Mark Twain: The Life and Literary Legacy of Samuel Langhorne Clemens

Early Life and Family Background. Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, but best known as Mark Twain, this American literary icon was frank and fearless in both his personal life and his professional career. As a man driven by success in all his undertakings, Clemens was as invested in his personal financial success as he was in his professional achievements as an author. His public career as a popular author of humor and satire and as a widely admired lecturer on American life financed his personal quest for the fortune required to support his immediate and extended family. Beneath the gruff exterior of the persona he presented to the world lay a very complex man who translated his frank and fearless experiences into fiction that would shape the American literary scene.

On November 30, 1835, John and Jane Clemens welcomed their sixth and second-to-last child into the world in Florida, Missouri. Two months premature and weighing a mere five pounds, the infant had a prognosis so bleak that Jane Clemens refused to name him. When John Clemens did name his struggling infant son, he named him after his own father, Samuel, and after a relative, Langhorne, neither of whom John regarded fondly (Hoffman 2).

The Significance of Halley's Comet. The coincidence of Clemens's entrance into the world with Halley's comet offered hope, according to Albert Bigelow Paine's "Personal Memoranda" chapter from Mark Twain: A Biography. Clemens claimed in 1909 that "I came in with Halley's comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's comet." He further stated, "The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.' Oh! I am looking forward to that."

But according to historical biographers like Andrew Hoffman, the superstitious power associated with the comet instilled hope in Jane Clemens. Her family, with whom she was very close, saw the comet as a lucky omen and encouraged the Clemens to love and nurture their frail infant (1–2). Four years later, the family relocated to Hannibal, Missouri, a place made famous in and by the writings of Mark Twain. A small frontier town on the Mississippi River, Hannibal offered the Clemens family multiple opportunities. While in Hannibal, John Clemens did his best to support his family by working in town as a general store owner, lawyer, and justice of the peace, while also working outside Hannibal as part of a circuit court jury. His position in town and his run for appointment as the circuit court clerk made the Clemenses relatively well known in and around Hannibal, despite John Clemens's inability to break his cycle of growing debt and financial obligation.

Vocational Beginnings and the Mississippi River. With the death of his father in 1847 and the completion of five years of formal schooling, Clemens began his professional career. Apprenticed to a Hannibal print shop, Clemens learned to type-set and prepare the presses for the daily newspaper. His early career not only taught him the printing trade, but also launched his informal education as a student of the world and the people who inhabited it. Before beginning his career as a steamboat pilot, Clemens tried his hand at publishing his own articles while working in print shops in New York and Philadelphia. In need of a steady and larger income, Clemens returned south in 1857 to learn how to finesse the finicky Mississippi.

The Origin of the Pen Name. Conveyed to the public through his own travel narrative of his experiences, Life on the Mississippi (1883), his career as a steamboat pilot is best captured in his own prose. The close connection between his life as a steamboat pilot and his identity as an author cannot be denied, as his pen name stems directly from the years he spent on the Mississippi: Mark Twain signifies the safe depth of two fathoms, the depth needed for steamboats to navigate the Mississippi safely.

His career on the Mississippi ended as a result of circumstances beyond his control. With the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, steamboat traffic on the Mississippi was at a near-halt. Although Clemens joined the Confederacy in their fight against the Yankees, his involvement in the war was short-lived. In the two weeks of his training and maneuvering with the Marion Rangers, Clemens saw enough of war to decide it was not for him. Instead of fighting, Clemens took Huck's advice and "lit out for territory," following his older brother, Orion, to the Nevada Territory in the hope of striking it rich in the silver mines.

Western Expeditions and Literary Breakthrough. Although Clemens's aspirations for quick riches were not fulfilled, Orion's position as the secretary of the Nevada Territory provided him with a wealth of connections. Such connections helped Clemens find work for the Virginia City newspaper as a columnist and worked to his advantage when he moved even farther west to San Francisco in 1864. Shortly after his arrival in San Francisco, Clemens finally achieved notable success and fame. In 1865, with the publication of "Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog," Mark Twain's sharp wit spread across the nation as other newspapers picked up the tall tale in their columns.

International Correspondence and Lectures. His fame growing, Clemens, now known by his pen name, was sent to report on the wide world. First, the Sacramento Union sent him to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) in 1865. With his hallmark wit, Twain's articles revealed the civilized heathens and heathenish colonists in the clash between American interest and island culture. His observations on life and living were so invigorating that he expanded them into lectures and began his first of many well-received lecture tours. Two years later Clemens was sent over another sea, this time to observe a grand tour of Europe and the Middle East. Once again, his articles were very witty, and the fame of Twain as a humorist continued to grow. More importantly, the content of these articles would be reworked into the first novel, The Innocents Abroad (1869), attributed to Mark Twain.

