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Featured Article
Mark Twain......................................1

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MARK TWAIN month. The life suited him, and long found himself unable to kill a man
afterward he declared, “I loved the and deserted. Together with his broth-
. . . the man in the white suit profession.” This was also the period er, Orion, he took the stagecoach west
who painted America in words. that inspired the name by which he to the territory of Nevada. It was here
later became famous. “Mark Twain.” that his great association with the

by Chuck Kleber The call, “By the mark, twain,” West took shape. Samuel tried his
meant two fathoms, or 12 feet of luck at mining, but when that failed
here was no other writer quite water, enough for a river boat to he turned to his love of writing with
like him; he lived his early safely navigate. He dabbled briefly the Virginia City Territorial Enter-
Tlife along the Mississippi and with other names, like the whimsi- prise. It was there, for the first time,
in the West, described what he saw, and cal Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass for that he used “Mark Twain” to sign a
if he embellished things a bit, well . . . three humorous pieces. humorous travel article. His first taste
that was part of the West, too. of national fame as Mark Twain
Mark Twain left a truly indel- came in November, 1865 when
ible mark on America; he was the New York Saturday Press
America, with a pen in his hand. published “The Celebrated
His books, short stories, recollec- Jumping Frog of Calaveras
tions, essays and lectures could County.” It involved a $40
have inspired Norman Rockwell bet on jumping frogs. Twain’s
paintings. As William Faulkner marvelous imagination and
put it, “. . . the first truly Ameri- ability to capture the reader
can writer, and all of us since are were off and running.
his heirs.” The young writer was also
Born Samuel Langhorne beginning a career of extensive
Clemens in 1835, in the little travel. While in San Francisco he
town of Florida, Missouri, there met other writers, including Bret
was nothing to suggest anything Harte, who achieved fame while
special about his future. His editor of The Overland Monthly
father was a local judge who with “The Luck of Roaring
moved his family to Hannibal, Camp.” Luck was certainly with
Mo. along the Mississippi. When his With the outbreak of the Civil Mark Twain. He got an assignment in
father died, the 13-year-old Samuel War in April, 1861, the Mississippi Hawaii, and in 1867 a local publication
became a printer’s apprentice and dis- River became a war zone, effectively funded a trip to the Mediterranean.
covered a love for writing along with ending commercial river boat ac- Twain put together a collection of let-
a taste for adventure. By 17, he was tivity. Missouri was a border state, ters about his experiences abroad in
a river boat pilot’s apprentice at St. with widespread sympathies for both
Louis, and a licensed boat pilot by 20 sides. Clemens and his friends joined
at the then munificent wage of $250 a the Confederate forces, but he soon Mark Twain, cont’d on p 6.