Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Mississippi Man





Mark Twain is without a doubt one of the most influential American authors of all time. His works have been so popular that famous people such as Ernest Hemmingway once wrote, “All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn…there was nothing before and there has been nothing as good since.” (Bloom 142) Mark Twain uses his literary works in a way that reflects the impact of important events of the time period on black and white relations in the south, and that tells the story of his childhood. Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born on November 30, 1835. His parents were John Marshall Clemens his father, and Jane Lampton Clemens, his mother. He grew up in the town of Hannibal Missouri which was located on the banks of the Mississippi river. “He later states that the river and the activities it provided, left him with some of the happiest memories of his childhood”, (Rasmussen 78) despite the losses of many of his siblings. He was originally the sixth of seven children, but only two of his siblings survived childhood. In 1865 he published his first major sketch, Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog, In a New York news paper. The story was extremely popular and was reprinted two years later in his first book, The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, and other sketches which appeared just as the author embarked on a cruise to Europe and the Middle East. The satirical letters that Twain wrote to two American news papers during this voyage proved to be immensely popular and were alter collected as The Innocents Abroad or, The New Pilgrims Progress. The success of this volume and Twains growing reputation as a lecturer established him as a leading American humorist.Mark Twain was a man divided in out look between comic and tragic perceptions of life. Throughout his career he utilized the happy days of his youth on the shores of the Mississippi river as a source of spiritual rejuvenation and inspiration. At the same time he was...


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