Mark Twain' Literary Career - Essay Example

Critical Reearch Paper Influence Paper Critical Reearch Paper Influence Paper American journalit, and humorit, who won a worldwide audience for hi torie of youthful adventure of Tom awyer and Huckleberry Finn. enitive to the ound of language, Twain introduced colloquial peech into American fiction. In Green Hill of Africa, Ernet Hemingway wrote: "All modern American literature come from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn..." "When I wa a boy, there wa but one permanent ambition among my comrade in our village on the wet bank of the Miiippi River. That wa, to be a teamboatman." (from 'Old Time on the Miiippi', 1875) amuel Langhorne Clemen (Mark Twain) wa born in Florida, Miouri, of a Virginian family. The family oon moved to Hannibal, Miouri, where Twain wa brought up. At chool, accroding to hi own word, he "excelled only in pelling". After hi father' death in 1847, Twain wa apprenticed to a printer. Her alo tarted hi career a a journalit by writing for the Hannibal Journal. Later Twain worked a a licened Miiippi river-boat pilot (1857-61). Hi famou penname Twain adopted from the call ('Mark twain!' - meaning by the mark of two fathom) ued when ounding river hallow. But thi in't the full tory: he had alo atirized an older writer, Iaiah eller, who called himelf Mark Twain. In 1861 Twain erved briefly a a confederate irregular. The Civil War put an end to the teamboat traffic, and during a period when Twain wa out of work, he lived in a primitive cabin on Jacka Hill and tried hi luck a a gold-miner. "I would have been more or le than human if I had not gone mad like the ret," he confeed. Twain moved to Virginia City, where he edited two year Territorial Enterprie. On February 3, 1863, 'Mark Twain' wa born when he igned a humorou travel account with that peudonym. In 1864 Twain left for California, where worked in an Francico a a reporter. After hearing a tory about a frog, Twain made an entry in hi notebook: "Coleman with hi jumping frog - bet a tranger $50. - tranger had no frog and C. got him one: - In the meantime tranger filled C' frog full of hot and he couldn't jump. The tranger' frog won." From thee line he developed 'Jim miley and hi Jumping Frog' which wa publihed in The aturday Pre of New York on the 18th of November in 1865. It wa reprinted all over the country and became the foundation tone of THE CELEBRATED JUMPING FROG OF CALAVERA COUNTY, AND OTHER KETCHE (1867). Thi work marked the beginning of Twain' literary career. In 1866 Twain viited Hawaii a a correpondent for The acramento Union, publihing letter on hi trip. He then et out world tour, travelling in France and Italy. Hi experience Twain recorded in THE INNOCENT ABROAD (1869). The work, which gained him wide popularity, poked fun at both American and European prejudice and manner. Throughout hi life, Twain frequently returned to travel writing - many of hi finet novel, uch a THE ADVENTURE OF TOM AWYER (1876), dealt with journey and ecape into freedom. The ucce of The Innocent Abroad gave Twain enough financial ecurity to marry Olivia Langdon in 1870, after writing about 189 love letter during hi courthip. William Dean Howell praied the author in The Atlantic Monthly, and Twain thanked him by aying: "When I read that review of your, I felt like the woman who wa o glad her baby had come white." Olivia, Twain' beloved Livy, erved and protected her huband devotedly. They moved to Hartford, where the family remained, with occaional trip abroad, until 1891. Twain continued to lecture in the United tate and England. Between 1876 and 1884 he publihed everal materpiece. Tom awyer wa originally intended for adult. Twain had abandoned the work in 1874, but returned to it in the following ummer and even then wa undecided if he were writing a book for adult or for young reader. Eventually he declared that it wa "profeedly and confeedly a boy' and girl' book". THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER (1881) wa about Edward VI of England and a little pauper who change place. The book wa dedicated "to thoe good-mannered and agreeable children, uie and Clara Clemen." LIFE ON THE MIIIPPI (1883) contained an attack on the influence of ir Walter cott, whoe