Mark_Twain马克吐温的英文介绍.doc

Mark TwainFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopediaFor other uses, seeMark Twain (disambiguation).Mark TwainMark Twain, detail of photo byMathew Brady, February7,1871BornSamuel Langhorne ClemensNovember 30, 1835Florida, Missouri, U.S.DiedApril 21, 1910(aged74)Redding, Connecticut, U.S.Pen nameMark TwainOccupationWriter,lecturerNationalityAmericanNotable work(s)Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,The Adventures of Tom SawyerSpouse(s)Olivia Langdon Clemens(m.18701904)ChildrenLangdon,Susy,Clara,JeanSignatureSamuel L. Clemens stamp, 1940Samuel Langhorne Clemens(November 30, 1835 April 21, 1910),1better known by hispen nameMark Twain, was an American author andhumorist. He wroteThe Adventures of Tom Sawyer(1876) and itssequel,Adventures of Huckleberry Finn(1885),2the latter often called theGreat American Novel.Twain grew up inHannibal, Missouri, which provided the setting forHuckleberry FinnandTom Sawyer. After an apprenticeship with a printer, he worked as a typesetter and contributed articles to the newspaper of his older brother Orion. He later became a riverboat pilot on theMississippi Riverbefore heading west to join Orion in Nevada. He referred humorously to his singular lack of success at mining, turning to journalism for theVirginia CityTerritorial Enterprise.3In 1865, his humorous story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, was published, based on a story he heard atAngels HotelinAngels CampCalifornia where he had spent some time as a miner. The short story brought international attention, and was even translated into classic Greek.4His wit and satire, in prose and in speech, earned praise from critics and peers, and he was a friend topresidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty.Though Twain earned a great deal of money from his writings and lectures, he invested in ventures that lost a great deal of money, notably thePaige Compositor, which failed because of its complexity and imprecision. In the wake of these financial setbacks, he filed for protection from his creditors via bankruptcy, and with the help ofHenry Huttleston Rogerseventually overcame his financial troubles. Twain chose to pay all his pre-bankruptcy creditors in full, though he had no legal responsibility to do so.Twain was born shortly after a visit byHalleys Comet, and he predicted that he would go out with it, too. He died the day following the comets subsequent return. He was lauded as the greatest American humorist of his age,5andWilliam Faulknercalled Twain the father ofAmerican literature.6Contentshide 1Early life 2Travels 3Marriage and children 4Love of science and technology 5Financial troubles 6Speaking engagements 7Later life and death 8Writingo 8.1Overviewo 8.2Early journalism and travelogueso 8.3Tom SawyerandHuckleberry Finno 8.4Later writing 9Viewso 9.1Anti-imperialisto 9.2Civil rightso 9.3Laboro 9.4Vivisectiono 9.5Religion 10Pen names 11Legacy 12Depictions 13Bibliography 14See also 15References 16Further reading 17External linksEarly lifeSamuel Langhorne Clemens was born inFlorida, Missouri, on November 30, 1835. He was the son of Jane (ne Lampton; 18031890), a native of Kentucky, andJohn Marshall Clemens(17981847), a Virginian by birth. His parents met when his father moved to Missouri and were married several years later, in 1823.78He was the sixth of seven children, but only three of his siblings survived childhood: his brotherOrion(18251897), Henry, who died in a riverboat explosion (18381858), and Pamela (18271904). His sister Margaret (18331839) died when he was three, and his brother Benjamin (18321842) died three years later. Another brother, Pleasant (18281829), died at six months.9Twain was born two weeks after the closest approach to Earth ofHalleys Comet.When he was four, Twains family moved toHannibal, Missouri,10a port town on theMississippi Riverthat inspired the fictional town of St.Petersburg inThe Adventures of Tom SawyerandAdventures of Huckleberry Finn.11Missouri was aslave stateand young Twain became familiar with theinstitution of slavery, a theme he would later explore in his writing. Twains father was an attorney and judge.12TheHannibal and St.Joseph Railroadwas organized in his office in 1846. The railroad connected the second