His life is a big adventure. He was born in 1835, which was the most dazzling era in American history. His birthplace is a village near the Mississippi River in Missouri. At that time, it was only seven years before the American train began to pass. Lincoln, who later ascended the presidency, was still barefoot driving cattle for farming!
After 75 years of colorful life, Mark Twain died in 19 10. Of his 23 works, of course, some have been forgotten by the world, but The Adventures of the urchin and Tom are immortal masterpieces. In the next few hundred years, as long as there are children in the world, they will always be the most popular books. These two books are written by him according to his own experience. In the process of reading, it is not difficult to find that his experience has jumped to the page.
Mark Twain was born in a small house with only two rooms in Misuri, Florida. The house where he lived as a child may not be used as a cowshed or henhouse by farmers now. Their family of seven lives in a place like a slave house. He was so weak when he was born that people even thought that he might not survive that winter. However, under the careful care of his mother, he grew up safely, but he became a headache problem children. According to his mother, none of the six children in the afterlife was as troublesome as him. What he is good at is practical jokes. He doesn't like going to school very much. He often plays truant to the Mississippi River, takes a raft to mysterious islands all over the river, or sits on the shore and looks at the magnificent scenery of the Mississippi River, indulging in his own fantasies. He almost drowned in the river nine times, but he still likes to play Indian or pirate games by the river, or go into caves to explore, eat turtle meat, or go down the river on a raft far from home. These precious experiences eventually led to the birth of two immortal masterpieces.
Mark Twain inherited his innate sense of humor from his mother. It is said that his father is a unsmiling man. As for his mother, he once described it like this: "Whenever my mother says something with a good sense of humor, she will pretend that she doesn't feel humorous. This talent is rare for men, especially for women. " Thanks to his mother's sense of humor, Mark Twain's speech is full of humor, so the speech fee is also a large part of his income. His mother has a gentle personality. She has never killed a fly. If her cat kills a mouse, she will punish the cat. Once, the mother cat gave birth to several kittens, so many cats could not be kept at home, so they had to be put into the water and drowned. It is said that in order to alleviate the suffering of kittens, her mother specially heated the water before putting them in.
As a teenager, Mark Twain hated school very much. He thinks that school is a place to seize freedom. He just wanted to walk in the forest and explore the Mississippi River, but the hut in the school hindered his action.
Mark Twain's father died at the age of 12, and his chance to escape from school finally came. He realized that his father would never come back, and he deeply regretted his past naughty willfulness. He once said, "I often betray my father. I hardly understood what he said. Even today, I will still shed tears of regret when I think about it. "
When his mother saw this situation, she comforted him and said, "The past is irreparable, and now your father knows nothing. If you really regret it, you might as well promise me that you will never. "
"As long as I don't go to school anymore, I'm willing to promise anything." Mark Twain said with tears.
Two or three days later, his mother sent Mark Twain to the printing factory as an apprentice. His mother thinks that if he can learn printing technology, it will help his future livelihood. In a sense, this is tantamount to education. In the first two years, the printing house only provided food and accommodation, and Mark Twain didn't get any money.
One afternoon after working in a printing factory for two years, when Mark Twain was walking on the road in Hannibal, Misuri, a piece of paper was blown away by the wind and he picked it up. This seems like a trivial matter, but it is a major event that changed Mark Twain's life. It turned out that the paper was one of the masterpieces of The Biography of Joan of Arc, which described an episode in which Joan of Arc was imprisoned in Rouen. Mark Twain thinks this fact is unreasonable-/kloc-Mark, 0/4 years old, can't help but feel indignant. But who Joan of Arc is and what happened, he has no idea at all. From then on, he read all the books about Joan of Arc, and his concern for Joan of Arc lasted for most of his life. Finally, he even wrote a book, Random Thoughts of Joan of Arc. Although this book is not his best work in the eyes of book critics, he thinks it is his best masterpiece. At that time, he was famous as a humorous writer. If he is published under the name of Mark Twain, he may be mistaken for a humorous work. In order to make readers read this book with a serious mood, he didn't publish it under the name of Mark Twain.
