In 1861, the American Civil War destroyed the traffic along the Mississippi. He left the Mississippi at the outbreak of the war, and became, in swift succession, an army volunteer, a gold prospector in Nevada.



President William Howard Taft said:"Mark Twain gave pleasure – real intellectual enjoyment – to millions, and his works will continue to give such pleasure to millions yet to come... His humor was American, but he was nearly as much appreciated by Englishmen and people of other countries as by his own countrymen. He has made an enduring part of American literature.&became apprenticed to a printer and began contributing to his brother‘s newspaper in 1851. From 1857 to 1861 he found himself a pilot on the Mississippi River. It is from this work that he got the idea of his pen name ―Mark Twain‖
Life in the East
Eastern publications followed a British-style Social life differed greatly from the West. humor, and often had to explain to their audience which sections of their publications were funny and why. Nobody knows whether or not Easterners actually believed the stories from the Westerners. Western journalists made up tales as if they were factual, perhaps believing that they could fool Eastern readers.
Discoveries lured people of all races and nationalities.
Most mining camps were rather ugly places, extremely dusty during the summer and muddy during the winter.
Twain died of a heart attack on April 21, 1910.When he died, he left uncompleted autobiography. Haley's Comet was visible in the sky both on the night that Mark Twain was born and on the night he passed away.
Mark Twain 马克-吐温 novel
T.S Eliot T.S艾略特
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910),better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. He was lauded as the “greatest American humorist of his age”.
Mark Twain meaning “watermark two”, was a call used by sailors on the Mississippi to warn shipmate that they were coming into shallow water.



★"the first truly American writer, and all of us since are his heirs " “the father of American literature “ -- William Faulkner ★ "All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called "Huckleberry Finn.“ -- Ernest Hemingway ★ "I believe that Mark Twain had a clearer vision of life, that he came nearer to its elementals and was less deceived by its false appearances than any other American. I believe that he was the true father of our national literature.-- H.L. Mencken
Life Experience
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, the third of five children, was born in Florida, Missouri. His father died when he was only 12. From that time on he worked to support himself and the rest of the family.
In his late years, Mark Twain wrote less, but he became a celebrity, frequently speaking out on public issues. He made colloquial speech an accepted, respectable literary medium in the literary history. Twain received an honorary doctorate from the University of Oxford in 1907.
Writing Characteristics of Mark Twain
☆ Literature is an art of language. Mark Twain’s language is artistic and like a sharp weapon without doubt.
He is famous for his humor and satire. His work are characterized by broad often irreverent humor or biting social satire. ☆ Mark Twain‘s humor is based on the humor of the Western in America.
☆He used a lot of colloquial idioms and colloquial syntax ☆He often described persons who was innocent, simple, naï ve, and ignorant as his heroes and heroines.
Selected Readings in American Literature
Unit 8
Mark Twain（1835—1910)
American Literature
19世纪中期-20世纪初 1865~1914 20世纪初~
Franklin 富兰克林 prose
Whitman 惠特曼 poetry
Gambling became one of the most common pastimes in nineteenth-century mining camps.
life in the West
At that time, people enjoyed to tell tall tales （荒诞故事） and practical jokes(恶作剧). For example, cowboys put bull snakes in their companions' bedrolls. Tall tales were widely printed in almanacs(年鉴； 历书) and newspapers during the early 1800s and reached their peak between 1850 and 1865. Early Western newspapers played a particularly large role in developing and perpetrating these humorous stories.
•The Gilded Age (1873) 《镀金时代》 •The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 《汤姆索亚历险记》(1876) • The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 《哈克贝恩历险记》