Samuel Clemens, better known by his pin name Mark Twain, was perhaps one of the
most infantile writers this country will ever have. He accomplished allot
throughout his life, and was able to travel around the world and live many
adventures of his own. He also spent some good time exposing the inhumanities of
slavery and the bad treatment of Chinese immigrants. So not only was he a very
good writer but he was also cared about the well being of other humans. When
Samuel Clemens was twelve years old, his father died. After his death Clemens
went to become a printers apprentice. His boyhood dream while growing up along
the banks of the Mississippi River was to one day become a steamboat salesman,
and ride along the river all day up and down the stream. Clemens had this goal
achieved early in life until the Civil War came along putting him out of
business. The Civil War pushed Clemens out west in search of gold but ended up
becoming a reporter for the Virginia City newspaper. While in this city Clemens
wrote under many pin names, after he went through many different names he
finally came along the name Mark Twain which stuck with him. Shortly he moved to
San Francisco where he began writing articles against how the law was treating
Chinese immigrants and laborers. This stirred up some trouble so Twain decided
to move out to the Sandwich, that are now known as Hawaii. After a short stay
there he went back to the states and began giving the Sandwich Island lectures
in which he sold out crowds all over the place. While Twain was traveling the
nation with his lectures he decided to take place on the first Trans Atlantic
pleasure cruise where he met the brother of his future wife Olivia. While trying
to earn Olivia’s love, Twain wrote over two-hundred love letters wooing her
and trying to earn her fathers respect and have permission to marry her. He then
after this wrote his very first best seller which was labeled “ Innocence
Abroad”. Through many writers Twain was slowly becoming our countries first
celebrity and became a house hold name. He earned the first private telephone
and began investing in many inventions, trying to make money off of many plans
of all types. Out of all the plans he had, the one that worked best was to sell
his name, becoming spokespersons for all different types of products, and
putting his face on anything which companies thought would help sell there
products quicker and for higher prices. While Twain was away from the public
life though, he was hard at work at home writing away and being able to create
two very well known classics: “ Tom Sawyer” and “The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn”. However at one point in time, Twain experienced financial
problems and had to declare bankruptcy. His next money making scheme was to
travel the world and make money giving lectures which then made him a world
celebrity. During this trip however his wife became very ill and died along it
one of his daughters. When he returned home he was perhaps one of the loneliest
people one could know and began to stay to himself though. Through the turn of
the century, Mark Twain was the most influential person in the country. This man
who started out as a printers apprentice and a steamboatman was able to rise and
become the most well known person. Sadly though, Twain died in 1910 and is still
today a very respected and well known writer.