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Mark Twain
Mark Twain’s real name was Samuel Leghorn
Clemens. He was born in 1835 in a small town in
Missouri, on the Missippi River.
When he was twelve, his father died, and he went to
work for a printer. He began writing humorous stories when
he was seventeen.
19th Century Printing Office
He became a pilot (or driver) of steamboats on the Mississippi River in
1858.
When the War Between the States stopped boats
from traveling on the river, Clemens became a soldier in the southern
army.
Confederatesoldier
But he soon left the army, and in 1861 he went out west to look for gold and
adventure. There, he became a newspaper
reporter.
San Francisco in the 1800’s
In 1863 he began writing under the name of Mark
Twain. (“Mark Twain” was a phrase used on riverboats to mean “12 feet (4 yards)
deep.”)
In 1866, Twain moved to
Connecticut, where he wrote the books that made him famous.
Mark Twain’s home in Connecticut
He is best known today for his two novels about boys growing up in small towns
along the Mississippi:Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn
Illustration From the firstedition of Tom Sawyer
Illustration From the firstedition of Huckleberry Finn
Twain traveled widely in the United States and Europe. In the last years
of his life, he became famous as a public
speaker.
He died in 1910.
“Tom Whitewashes the Fence” is part of
the novel Tom Sawyer.
Here is some vocabulary for Tom
Whitewashes the Fence:
whitewash
whitewash
bucket = pail
whitewash
a water pump
whitewash
We use the same word for a modern gas pump.
marbles
treasure
kite
toy soldiers
firecrackers
orange peel