Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)/Clemens, Samuel Langhorne

CLEMENS, SAMUEL LANGHORNE (best known by his pen name of Mark Twain), an American humorist; born in Florida, Mo., Nov. 30, 1835. He worked for some time as a compositor in Philadelphia and New York, and then in 1851 learned the business of pilot on the Mississippi. Thence he went to the Nevada mines; became in 1862 local editor of a newspaper in Virginia City; went to San Francisco; was for some time a reporter; and worked in the Calaveras gold-diggings. In 1884, he founded the publishing firm of C. L. Webster & Co., which failed some years later, though it had published successful works, including General Grant's “Personal Recollections,” on which over $300,000 in royalties were paid. After the failure Mr. Clemens made a lecturing tour of the world for the purpose of paying the firm's indebtedness, which he insisted on doing in full, though the creditors offered to settle for half of the amount. His works include: “The Jumping Frog,” “The Innocents Abroad,” “Roughing It,” “A Tramp Abroad,” “The Prince and the Pauper,” “Life on the Mississippi,” “The Gilded Age” (with Charles Dudley Warner) , “Old Times on the Mississippi,” “Tom Sawyer,” “Huckleberry Finn,” “A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur's Court,” “Pudd'nhead Wilson,” “Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc,” “Following the Equator,” etc. He died April 21, 1910.

S. L. CLEMENS (MARK TWAIN)