An Author And His Work A Kid

An Author And His Work: A Kid In King Arthur’s Court Essay, Research Paper

An Author and His Work :A Kid in King Arther’s Court

May 26, 1999

Research Term Paper An Author and His Work Mark Twain

was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens to John Marshal

Clemens and Jane Lampton Clemens. He was born on

November 30, 1835 in a small city called Florida, Missouri,

which had a population of one hundred people. “I increased

the population by one percent,” he said. “It is more than many

of the best men in history could have done for a town.” (Cox,

7) Samuel, however did not live most of his life in Florida, but

moved around throughout his life. His family moved to

Hannibal, MO when he was four years old and that was

where he went to school. For the reason that there were no

public schools in Hannibal at the time, Sam was sent to a

private school taught by Mrs. Horr. He had to leave this

school at twelve years of age when his father died. There

wasn’t much money left to support the Clemens after John

Clemens died so Sam was forced to be apprenticed to Joseph

Ament. Ament owned a print shop and a newspaper called

Hannibal Courier. Here was where Sam would cut the last

strings connecting him to his childhood and become much of

an adult. The apprenticeship led Samuel to fame and fortune

in the future and opened his eyes to the world of literature.

(Cox, 23) The death of Samuel’s father had a strong effect on

him. Although he wasn’t very close to John, Sam felt guilt that

he hadn’t been a better son to his father and promised his

mother at the side of John’s body not to brake her heart and

to be a “better boy.” (Cox, 23) His time spent in Ament’s shop

was not paid, but he was fed and clothed. He learned to set

type and sometimes worked as reporter or assistant editor.

Clemens found a great interest in reading during this time and

he truly read everything he could get his hands on. He also

began enjoying reading a large amount of history. Being

brought up in a family of slaveholders, Clemens experienced

a lot of brutality and injustice toward slaves. He was taught

that it was completely normal and legal for white men to kill

“niggers” over an awkwardly done job and he didn’t argue.

However, as a little boy, he felt inside that what his father did

was wrong and immoral. Many incidents and adventures with

slaves that young Sam witnessed wound up in his books

decades later. Clemens left Ament’s shop and went to work

with Orion, his older brother, in 1851. His brother offered to

pay three and a half-dollars a week but money never seemed

to be around. Orion owned a newspaper called the Hannibal

Journal and he hired both Sam and his younger brother Henry

to be typesetters. However, Sam did more than typeset for

Orion. He also wrote for the Journal occasionally. Usually he

wrote humorous sketches, but sometimes he also wrote

satirical stories, local news reports, and poetry. Samuel first

used the pen name Mark Twain for his letters published in the

Virginia City, Territorial Enterprise in 1863. Mark Twain is a

steamboater’s term meaning 2 fathoms or 12 feet of water.

Samuel’s childhood was probably where many of his ideas

and stories all originated. He used his adventures as a boy in

many novels, such as Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Life on

the Mississippi, and many others. There was an adventure

everyday during his life in Hannibal and his friends were just

as mischievous as Sam was. The novel A Yankee in King

Arthur’s Court was strongly influenced by Mark Twain’s life. It

showed the battle that was happening inside Twain between

his different feelings for slavery. It also showed Mark’s hate

towards any sort of authority. (Cox, 169) This was probably

provoked by his early days with his slaveholding family. He

saw many times as a child what “authority” could do to

innocent souls and it stayed in his heart for many decades.

The Civil War broke out in 1861 and Samuel Clemens

decided to side with the Confederacy unlike his whole family.

He joined a volunteering unit and fought with the Marion

Rangers for some time. Most of this time the small unit was

retreating and Sam said, “I could have become a [good]

soldier myself, if I had waited, I had got part of it learned, I

knew more about retreating than the man that invented

retreating.” (Cox, 49) During his life, Mark Twain always had

some trouble financially. He had had many jobs, but he was

often in need of money. When he worked as a pilot on the

Mississippi, Twain was receiving no pay for he was an

apprentice. During this time, he took a job watching freight

piles during the night for some money. He later said “. I can

trace the effect of those nights through most of my books in

one way an

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