romanticim have caued according to Twain 'meaurele harm' to progreive idea. From the very beginning of hi journalitic career, Twain made fun with the novel and it tradition. Although Twain enjoyed magnificent popularity a a novelit, he believed that he lacked the analytical enibility neceary to the novelit' art. HUCKLEBERRY FINN (1884), an American Odyeu, wa firt conidered adult fiction. Huck, who could not poibly write a tory, tell u the tory: "You don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The Adventure of Tom awyer, but that ain't no matter. That book wa made by Mr. Mark Twain and he told the truth, mainly." Both Tom awyer and Huckleberry Finn tand high on the lit of eminent writer like tevenon, Dicken, and aroyan who honetly depicted young people. Huck' debate whether or not he will turn in Jim, an ecaped lave and a friend, probed the racial tenion of the national concience. Later Twain wrote in THE MAN THAT CORRUPTED HADLEYBURG (1900): "I have no race prejudice... All that I care to know i that a man i a human being - that i enough for me; he can't be any wore." One of Twain' major achievement i the way he narrate Huckleberry Finn, following the twit and turn of ordinary peech, hi native Miouri dialect. helley Fiher Fihkin ha noted in Wa Huck Black (1993) that the book drew upon a vernacular formed by black voice a well a white. The model for Huck Finn' voice, according to Fihkin, wa a black child intead of a white one. The character of Huck wa baed on a boy named Tom Blankenhip, Twain' boyhood friend. '"Who i your folk" he quetion me. "The Phelpe, down yonder." "Oh," he ay, "how'd you ay he got hot" "He had a dream," I ay, "and it hot him." "Funny dream," the doctor ay.' (from Huckleberry Finn) In the 1880 Twain wrote alo uch book a THE TRAGEDY OF PUDD'HEAD WILON (1884), a murder mytery and a cae of tranpoed identitie, but alo an implicit condemnation of a ociety that allow lavery, and PERONAL RECOLLECTION OF JOAN OF ARC (1885), publihed under the peudonym of ieur Loui de Conte. In the 1890 Twain lot mot of hi earning in financial peculation and in the downhill of hi own publihing firm, C.L. Webter, which he had etablihed in 1884 in New York City. In 1894 he had inveted in the infamou Paige typeetter, which never worked. "Paige and I alway met on eluively affectionate term," Twain aid, "& yet he know perfectly well that if I had him in a teel trap I would hut out all human uccor & watch that trap until he died..." Twain cloed Hartford houe. To recover from the bankrupt, he tarted a world lecture tour. By 1898 he had repaid all debt. From 1896 to 1900 he reided mainly in Europe. During the tour uy, hi favorite daughter, died of pinal meningiti. Twain traveled New Zealand, Autralia, India, and outh Africa, and returned to the U.. in 1900. Twain' travel book, FOLLOWING THE EQUATOR, appeared in 1897. In 1902 Twain made a trip to Hannibal, hi home town which had inpired everal of hi work. Hi plan for a peaceful and quiet viit were ruined when more than 100 newpaper chronicled hi every move. The death of hi wife in 1904 in Florence and hi econd daughter darkened the author' life, which i alo een in writing and hi pothumouly publihed autobiography (1924). Twain' view of the human nature had never been very optimitic, but during final year, he become even more bitter: "I believe that our Heavenly Father invented man becaue he wa diappointed in the monkey." Epecially hotile Twain wa toward Chritianity: "If men neglected 'God' poor' and 'God' tricken and helple one' a He doe, what would become of them The anwer i to be found in thoe dark land where man follow Hi example and turn hi indifference back upon them: they get no help at all; they cry, and plead and pray in vain, they linger and uffer, and mierably die." (from 'Thought of God') Twain died on April 21, 1910. Hi autobiography Twain dictated to hi ecretary A.B. Paine; variou verion of it have been publihed. In 1916 appeared THE MYTERIOU TRANGER, et in the 16th-century Autria, in which atan reveal the hypocriie and tupiditie of the village of Eeldorf. "The firt man wa a hypocrite and a coward, qualitie which have not yet failed in hi line; it i the foundation upon which all civilization have been built." The work wa compoed