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Mark Twain was a
dedicated man and even made people laugh without saying a
word. He was born, Samuel Clemens on November 30, 1835 in
Florida, Missouri. He grew up in Hannibal and had many
friends. He hated school and played hooky a lot. Sam
disobeyed his parents and "drowned" himself in the river
many times. When Samuel Clements was eleven years old his
father died and school stopped. He went to work with his
brother Orion at the Hannibal Courier. He was in charge of
circulation which meant he delivered the papers. His most
interesting job was minding the telegraph wire during the
last year of the Mexican War. He worked for Orion many
times. On a cold day in Keokuk, Iowa , 1853, Sam was walking
along when a fifty dollar bill landed on his foot. He
decided to go to the Amazon. He traveled down the
Mississippi, and his old childhood dream of becoming a steam
boatman, drifted back. On his way to New Orleans Sam didn't
wear his hat so he could look like a steam boatman. He made
a deal with Horace Bixby that for five hundred dollars he
would teach him the river between New Orleans and St. Louis.
Bibby taught Sam every detail of the river. Soon Sam was a
captain, but unfortunately his career was forced to end when
the Civil War broke out in 1861. He returned to Hannibal
where he was convinced to join the army but quit with
"Retreat Sickness." Sam went west to seek his fortune. He
soon started prospecting for a while, but there was no gold
to be found. In 1862 the Territorial Enterprise
offered him a job as a local reporter for twenty-five
dollars a week. Sam hiked for 130 miles from Aurora, Nevada
to Virginia City, Nevada. His first assignment was to take a
bath and find a story. He started signing his articles as
Mark Twain. He worked for the Enterprise until 1864
when he moved to San Francisco. For the next fifty years of
his life he wrote books, gave speeches and got married, but
most of all he became famous. On April 21st 1910 he died.
Three of his most famous books were: The Adventures of
Tom Sawyer, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and
Roughing
It.
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