and third largest cities in the state and was the westernmost United States railroad until the completion of theTranscontinental Railroad. It delivered mail to and from thePony Express.13Samuel Clemens, age 15In 1847, when Twain was 11, his father died ofpneumonia.14The next year, he became a printers apprentice. In 1851, he began working as atypesetterand contributor of articles and humorous sketches for theHannibal Journal, a newspaper owned by his brother Orion. When he was 18, he left Hannibal and worked as a printer in New York City,Philadelphia,St. Louis, andCincinnati. He joined the newly formedInternational Typographical Union, the printersunion, andeducated himselfinpublic librariesin the evenings, finding wider information than at a conventional school.15Clemens came from St. Louis on the packetKeokukin 185416and lived in Muscatine during part of the summer of 1855. The Muscatine newspaper published eight stories, which amounted to almost 6,000 words.17On a voyage toNew Orleansdown the Mississippi,steamboatpilot Horace E. Bixby inspired Twain to become a pilot himself. As Twain observed inLife on the Mississippi, the pilot surpassed a steamboats captain in prestige and authority; it was a rewarding occupation with wages set at $250 per month.18A steamboat pilot needed to know the ever-changing river to be able to stop at the hundreds of ports and wood-lots. Twain studied 2,000miles (3,200km) of the Mississippi for more than two years before he received his steamboat pilot license in 1859. This occupation gave him his pen name, Mark Twain, from mark twain, the cry for a measured river depth of two fathoms. While training, Samuel convinced his younger brother Henry to work with him. Henry was killed on June21, 1858, when the steamboat he was working on, thePennsylvania, exploded. Twain had foreseen this death in a dream a month earlier,19which inspired his interest inparapsychology; he was an early member of theSociety for Psychical Research.20Twain was guilt-stricken and held himself responsible for the rest of his life. He continued to work on the river and was a river pilot until theAmerican Civil Warbroke out in 1861 and traffic along the Mississippi wascurtailed.At the start of the Civil War, Twain enlisted briefly in a Confederate local unit. He then left for Nevada to work for his brother, a senior official in the Federal government.21Twain later wrote a sketch, The Private History of a Campaign That Failed, which told how he and his friends had been Confederate volunteers for two weeks before disbanding their company.22TravelsLibrary ofTwain House, with hand-stenciled paneling, fireplaces from India, embossed wallpapers, and hand-carved mantel purchased in ScotlandTwain joined Orion, who in 1861 became secretary toJames W. Nye, the governor ofNevada Territory, and headed west. Twain and his brother traveled more than two weeks on astagecoachacross theGreat Plainsand theRocky Mountains, visiting theMormon communityinSalt Lake City.Twains journey ended in the silver-mining town ofVirginia City, Nevada, where he became amineron theComstock Lode.22Twain failed as a miner and worked at a Virginia City newspaper, theTerritorial Enterprise.23Working under writer and friendDan DeQuille, here he first used his pen name. On February3, 1863, he signed a humorous travel accountLetter From Carson re: Joe Goodman; party at Gov.Johnsons; musicwith Mark Twain.24His experiences in the West inspiredRoughing Itand provided material for The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.Twain moved toSan Francisco, Californiain 1864, still as a journalist. He met writers such asBret HarteandArtemus Ward. The young poetIna Coolbrithmay have romanced him.25His first success as a writer came when his humoroustall tale, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, was published in a New York weekly,The Saturday Press, on November18, 1865. It brought him national attention. A year later, he traveled to theSandwich Islands(present-day Hawaii) as a reporter for theSacramento Union. His travelogues were popular and became the basis for his first lectures.26In 1867, a local newspaper funded a trip to theMediterranean. During his tour of Europe and the Middle East, he wrote a popular collection of travel letters, which were