between 1897 and 1908 in everal, quite different verion, one of which wa et in Hannibal, another in a print hop. Albert Bigelow Paine, Mark Twain' authorized biographer, apparently added to it a concluding chapter from another verion altogether. Mark Twain' colorful life inpired the film The Adventure of Mark Twain (1944), directed by Irving Rapper and tarring Fredric March. In Philip Jo Farmer' Riverworld epic Mark Twain wa one of the central character. During hi long writing career, Twain produced a coniderable number of eay, which appeared in variou newpaper and in magazine, including the Galaxy, Harper', the Atlantic Monthly, and North American Review. In hi 'andwich Iland' letter (1873) Twain decribed how the miionarie and American government have corrupted the Hawaiian, 'Queen Victoria' Jubilee' (1897) preented the pomp and pageantry of an Englih royal proceion, and 'King Leopold' oliloquy' (1905) revealed in a dramatic monologue the political evil caued by depotim. The King complain: "Bliter the meddleome miionarie! They write ton of thee thing. They eem to be alway around, alway pying, alway eye-witneing the happening; and everything they ee they commit to paper... One of thee miionarie aw eighty-one of thee hand drying over a fire for tranmiion to my official-and of coure they mut go and et it down and print it... nothing i too trivial for them to print..." Twain' finet atire of imperialim wa perhap 'To the Peron itting in Darkne' (1901), in which the author wrote that the people in darkne are beginning to ee "more light than... wa profitable for u." Work Cited Luciu Beebe. Comtock Commotion: The tory of the Territorial Enterprie and Virginia City New. tandford Univerity Pre, 1954 IBN 112218798X Loui J. Budd, ed. Mark Twain, Collected Tale, ketche, peeche & Eay 1891-1910 (Library of America, 1992) (IBN 978-0-94045073-8) Ken Burn, Dayton Duncan, and Geoffrey C. Ward, Mark Twain: An Illutrated Biography. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001 (IBN 0-3754-0561-5) Gregg Camfield. The Oxford Companion to Mark Twain. New York: Oxford Univerity Pre, 2002 (IBN 0-1951-0710-1) Guy Cardwell, ed. Mark Twain, Miiippi Writing (Library of America, 1982) (IBN 978-0-94045007-3) Guy Cardwell, ed. Mark Twain, The Innocent Abroad & Roughing It (Library of America, 1984) IBN 978-0-94045025-7 Jame M. Cox. Mark Twain: The Fate of Humor. Princeton Univerity Pre, 1966 (IBN 0-8262-1428-2) Everett Emeron. Mark Twain: A Literary Life. Philadelphia: Univerity of Pennylvania Pre, 2000 (IBN 0-8122-3516-9) helley Fiher Fihkin, ed. A Hitorical Guide to Mark Twain. New York: Oxford Univerity Pre, 2002 (IBN 0-1951-3293-9) uan K. Harri, ed. Mark Twain, Hitorical Romance (Library of America, 1994) (IBN 978-0-94045082-0) Hamlin L. Hill, ed. Mark Twain, The Gilded Age and Later Novel (Library of America, 2002) IBN 978-1-93108210-5 Jaon Gary Horn. Mark Twain: A Decriptive Guide to Biographical ource. Lanham, Md.: carecrow Pre, 1999 (IBN 0-8108-3630-0) William Dean Howell. My Mark Twain. Mineloa, New York: Dover Publication, 1997 (IBN 0-486-29640-7) Fred Kaplan. The ingular Mark Twain: A Biography. New York: Doubleday, 2003 (IBN 0-3854-7715-5) Jutin Kaplan. Mr. Clemen and Mark Twain: A Biography. New York: imon and chuter, 1966 (IBN 0-6717-4807-6) J. R. LeMater and Jame D. Wilon, ed. The Mark Twain Encyclopedia. New York: Garland, 1993 (IBN 0-8240-7212-X) Bruce Michelon. Mark Twain on the Looe. Amhert: Univerity of Maachuett Pre, 1995 (IBN 0-8702-3967-8) Patrick K. Ober. Mark Twain and Medicine: "Any Mummery Will Cure". Columbia: Univerity of Miouri Pre, 2003 (IBN 0-8262-1502-5) Albert Bigelow Paine. Mark Twain, A Biography: The Peronal and Literary Life of amuel Langhorne Clemen. Harper & Bro., 1912. IBN 1847029833 Ron Power. Dangerou Water: A Biography of the Boy Who Became Mark Twain. New York: Da Capo Pre, 1999. IBN 0306810867 Ron Power. Mark Twain: A Life. New York: Random Houe, 2005. (0-7432-4899-6) R. Kent Ramuen. Critical Companion to Mark Twain: A Literary Reference to Hi Life and Work. Fact On File, 2007. Revied edition of Mark Twain A to Z IBN 0816062250 R. Kent Ramuen, ed. The Quotable Mark Twain: Hi Eential Aphorim, Witticim and Concie Opinion. Contemporary Book, 1997 IBN 0809229870 Read More