Birth and Childhood

Mark Twain, one of the most memorable writers, was born on November 30, 1835 the year in which the Halley's comet blazed. He died in 1910, a coincidence that the same comet was sighted again. The man had a life just as remarkable and famous as the celestial body.

Born to John Marshall Clemens of Virginia and Jane Lampton of Kentucky in a sleepy village of Florida, Twain was the sixth of their seven children. He was originally named Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Before moving to Florida, John and his wife stayed at East Tennessee, where their other five offsprings were born. The seventh child was born in Florida. The family was an impoverished one. The head of the family was a kind-hearted and selfless man and had tried his hand at various jobs like store keeping, house-building etc. but did not succeed. But he did succeed in daydreaming about a bright future.

Samuel's, father somehow managed to gather $400 and buy some land with it. When Sam was about four, the family left Florida. But Sam's connection with the place did not end because one of his uncles lived on a farm, about four miles from Florida. Sam spent part of every year there till he was 12 years old. These memories left a deep impression on the young Sam and they are reflected in his later works.

Till the death of his father, Samuel lived at Hannibal. The life here was neither poverty-struck nor affluent. But it was marked by free adventures. These fun-filled, adventurous childhood days were passed into the world of literature in the form of Tom Sawyer later on. And the character made it one of the most famous novels all over the world.

While Sam had very limited formal education, he was always 'hungry' of facts and figures. But he also said that information came to him almost naturally. He was always interested in guidebooks, statistics and liked to know how to calculate things like the light year etc.

It is said that there are two means by which a man of native genius could succeed in life : one by receiving a sound and complete education and the other by not getting any at all. If Mark Twain had attended college and learnt to repeat the standardized judgements in the past, his creativity would have been badly affected. It would have removed the entire 'Mark Twain element' from him.

Sketches for Evening Post

When John Clemens died in 1847, Sam's schooling ended. He joined his brother, Orion Clemens, who had already been involved in the printing business. Young Sam also became the printer's apprentice and followed the trade for the next 10 years. These were, perhaps, the dreariest and most insignificant years of his life. In 1850, Sam assisted his brother in getting out a sheet called the Hannibal Journal. Sam also contributed a couple of sketches to the Evening Post, a journal from Philadelphia. They were published but Sam neither asked for any payment nor was his name mentioned.

Sam later worked for the Evening News in St Louise. He worked from both the places - New York and Philadelphia. In 1855, he joined his brother again at the Keokuk (Iowa) printing unit.

During on his voyages between 1853 and 1855, Sam wrote a few letters to his mother and gathered money to take her to Kentucky. This was her native place. He had also taken a vow before his mother that he would never drink or gamble and stuck to this code for the sake of the promise. Sam had been deeply attached to his mother.

The young printer Sam worked hard and kept adding to his knowledge. But his sturdy and robust physique could not remain in the confines for long; at a very young age; the boy aspired to go to South America, then a fabulous land of gold mines.