TODAY IN HISTORY: The birth of an American literary icon (Nov. 30, 1835)

On this day in 1835, Samuel Langhorne Clemens was welcomed into the world as the sixth child of John Marshall and Jane Lampton Clemens in the small town of Florida, Missouri. Mark Twain was the sixth of seven children born to John Clemens, a lawyer, and his wife Jane, although three of Samuel’s siblings died in childhood. Little did John and Jane know at the time that the November 30^th birth of their son saw the birth of an American literary icon.

When Samuel was 11, his father died. To support his family he left his school, and Samuel became a printer’s apprentice at the local newspaper Missouri Courier. He learnt a lot about writing and used public libraries in the evenings to educate himself.

Samuel, who would who would be later known by his pseudonym, Mark Twain, grew up to be one of the true originals of American literature. Twain wrote numerous books and short stories during his lifetime. His most popular novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn earned Twain a following that continues today. Mark Twain passed away on April 21, 1910.

One of our favorite Mark Twain quotes:

Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.

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