Ағылшын тілі: лексика, грамматика, СӨйлеу, Қарым-қатынас

Mark Twain was born in Florida, Missouri, on November 30, 1835, the son of a storekeeper-lawyer father. His real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, but he is best known by his pen name, Mark Twain.

Young Sam’s favourite pastime was watching the mighty paddle wheel steamboats as they made their way up and down the river.

In 1847, the death of his father brought an end to his carefree days, and he had to go to work at the age of 12 as a printer’s apprentice.

But the lure of the Mississippi was too strong and at the age of 21, Sam returned to the river to realize an old ambition, that of being a Mississippi River steamboat pilot.

In 1861, the Civil War disrupted Mississippi River traffic and ended Sam Clemen’s career as a steamboat pilot. His career as Mark Twain, the writer, was about to begin.

In 1865, after spending five months in the Sandwich Islands – as Hawaii was then called- Twain returned to the continent and launched a public lecture tour about his experience. He was an overnight success, and in 1867, with the money he had earned from lecturing, he was able to go abroad for the first time, visiting France, Italy, Spain, and Palestine. Newspaper accounts of his trip were later revised and published as The innocents Abroad (1869), his first important book.

(From “Twelve Famous Americans” by Thomas Kral. Washington.1994,pp.52-54)