Samuel Langhorne Clemens (b. 11/30/1835) was the 6th child of John Marshall & Jane Lampton Clemens. His father ran a dry goods/grocery store, practiced law & played politics after moving to Hannibal, MO, when he was 4. He loved the Mississippi, its barges & travelers. When 11 his father died. He went to work for s brother at the Hannibal Journal as an apprentice, then compositor. Still a teen he became an...

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (b. 11/30/1835) was the 6th child of John Marshall & Jane Lampton Clemens. His father ran a dry goods/grocery store, practiced law & played politics after moving to Hannibal, MO, when he was 4. He loved the Mississippi, its barges & travelers. When 11 his father died. He went to work for s brother at the Hannibal Journal as an apprentice, then compositor. Still a teen he became an itinerant printer. In 1857 he planned going to S. America but met a steamboat captain, Horace Bixby who taught him until he earned a pilot's license. Always spoken of warmly, this life ended with the Civil War. He went with a brother to prospect in Nevada but in 1862 joined the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, to which he'd submitted work. Then he went to California, submitting The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County to the NY Saturday Press. By 1871 he'd published Innocents Abroad & had wed Olivia Langdon. They moved to Hartford, CT, staying for 20 years. Despite the success of books written there he was bankrupted by bad investments. His last books were successful, but reflect increasing pessimism. Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven (1909) was his last published story.