- Born
- Died
- Birth nameSamuel Langhorne Clemens
- Nickname
- Sam
- Height5′ 8½″ (1.74 m)
- Mark Twain, born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in Florida, Missouri in 1835, grew up in Hannibal. He was a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River. Throughout his career, Twain served as a writer, lecturer, reporter, editor, printer, and prospector. Twain took his pen name from an alert cry used on his steamboat - "by the mark, twain".- IMDb Mini Biography By: Matt Dicker
- SpouseOlivia Langdon(February 2, 1870 - June 5, 1904) (her death, 4 children)
- Characters often hail from Mississippi
- Darkly comic view of human nature
- Grey hair and thick moustache
- Often wore a white suit
- He was born in a year when Halley's Comet appeared (1835), and died the year the comet returned (1910).
- When he proposed to Olivia Langdon, her father wanted to be sure of his good character. Since they had no friends in common, Twain offered the names of several friends he had made out west. Langdon wrote to ask them what they thought of the match. All wrote back condemning Twain as a louse and a freeloader; two predicted that he would fill a drunkard's grave. Twain bitterly remarked that apparently he didn't have any friends. "Then I'll be your friend myself," Langdon said. "Take the girl. I know you better than they do." Langdon was right, for Twain proved to be a faithful and loving husband to Olivia.
- Was the first person to write a novel entirely on a typewriter ("Huckleberry Finn").
- Once lived in a cabin on a spot of land called Jackass Hill.
- He actually had red hair, which of course does not show up in black and white photographs.
- I have been told that Wagner's [Richard Wagner] music is better than it sounds.
- [his definition of a "classic"] Something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.
- Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to.
- The English are mentioned in the Bible: "Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth".
- As to the adjective: when in doubt, strike it out.
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