Mark Twain (1835-1910)

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the most important man aboard the boat. He wrote of these years
in 'Life on the Mississippi'.

The Civil War ended his career as a pilot. Clemens went west to Nevada
and soon became a reporter on the Virginia City newspaper. Here he began
using the pen name Mark Twain. It is an old river term meaning two fathoms,
or 12 feet, of water depth.

In 1864 he went to California. The next year he wrote his 'Jumping
Frog' story, which ran in many newspapers. He was sent to the Sandwich
Islands (now Hawaii) as a roving reporter, and on his return he began
lecturing. He was soon on a tour of the Mediterranean and the Holy Land.
From this came 'The Innocents Abroad', which made him famous.

In 1870 he married Olivia Langdon. She modified Twain's exaggerations,
sometimes weakening his writings, sometimes actually making them more
readable. Twain began turning out a new book every few years. William Dean
Howells, editor of the Atlantic Monthly and a highly respected ...

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