Mark Twain

He grew up in Hannibal, Missouri on the Mississippi River.  After his father died in eighteen forty-seven, young Samuel, who is 12 years old, went to work as an assistant to a publisher.  Ten years later, he became a pilot on a steamboat that sailed on the Mississippi.  He heard the riverboat workers call out the words "mark twain!"  That was a measure for the depth of water.
In eighteen sixty-one, the American Civil War put an end to steamboat traffic on the Mississippi.  So Clemens traveled west and became a reporter for newspapers in Nevada and California.
Later, he wrote funny stories and called himself Mark Twain.  Twain became famous for his story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" in eighteen sixty-five.  It tells about a jumping competition among frogs.
In eighteen seventy, he married Olivia Langdon and moved to Hartford, Connecticut.  During the eighteen eighties, he wrote books for children, such as "The Prince and the Pauper."  It tells about a poor boy who trades identities with a member of England's ruling family.  Twain also wrote "Life on the Mississippi."  This book describes his days as a steamboat pilot and his return to the river twenty years later.
Mark Twain was already a successful writer before he became famous as a public speaker.  Over the years, he had invested a lot of money in unsuccessful businesses.  In eighteen ninety-three, he found himself deeply in debt.  So to earn money, he traveled around the world giving humorous talks.  His speeches made people laugh and remember events they had experienced.
  * However, his later life was not a happy one.  Two of his daughters died.  His wife died in nineteen-oh-four after a long sickness.  Some critics think Mark Twain's later works were more serious because of his sadness.  He died of heart failure in nineteen ten. When he passed away, newspapers around the country declared, “The whole world is mourning.”