Mr. Samuel Clemens, The humorist and cynic.

Authors Avatar
Sam Marinelli

Mrs. Harder

English III CP

April 1st, 2003

The Humorist and Cynic

He is one of the greatest writers of all time and it has been said that with his writing, there is no comparison to anyone of his own time. "He was and is one authentic giant of our national literature." (Mencken 6). This man is without a doubt Mr. Samuel Clemens. His brutal honesty, sarcasm, and amazing talent for writing the truth in his stories are a few reasons why he has influenced and impacted modern day literature so immensely (Menken 4).

November 30th 1835 was the year Samuel Longhorne Clemens was born (American author and humorist 1). Little Samuel did have some education but not very much. The education he did have, however, was opened up to him by the newspaper offices and print shops he worked at growing up (American author and humorist 1). 1861 was the year that Clemens first wrote under his pen name 'Mark Twain' (American author and humorist 1). He got the name from being on Riverboats when he was a captain of one on the Mississippi River. When Captains need to know the depth of the water they say "mark" to mark where they are measuring and "twain" when it hit the bottom.
Join now!


His career in a way all started when he worked at the newspaper offices in Hannibal, Missouri (Mark Twain 1). That is where he quickly picked up his grammar and simple writing skills. From then on out he acquired other skills as he went throughout his life. That was the beginning of the Saga that would be known years later as Mark Twains professional writing career. When Twain first started out the sarcastic author and humorist people came to know and love, had not yet made a 'debut' in the literary world (Jim Zwick).

Mark Twain's ...

This is a preview of the whole essay