Mark Twain: Great American Literature

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was considered one of the greatest American authors and humorists. Among his many works, his novels “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer” and its sequel “Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” have become classics in American literature. A man of many talents, Mark Twain was also a riverboat pilot, journalist, lecturer, inventor, and entrepreneur.

His writing style was usually informal and amusing, differentiating him from other important 19th-century writers. He once wrote, “Humor is mankind's greatest blessing.” In 1865, his short story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” was published. The entertaining tale was printed in newspapers across the country and brought him national attention. His next step to success came in 1869, with the publication of his first book, “The Innocents Abroad.” It became a nationwide bestseller. In 1883, Mark Twain published one of his most important works, “Life on the Mississippi.” Both entertaining and informative, it is a textbook on the history‚ life, and lore of the Mississippi River during the 19th century.

In addition, Mr. Twain was a humanitarian who cared for the rights of people from the humans and animal kingdoms alike. He believed that animal-people are intelligent, morally upright beings, and spoke out against the use of people from the animal kingdom in sports, entertainment, and research, including cock-people fighting and bull-people fighting. In a letter to the London Anti-vivisection Society, he wrote: “I am not interested to know whether Vivisection produces results that are profitable to the human race or doesn’t. To know that the results are profitable to the race would not remove my hostility to it. The pains which it inflicts upon unconsenting animals is the basis of my enmity towards it, and it is to me sufficient justification of the enmity without looking further.” Here, Samuel Clemens, lauded as the great writer Mark Twain, passed away at the age of 74 on April 21, 1910.