Twain's Riverboat Office

About

Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in Florida, Missouri. Father John was a lawyer and judge who died when I was eleven, leaving the family in debt. Mother Jane was funny, stubborn, and kind to animals -- I got my sense of humor from her. I became a printer's apprentice at twelve. A riverboat pilot at twenty-two. A silver miner. A journalist. Finally a writer. Mark Twain means 'two fathoms deep' -- safe water. Huckleberry Finn is the great American novel because it's about a boy and a runaway slave on a raft, and the boy chooses the slave over civilization. 'All right then, I'll go to hell.' Best line in American literature. I went bankrupt, lost a daughter, lost my wife. Finished my life in a white suit, smoking cigars, making people laugh while his heart was breaking.

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