英文的：马克吐温的生平作品以及其在美国文学史上的地位

英文的：马克吐温的生平作品以及其在美国文学史上的地位
英文的：马克吐温的生平作品以及其在美国文学史上的地位

英文的：马克吐温的生平作品以及其在美国文学史上的地位
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30,1835 鈥 April 21,1910),[1] better known by the pen name Mark Twain,was an American humorist,satirist,writer,and lecturer.Twain is most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.He is also known for his quotations.
Clemens was a well known author in the United States,a popular comedian and monologist,and friend to presidents,artists,leading industrialists,and European royalty.Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been called a Great American Novel.[4]
Clemens enjoyed immense public popularity and his keen wit and incisive satire earned him praise from both critics and peers.American author William Faulkner called Twain "the father of American literature."[5]
Youth
Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) was born in Florida,Missouri,on November 30,1835,to Tennessee country merchant,John Marshall Clemens (August 11,1798 - March 24,1847),and Jane Lampton Clemens (June 18,1803 - October 27,1890).[6] He was the sixth of John and Jane's seven children.Only two of his siblings survived childhood,his brother Orion Clemens (July 17,1825 - December 11,1897 and sister Pamela (September 19,1827 - August 31,1904).His sister Margaret (May 31,1830 - August 17,1839) died when he was four years old,and his brother Benjamin (June 8,1832 - May 12,1842) died three years later.Another older brother,Pleasant (1828 - 1829),only lived three months before Samuel was born.In addition to his older siblings,Samuel had one younger brother,Henry Clemens (July 13,1838 - June 21,1858).[7] When Samuel was four,his family moved to Hannibal,[8] a port town on the Mississippi River that would serve as the inspiration for the fictional town of St.Petersburg in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.[9] At that time,Missouri was a slave state in the union and young Samuel became familiar with the institution of slavery,a theme he later explored in his writing.
Samuel Clemens was colorblind,a condition that fueled his witty banter in the social circles of the day.[citation needed] In March of 1847 when Samuel was eleven,his father died of pneumonia.[citation needed] The following year,he became a printer's apprentice.In 1851 he began working as a typesetter and contributor of articles and humorous sketches for the Hannibal Journal,a newspaper owned by his older brother,Orion.When he was eighteen,he left Hannibal and worked as a printer in New York,Philadelphia,St.Louis,and Cincinnati.At twenty-two,Clemens returned to Missouri.On a voyage to New Orleans down the Mississippi,the steamboat pilot,"Bixby",inspired Clemens to pursue a career as a steamboat pilot,the third highest paying profession in America at the time,earning $250 per month ($155,000 today).
Because the steamboats at the time were constructed of very dry flammable wood,no lamps were allowed,making night travel a precarious endeavor.A steamboat pilot needed a vast knowledge of the ever-changing river to be able to stop at any of the hundreds of ports and wood-lots along the river banks.Clemens meticulously studied two thousand miles of the Mississippi for more than two years until he finally received his steamboat pilot license in 1859.While training for his pilot's license,Samuel convinced his younger brother Henry Clemens to work with him on the Mississippi.Henry was killed on June 21,1858 when the steamboat he was working on exploded.Samuel was guilt-stricken over his brother's death and held himself responsible for the rest of his life.However,he continued to work on the river and served as a river pilot until the American Civil War broke out in 1861 and traffic along the Mississippi was curtailed.
Travels and family
Missouri was a slave state and considered by many to be part of the South,but it did not join the Confederacy.When the war began,Clemens and his friends formed a Confederate militia (depicted in an 1885 short story,"The Private History of a Campaign That Failed"),and joined a battle where a man was killed.Clemens found he could not bear to kill a man,and deserted.His friends joined the Confederate Army; Clemens joined his brother,Orion,who had been appointed secretary to the territorial governor of Nevada,and headed west.
Clemens and his brother traveled for more than two weeks on a stagecoach across the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains.They visited the Mormon community in Salt Lake City.These experiences became the basis of the book Roughing It,and provided material for The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.Clemens' journey ended in the silver-mining town of Virginia City,Nevada where he became a miner.
After failing as a miner,Clemens worked at a Virginia City newspaper,the Territorial Enterprise.On February 3,1863,he signed a humorous travel account "LETTER FROM CARSON - re:Joe Goodman; party at Gov.Johnson's; music" with "Mark Twain".[10]
Clemens then traveled to San Francisco,California,where he continued as a journalist and began lecturing.He met other writers such as Bret Harte,Artemus Ward and Dan DeQuille.An assignment in Hawaii became the basis for his first lectures.In 1867,a local newspaper funded a steamboat trip to the Mediterranean.
During his tour of Europe and the Middle East he wrote a popular collection of travel letters which were compiled as The Innocents Abroad in 1869.He also met Charles Langdon,and saw a picture of Langdon's sister Olivia.Clemens claimed to have fallen in love at first sight.They met in 1868,were engaged a year later,and married in February 1870 in Elmira,New York.Olivia gave birth to a son,Langdon,who died of diphtheria after 19 months.
In 1871 Clemens moved his family to Hartford,Connecticut.There Olivia gave birth to three daughters:Susy,Clara,and Jean.Clemens also became good friends with fellow author William Dean Howells.
Clemens made a second tour of Europe,described in the 1880 book,A Tramp Abroad.He returned to America in 1900,having paid off his debts to his old firm.The Clemens' marriage lasted 34 years until Olivia's death in 1904.
In 1906 Clemens began his autobiography in the North American Review.Oxford University issued him a Doctorate of Literature a year later.
Clemens outlived Jean and Susy.He passed through a period of deep depression,which began in 1896 when his favorite daughter Susy died of meningitis.Olivia's death in 1904 and Jean's death on December 24,1909 deepened his gloom.[11]