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Article: Mark Twain
- Article from:
- The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition
CopyrightThe Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright 2008 Columbia University Press. (Hide copyright information)
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Mark Twain pseud. of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1835-1910, American author, b. Florida, Mo. As humorist, narrator, and social observer, Twain is unsurpassed in American literature. His novel
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,
a masterpiece of humor, characterization, and realism, has been called the first (and sometimes the best) modern American novel.
Early Life and Works
After the death of his father in 1847, young Clemens was apprenticed to a printer in Hannibal, Mo., the Mississippi River town where he spent most of his boyhood. He first began writing for his brother's newspaper there, and later he worked as a printer in several major Eastern cities. In 1857, Clemens went ...