USH - Mark Twain - Church

Mark Twain (his pen name) was born in Florida, Missouri on November 30, 1835 with the birth name Samuel Clemens. He died on April 21, 1910. He worked as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River from when he was licensed in 1859 (after two years of studying the river) until traffic along the Mississippi was reduced in 1861 when the American Civil War broke out.

Well known for his quotations as well, Mark Twain was an American humanist, humorist, satirist, lecturer, and writer. He enjoyed immense public popularity, and “his keen wit and incisive satire earned him praise from both critics and peers.” American author William Faulkner even referred to Twain as “the father of American literature.” Twain is most noted for his novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (has been since called the “first Great American Novel”). Adventures of Huckleberry Finn “solidified him as a noteworthy American writer.” This book was an offshoot of Tom Sawyer that had a more serious tone. The main idea of the book is “the young boy’s belief in the right thing to do even though the majority of society believes that it was wrong.” Another of his books, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, was his first big pronouncement of disappointment with politics. “The tone becomes cynical to the point of almost being a rant against the established political system of the day (which would have been in King Arthur’s time), and eventually devolved into madness for the main character.”

He began his writing career with light, humorous verse, but his writing eventually “evolved into a grim, almost profane chronicle of the vanities, hypocrisies and murderous acts of mankind.” Twain was a master at providing colloquial speech in his works, and thus helped to create and popularize a distinctive style of American literature built on American themes and language.

His reputation as a popular author still overshadows his contributions as a social critic, his radicalism neutralized by history. Although he remained neutral during the Civil War, he acknowledged that his view became more radical as he got older. Twain was, among other things, an adamant supporter of abolition and emancipation, in favor of labor unions, and critical of organized religion and certain elements of Christianity.