Biography of Mark TwainTwain, Mark, pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910), American writer and humorist, whose best work is characterized by broad, often irreverent humor or a biting social satire. Twain's writing is also known for its realism of place and language, memorable characters, and hatred of hypocrisy and oppression. Born in Florida, Missouri, Clemens moved with his family to Hannibal, Missouri, a port on the Mississippi River, when he was four years old. old.There he received a public school education. After his father's death in 1847, Clemens was apprenticed to two Hannibal printers, and in 1851 he began setting type and contributing sketches to his brother Orion's Hannibal Journal. He later worked as a printer in Keokuk, Iowa; New York; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and other cities. Clemens later served as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River until the American Civil War (1861–1865) put an end to river travel. In 1861 Clemens served briefly as a volunteer soldier in the Confederate cavalry. That same year he accompanied his brother to the newly created Nevada Territory, where he tried his hand at silver mining. In 1862 he became a reporter for the Territorial Enterprise in Virginia City, Nevada, and in 1863 he began signing his articles under the pseudonym Mark Twain, a Mississippi River phrase meaning "two fathoms deep." After moving to San Francisco, California in 1864, Twain met the American writers Artemus Ward and Bret Harte, who encouraged him in his work. In 1865 Twain reworked a tale he had heard in the California goldfields, and within months the author and the story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," became a national sensation. paper... In his later years Twain wrote less, but he became a celebrity, often speaking on public issues. He also became famous for the white linen suit he always wore when appearing in public. Twain received an honorary doctorate from Oxford University in 1907. When he died he left an incomplete autobiography, which was eventually edited by his secretary, Albert Bigelow Paine, and published in 1924. In 1990 the first half of a manuscript of Huckleberry Finn was was discovered in Hollywood, California. After a series of legal battles over ownership, the part, which included previously unreleased material, was reunited with its second half, which had been housed at the Buffalo and Erie County (New York) Public Library, in 1992. An edition Huckleberry Finn magazine including unreleased material was released 1996.