mark Twain by psychoanalysis, and published a monograph that completely denied Mark Twain-The Severe Test of Mark Twain. He thinks that Mark Twain is a born artist, but he has the weakness of yielding to the environment. He failed to stand the test under the strong pressure of Calvinism, the temptation of money and the literary interest of the upper class in the East, and finally failed.

Brooks divided Mark Twain's life into three stages. Childhood was spent in a family that lacked warmth. He suffered from sleepwalking when he was young, which shows that he has two egos, two tendencies and two wishes: on the one hand, he wants to express his personality, and on the other hand, he obeys his mother. Standing in front of his father's coffin, he promised his mother that he would "be a good boy" in the future, which proved that he obeyed his social environment where Calvinism was forbidden. The living environment outside his home is equally bad: Hannibal Town is located in the newly developed midwest, which is a "cultural desert" and "the seeds of genius are bound to die". In the second stage, the four-year pilot life on the Mississippi River was the most harmonious time for him to have a relationship with society: he earned money and his family was satisfied; I have the opportunity to develop my talents, so the first few chapters of Life on the Mississippi River are very poetic. But when he arrived in the west, he was surrounded by the social atmosphere of speculation and wealth, and once again gave up the pursuit of art and leaned his head on the dream of finding a mine to get rich. So how did he become a writer? Brooks said: "His subconscious wish is to be an artist, but this is an industry that displays personality, and displaying personality is a sin and a shame to society in his mother's view. Both his mother and society require him to be a businessman, and it is impossible for him to mobilize the necessary energy to meet this requirement. American writers often encounter this dilemma in their lives! We have seen that this dilemma eventually led to Mark Twain becoming a humorist. " According to Brooks' understanding, Mark Twain became a humorist because he wanted to find a rich vein, which is an example of his betrayal of his artistic genius again.

The third stage is after marrying Olivia Langdon in the east. Brooks thinks that the rich lady has a narrow life circle, and only her parents follow her advice. In order to win her favor, Mark Twain had to please her social circle at the same time, and the elegant and vulgar society accepted this "uneducated" western humorist, not because he took a fancy to his talent, but because his talent could make money. Olivia didn't realize that her husband was a genius at all, but she always censored Mark Twain's works with her mediocre literary taste. She actually thinks The Prince and the Poor Child is much higher than The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn! Mark Twain had to sacrifice his genius to produce a novel that catered to the public interest and made a lot of money. Brooks said with regret that "Mark Twain actually found a second mother"! Another person who had a great influence on him was howells, editor-in-chief of Atlantic Monthly, a famous critic and writer in China. Mark Twain regarded him as a "priest who repents his sins", howells regarded his criticism as the golden rule, while howells advocated describing "the gentle side of life" and "trying to avoid subjects that make himself and readers miserable". "Sven tradition" means "transforming Mark Twain through howells".

Here, Brooks once again used his "dual personality theory": Mark Twain's "unconscious self" instinctively rebelled against howells's artistic viewpoint, and he cursed Jane Austen to vent his dissatisfaction with howells, because the latter praised Jane Austen as a "model of realistic literature". But Mark Twain's weakness is dominant, and he is willing to put himself in the subordinate position of Howells.

Brooks believes that Mark Twain strangled the artistic self under the transformation of "the second mother" and "the confessor". In his later years, he was annoyed and cursed life repeatedly. He "condemned the failed life, which just shows his own failure." This is Brooks' final diagnosis:

Mark Twain is a wounded soul and a victim of setbacks. Just like countless cases provided by psychoanalysts, this alone is enough to explain his regrets in his later years. He was hindered, divided, and even violated his own nature; Therefore, all the poets and artists in him have shrunk into cynics, and the whole person has become mentally weak.