One of the many myths surrounding Clemens concerns the personal significance of this journey. According to Clemens, he met his future brother-in-law, Charles Langdon, while on this trip and fell in love with Langdon's sister. Standing at the rails of an ocean liner somewhere in the Mediterranean Sea, Langdon showed Clemens a miniature portrait of his sister, Olivia. With that one glance, Clemens claimed to have fallen in love with his future bride. When the group returned to the States in 1868, Langdon introduced Clemens to his family and his sister. Two years later, Sam Clemens married Livy Langdon on February 2.

Marriage to Olivia Langdon and Domestic Life. In an effort to meet the financial obligations of providing for a wife and future family, Clemens took a position as editor of the Buffalo Post. Living in Buffalo, in the three-story brick house that was the Langdons' wedding present, Livy remained close to her family and friends in Elmira, enjoying financial support from her family despite Clemens's steady income. Within the year, the Clemens's first child, Langdon, was born. Prospects for this young couple seemed bright.

Clemens's hope to earn a living from his own writing and not merely the editing of others' works prompted the family's move to Hartford, Connecticut, nearer to his publisher. The Clemenses first rented a home in the heart of Hartford's literary and artistic quarter, the bohemian Nook Farm. His literary works from this period continued to be primarily travel narratives and social commentary. Roughing It (1872), a collection of travel tales from Clemens's adventures in the American West, and The Gilded Age (1873), a collaborative effort with Charles Dudley Warner, have the hallmark sign of Twain's wit and humor, but neither can compare with the works Clemens would write in his next home, the Clemens's large house on Farmington Avenue in Hartford, which they moved into in 1874.

For the next 17 years, Clemens would write in his study in the billiard room of this house. His most famous characters, including Huck Finn, Tom Sawyer, and Becky Thatcher, all came to life on the pages he wrote in this third-floor sanctuary. The tragedy of losing his son to diphtheria in 1872 was difficult to face, but the birth of their second child, a daughter named Susy, in the same year; Clara, two years later; and Jean in 1880 kept the Clemens household full of laughter and activity.

Financial Perils and Personal Tragedies. The successful publications of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), The Prince and the Pauper (1881), Life on the Mississippi (1883), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889), among other works, provided the Clemenses with great wealth. Unfortunately, great wealth does not always equal financial security. A series of ill-thought and ill-advised investments drained Clemens's resources. Although his own publishing company, Charles L. Webster and Company, had success with the publication of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) and The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant (1885), the success was not long-lived.

The Burden of Bankruptcy. The ultimate financial fiasco of the publishing company is representative of most of Clemens's ventures in business and investment. Either the technology, like that of the typesetter Clemens financed for use in the publishing house, was unnecessary or outdated, or the business was plagued with delays, broken promises, and untrustworthy employees. By 1891 Clemens was financially extended to his limit, and he and the family moved to Europe to economize. Although Sam Clemens and his family were doing their best to meet the financial challenges posed by the publishing company and indebtedness incurred through Clemens's other business ventures, the publishing company finally claimed bankruptcy in 1894, leaving Clemens, its primary investor, bankrupt as well.

The failed business ventures and complicated legalities of Clemens's connection to wronged investor drained Clemens of any will to write, or at least any will to write the positive social criticism of his early career. To recoup his losses, Clemens revived his alter ego and launched a lecture tour of Europe's most prominent cities as Mark Twain. Despite his ability to recover from his financial troubles, tragedy struck again in 1896. Susy Clemens, staying at the Hartford home on Farmington Avenue, unexpectedly fell ill and succumbed to meningitis. The Clemenses could not reach home in time either to tend to her or to attend the funeral. The tragedy hurt the family deeply, so deeply that when the Clemenses did return to the United States, they never went back to the Farmington Avenue house.

In his remaining years, Clemens would never personally recover from these losses. While he still had to face the death of his wife in 1903 and that of his youngest daughter in 1910, just months before his own death, the death of Susy and his struggles with bankruptcy left a bitter mark on Twain's sense of humor. His later works, which continue to focus on travel narratives, such as Following the Equator (1897), and social criticism, such as The Mysterious Stranger (published posthumously in 1916), are marked by a dark cynicism. Angry at his situation, Clemens used his pen to depict not the injustices he suffered, but the injustices he saw inflicted on others.

Later Works and Enduring Legacy. His satiric revelations of the abuses of power in American and western European dealings with colonial holdings, as well as his caustic revelations of social injustices endured by the citizens of these so-called civilized nations, did turn some readers and publishers away. However, even in his later years he maintained a loyal following. His 70th birthday party, held at Delmonico's on December 5, 1905, was well attended by powerful men and authors who had made their fortunes alongside Clemens, as well as future authors, such as Willa Cather, who would use what they learned from Mark Twain's writings to create 20th-century modernism.

The Final Passage. During these final years, he was able to reestablish himself and build another home, aptly named Stormfield, in Redding, Connecticut. On April 21, 1910, in the presence of his faithful friend and assistant Albert Bigelow Paine, and his only surviving daughter, Clara, Samuel Langhorne Clemens passed away while Halley's comet blazed across the night sky.