Mark Twain

Twain in 1909

Mark Twain (1909)

Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens; 30 November 1835 – 21 Aprile 1910) wis a writer frae America. He wis kent for his novel Huckleberry Finn an the Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

Twain wis raised in Hannibal, Missouri, which later providit the settin for Tom Sawyer an Huckleberry Finn. He served an apprenticeship wo a prenter an then wirkit as a teepsetter, contreibutin airticles tae the newspaper o his aulder brither Orion Clemens. He later becam a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River afore heidin wast tae jyne Orion in Nevada. He referred humorously tae his lack o success at minin, turnin tae jurnalism for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise. His humorous story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County", wis published in 1865, based on a story that he heard at Angels Hotel in Angels Camp, Californie, whaur he haed spent some time as a miner. The short story brocht internaitional attention an wis even translatit intae French. His wit an sateer, in prose an in speech, earned praise frae creetics an peers, an he wis a friend tae preses, airtists, industrialists, an European ryalty.

Twain earned a great deal o money frae his writins an lecturs, but he investit in venturs that lost maist o it—notably the Paige Compositor, a mechanical teepsetter that failed acause o its complexity an impreceesion. He filed for bankruptcy in the wauk o thir financial setbacks, but he eventually owercam his financial tribbles wi the help of Henry Huttleston Rogers. He chuise tae pay aw his pre-bankruptcy creditors in full, even efter he haed na legal responsibility tae dae sae.

Twain wis born shortly efter an appearance o Halley's Comet, an he predictit that he wad "gae oot wi it" as weel; he dee'd the day efter the comet returned. He wis laudit as the "greatest humorist this kintra has produced", an William Faulkner cried him "the faither o American leeteratur".