later compiled asThe Innocents Abroadin 1869. It was on this trip that he met his future brother-in-law, Charles Langdon. Both were passengers aboard theQuaker Cityon their way to the Holy Land. Langdon showed a picture of his sisterOliviato Twain; Twain claimed to have fallen in love at first sight.Upon returning to the United States, Twain was offered honorary membership in the secret societyScroll and KeyofYale Universityin 1868.27Its devotion to fellowship, moral and literary self-improvement, and charity suited him well.Marriage and childrenTwain in 1867Throughout 1868, Twain andOlivia Langdoncorresponded but she rejected his first marriage proposal. Two months later, they were engaged. In February 1870, Twain and Langdon were married inElmira, New York,26where he had courted her and overcome her fathers initial reluctance.28She came from a wealthy but liberal family, and through her he metabolitionists, socialists, principled atheists and activists forwomens rightsandsocial equality, includingHarriet Beecher Stowe(his next-door neighbor inHartford, Connecticut),Frederick Douglass, and the writer andutopian socialistWilliam Dean Howells,29who became a long-time friend. The couple lived inBuffalo, New Yorkfrom 1869 to 1871. Twain owned a stake in theBuffalo Expressnewspaper and worked as an editor and writer. While living in Buffalo, their son Langdon died ofdiphtheriaat 19months. They had three daughters:Susy(18721896),Clara(18741962)30andJean(18801909). The couples marriage lasted 34years, until Olivias death in 1904. All of the Clemens family are buried in ElmirasWoodlawn Cemetery.Twain moved his family toHartford, Connecticut, where starting in 1873 he arranged the building ofa home(local admirers saved it from demolition in 1927 and eventually turned it into a museum focused on him). In the 1870s and 1880s, Twain and his family summered atQuarry Farm, the home of Olivias sister, Susan Crane.3132In 1874,31Susan had a study built apart from the main house so that her brother-in-law would have a quiet place in which to write. Also, Twain smoked pipes constantly, and Susan Crane did not wish him to do so in her house. During his seventeen years in Hartford (18741891) and over twenty summers at Quarry Farm, Twain wrote many of his classic novels, among themThe Adventures of Tom Sawyer(1876),The Prince and the Pauper(1881),Life on the Mississippi(1883),Adventures of Huckleberry Finn(1885) andA Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court(1889).Twain made a second tour of Europe, described in the 1880 bookA Tramp Abroad. His tour included a stay inHeidelbergfrom May6 until July23, 1878, and a visit to London.Love of science and technologyTwain in the lab ofNikola Tesla, early 1894Twain was fascinated with science and scientific inquiry. He developed a close and lasting friendship withNikola Tesla, and the two spent much time together in Teslas laboratory.Twain patented three inventions, including an Improvement in Adjustable and Detachable Straps for Garments (to replacesuspenders) and a history trivia game.33Most commercially successful was a self-pasting scrapbook; a dried adhesive on the pages only needed to be moistened before use.His bookA Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Courtfeatures atime travelerfrom the contemporary US, using his knowledge of science to introduce modern technology toArthurianEngland. This type of storyline would later become a common feature of ascience fictionsub-genre,alternate history.In 1909,Thomas Edisonvisited Twain at his home in Redding, Connecticut and filmed him. Part of the footage was used inThe Prince and the Pauper(1909), a two-reel short film.Financial troublesTwain caricatured bySpyforVanity Fair, 1908Twain made a substantial amount of money through his writing, but he lost a great deal through investments, mostly in new inventions and technology, particularly thePaige typesetting machine. It was a beautifully engineered mechanical marvel that amazed viewers when it worked, but it was prone to breakdowns. Twain spent $300,000 (equal to $8,100,000 in 2012 dollars34) on it between 1880 and 1894,35but before it could be perfected, it was made obsolete by theLinotype. He lost not only the bulk of his book profits but also a substantial portion of his