Early life

Boyhood. Mark Twain was born on Nov. 30, 1835, in Florida, Mo. In 1839, his family moved to Hannibal, Mo., a village on the Mississippi River. Here the young Twain experienced the excite-

mcnt of the colorful steamboats that docked at the town wharf, bringing comedians, singers, gamblers, swindlers, slave dealers, and assorted other river travelers.

Twain also gained his first experience in a print shop in Hannibal. After his father died in debt in 1847, Twain went to work for a newspaper and printing firm. In 1851, he began assisting his older brother Orion in the production of a newspaper, the Hannibal «Jour­nal». Twain contributed reports, poems, and humorous sketches to the «Journal» for several years. Like many American authors of his day, Twain had little formal education. Instead of attending high school and college, he gained his education in print shops and news­paper offices.

Travels. In 1853, Twain left Hannibal, displaying the yearn­ing for travel that he would experience throughout his life. He stayed briefly in cities such as St. Louis, New York City, Phila­delphia, and Cincinnati, working for low wages in print shops. He then traveled to Keokuk, Iowa, to assist his brother with more printing business.

In 1857, Twain made plans to travel to South America, and in April of that year, he started down the Mississippi River toward New Orleans. At this point, he made a decision with important con­sequences for his life and career. Instead of traveling to South Amcrica, he persuaded a rivcrboat pilot named Horace Bixby to teach him the skills of piloting. By April 1859, Twain had become a licensed riverboat pilot.

The profession of rivcrboat piloting paid well and brought Twain much attention, which he enjoyed. His piloting experiences also allowed him to observe the many kinds of people who traveled aboard the steamboats. He later reported that «in that brief, shaip schooling, I got personally and familiarly acquainted with about all the different types of human nature that are to be found in fiction, biography, or history».

Newspaper work in the West. The beginning of the American Civil War (1861—1865) abruptly closed commercial traffic on the Mississippi River. After serving for two weeks with a Confederate volunteer company, Twain chose not to become involved in the war. He traveled to Carson City, Nev., in 1861 with his brother Orion. Later, in «Roughing It» (1872), Twain humorously described

his unsuccessful attempts at prospecting for gold and silver during this time and his eventual conclusion that he must support himself by newspaper journalism. He joined the staff of the Virginia City, Nev., «Territorial Enterprise» in the summer of 1862. He first be­gan publishing under his pen name on Feb. 3, 1863, while working for the «Enterprise». «Mark Twain» comes from a riverboat term meaning two fathoms (a depth of 12 feet, or 3.7 meters).

Twain next drifted westward to California, where he wrote for the San Francisco «Morning Call» and a literary journal, the «Cali- fornian». On Nov. 18, 1865, his first popular story — about «The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County» — appeared in the New York «Saturday Press». In 1866, Twain traveled to the Hawai­ian Islands, where he acted as a correspondent for the Sacramento Union. Following his return to San Francisco, he began a profit­able lecture tour. Twain soon began to sense that his talents were growing beyond the limitations of the West Coast newspapers and magazines of his day.