Clemens, Samuel Langhorne

Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)

Samuel Langhorne (1835-1910), an American humorist. He is known more generally as Mark Twain , a name he is said to have picked up on a Mississippi steamboat, through hearing the sounder announce the depth of the water at the bow. He was born at Florida, Missouri. His education was somewhat less than that of an ordinary district school. He learned to set type in a local town, and later worked at the printer's trade in Philadelphia, New York , and elsewhere. He took to steamboating and became a pilot. On the appointment of a brother to the secretaryship of Nevada Territory, Samuel was appointed to a clerical position. He tried his fortune in silver mining, became local editor of a newspaper in Virginia City, and later turned up in San Francisco , where he worked as a reporter. For a time he prospected in the Calaveras gold field; then worked again in San Francisco. Not satisfied with this varied experience, he went as far westward as the Sandwich Islands , and on his return took a trip to the Mediterranean regions. After editing a newspaper in Buffalo for a time, he married Olivia Langdon of Elmira, New York, and settled at Hartford, Connecticut, where he died in 1910. Mr. Clemens was laid at rest in the family burial plot at Elmira beside his wife over whose remains he had previously erected a simple marble stone, bearing this epitaph: Warm summer sun, Shine kindly here ; Warm southern wind, Blow softly here. Green sky above, Lie light, lie light ; Good night, dear heart ; Good night, good night. Like Sir Walter Scott, Mr. Clemens had experience in publishing. In 1884 he founded the publishing firm of Charles L. Webster and Company. During the financial depression of 1894, the firm failed. This disaster swept away the author's fortune, and left him in debt to the extent of $100,000. This he paid in full and died a wealthy man. Nearly all his books were published by subscription. Nearly 1,000,000 copies were sold in this way. Most of his works have been translated into German, French, Italian, Norwegian, Danish, and other tongues. As many copies of his books have been sold in Great Britain as in America. Named in order of appearance, his principal works are The Jumping Frog, The Innocents Abroad, Roughing It, Adventures of Tom Sawyer, A Tramp Abroad, Life on the Mississippi, Huckleberry Finn. The twenty-five volume set of Mark Twain's works advertised by Harper & Brothers in 1909 includes the following titles: The Innocents Abroad. A Tramp Abroad. Following the Equator. Roughing It. Life on the Mississippi. The Gilded Age. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Huckleberry Finn. Pudd'nhead Wilson. The Prince and the Pauper. A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court. Joan of Arc. Sketches New and Old. Tom Sawyer Abroad. American Claimant. Literary Essays. The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg. The $30,000 Bequest. Christian Science. Mark Twain takes high rank among American humorists. He possessed something more, too, than the ability of a mere fun-maker. He was a close observer of men and an effective interpreter of what he had observed. His writings, however, are marked by a striking inequality. "His books contain much that is flat, stale, and unprofitable," Bronson says, and this is true, though hardly more than should be anticipated from one who writes so prolifically and is always expected to create a laugh. Mark Twain originally of Missouri, then provisionally of Hartford, and now ultimately of the Solar System , not to say the Universe.--Howells. Time will winnow much chaff from his pages, but much of great merit will remain.--Bronson. No American author has at his command a style more nervous, more varied, more flexible, or more direct than Mark Twain.--Brander Matthews.