wifes inheritance.36Twain also lost money through hispublishing house, which enjoyed initial success selling the memoirs ofUlysses S. Grantbut went broke soon after, losing money on a biography ofPope Leo XIII; fewer than two hundred copies were sold.36Twains writings and lectures, combined with the help of a new friend, enabled him to recover financially.37In 1893, he began a 15-year-long friendship with financierHenry Huttleston Rogers, a principal ofStandard Oil. Rogers first made Twain file forbankruptcy. Then Rogers had Twain transfer thecopyrightson his written works to his wife, Olivia, to prevent creditors from gaining possession of them. Finally, Rogers took absolute charge of Twains money until all the creditors were paid.Twain accepted an offer fromRobert Sparrow Smythe38and embarked on a year-long, around-the-world lecture tour in July 189539to pay off his creditors in full, although he was no longer under any legal obligation to do so.40It would be a long, arduous journey and he was sick much of the time, mostly from a cold and acarbuncle. The itinerary took him toHawaii,Fiji,Australia,New Zealand,Sri Lanka,India,Mauritius,South AfricaandEngland. Twains three months in India became the centerpiece of his 712-page bookFollowing the Equator.In mid-1900, he was the guest of newspaper proprietorHugh Gilzean-ReidatDollis Hill House, located on the north side ofLondon, UK. In regard to Dollis Hill, Twain wrote that he had never seen any place that was so satisfactorily situated, with its noble trees and stretch of country, and everything that went to make life delightful, and all within a biscuits throw of the metropolis of the world.41He then returned to America in 1900, having earned enough to pay off his debts.Speaking engagementsTwain was in demand as a featured speaker, performing solo humorous talks similar to what would becomestand-up comedy.42He gave paid talks to many mens clubs, including theAuthors Club,Beefsteak Club, Vagabonds,White Friars, and Monday Evening Club of Hartford. He was made an honorary member of theBohemian Clubin San Francisco. In the late 1890s, he spoke to theSavage Clubin London and was elected honorary member. When told that only three men had been so honored, including thePrince of Wales, he replied Well, it must make the Prince feel mighty fine.43In 1897, Twain spoke to the Concordia Press Club in Vienna as a special guest, following diplomatCharlemagne Tower, Jr. In German, to the great amusement of the assemblage, Twain delivered the speech Die Schrecken der deutschen Sprache (The Horrors of the German Language).44In 1901, Twain was invited to speak atPrinceton UniversitysCliosophic Literary Society, where he was made an honorary member.45Later life and deathTwain passed through a period of deepdepressionthat began in 1896 when his daughter Susy died ofmeningitis. Olivias death in 1904 and Jeans on December24, 1909, deepened his gloom.46On May20, 1909, his close friend Henry Rogers died suddenly. In 1906, Twain began hisautobiographyin theNorth American Review. In April, Twain heard that his friend Ina Coolbrith had lost nearly all she owned in the1906 San Francisco earthquake, and he volunteered a few autographedportraitphotographs to be sold for her benefit. To further aid Coolbrith,George Wharton Jamesvisited Twain in New York and arranged for a new portrait session. Initially resistant, Twain admitted that four of the resulting images were the finest ones ever taken of him.47Twain formed a club in 1906 for girls he viewed as surrogate granddaughters, the Angel Fish and Aquarium Club. The dozen or so members ranged in age from 10 to 16. Twain exchanged letters with his Angel Fish girls and invited them to concerts and the theatre and to play games. Twain wrote in 1908 that the club was his lifes chief delight.48In 1907 Twain met Dorothy Quick (then aged 11) on a transatlantic crossing, beginning a friendship that was to last until the very day of his death.49Oxford Universityawarded Twain an honorary doctorate in letters (D.Litt.) in 1907.Mark Twain headstone inWoodlawn Cemetery.In 1909, Twain is quoted as saying:50I came in withHalleys Cometin 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 dont go out with Halleys Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out toget