American novelist, journalist and humourist Mark Twain was born on this day, November 30, in the year 1835, in Florida.
He got international fame for his travel narratives and adventure stories of boyhood, such as ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’ and ‘Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.’
Mark Twain passed away on April 21, 1910, but is still widely loved today. His childhood home is open to the public as a museum in Hannibal.
The Calavaras County in California holds the Calavaras County Fair and Jumping Frog Jubilee every third weekend in May. Walking tours are given in New York City of places Twain visited near his birthday every year.
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1
The author’s original name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. ‘Mark Twain’ was his pen name.
2
He was born shortly after the arrival of the Halley’s Comet and also died the day after the comet returned in 1910.
3
Twain reportedly said himself, “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. The Almighty has said, no doubt: Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.”
4
Mark Twain worked as an apprentice pilot on a steamboat named Pennsylvania, on the Mississippi River. He got his pilot license in 1859.
5
Twain’s pen name comes from a nautical phrase that means ‘two fathoms deep,’ which is safe depth for a steamboat to ply.
6
Due to his loyalty towards the southern parts of America, Twain joined the Marion Rangers, a pro-confederate militia force, during the civil war. Later in his life, he became a propagator of civil rights and personal freedom.
7
Twain’s first hit in America came with a humorous piece named ‘The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.’ The story was published in the Saturday Press in New York on November 18, 1865.
8
His masterpiece includes ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer’ and its sequel, ‘Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.’ The latter is considered one of the greatest American novels of all time.
[“source-indiatoday”]