Writer Albert. In the Biography of Mark Twain written by Bigelow and Payne, there is a passage that goes like this: "From the moment I accidentally picked up a page of Biography of Joan of Arc, Mark Twain had a great interest and enthusiasm for history, which was his greatest intellectual characteristic until the last day." That piece of paper that fluttered in the wind made him an excellent intellectual and laid his future. "
In financial management, he has no talent, even the hare in Ye Ping, Kansas has a better eye than him. He is often engaged in some incredible careers. For example, for a time, he thought that buying cocoa from the dense forests in the upper reaches of the Amazon River and reselling it could make considerable profits. But he knows nothing about cocoa and has no travel expenses to distant South America. Even if he can reach the upper reaches of the Amazon river smoothly, he can't talk to the local aborigines, and he may eventually die of fever.
However, one day a miracle happened. He found a 50 yuan bill on the road. He used the 50 yuan to set off for the Amazon River excitedly, but when he arrived in New Guinea, he had to give up his plan to go home because all the money around him was used up.
Later, he got huge income from copyright fees and lecture fees, but no matter what kind of business he invested, he almost always lost. For example, he once invested in a patented steam generator, and as a result, he could not generate electricity at all; I also invested in the watch business, but before I got the dividend, that company closed down because of poor management; Later, he invested in the manufacture of steam pulleys, and the result still failed; The life span of the publishing house he founded is not long. So far, he has a debt of 1.6 million yuan. Not only that, he invested heavily in the mechanical typesetting company and lost about 200,000 yuan.
One day, he met a man named Alexander. Bell, a young inventor, recommended a new invention called telephone to Mark Twain, hoping that Mark would invest. If what Bell said is true, you can sit at home and talk to people five blocks away through wires. Mark Twain shook his head in disbelief and said, "I may be a fool, but I am not stupid enough to believe that it is absolutely impossible to talk to people five blocks away through wires."
If he had spent 500 yuan to buy shares in the telephone company, the price would have risen by tens of millions of yuan now. But instead of making this investment, he lent 500 yuan to a friend, who declared bankruptcy three days later.
1893, when Mark Twain was 58 years old, his cash flow was poor because of huge debts. At that time, the prosperity of the whole United States was very bad, and his own physical condition was quite poor. If he declares bankruptcy, he may be able to pay off those debts reluctantly, but he is unwilling to take this next step and is determined to pay off these debts one by one. In order to pay off debts, in addition to continuing to write, I will also get speeches from all over the world. At first, he didn't like speaking, and he was sickly, but in the past five years, in order to pay off his debts, he has been giving speeches all over the country, and every speech has been very successful. No matter how big the venue is, he can't accommodate the surging audience. Of course, he finally paid off all his debts. Mark Twain once wrote: "It's great to finally unload all the burdens and have no worries in my heart." I began to find pleasure in my work again. In fact, work is not work now. "
He is much luckier in family life than in finance. Before meeting this woman who will be his wife in the future, he fell in love with her photo at first sight. This is what happened when he took a boat trip to the holy land in Palestine, and this trip later became the theme of his book "Overseas Journey of the Red Blanket". On that fateful day, Mark Twain visited fellow passenger Charlie. Langdon's cabin chats with him, and there is a sister of Zhang Lan Gordon-that is, beautiful Olivia. The picture of Langdon, when Mark first saw her, he decided that she was the ideal object in his mind. During the voyage, he visited Charlie again and again. Langdon's room, staring at Olivia's photo with pious eyes, thinks she is the ideal woman every time she looks at it. Two or three months later, when Mark Twain returned to new york, Charlie. Langdon invited him to his home to have dinner with his family, which was the first time he met Olivia. In his later years, he recalled: "From the day we first met to now, Olivia's figure has never left my mind."
When it was time to say goodbye and go home, he couldn't bear to leave like this, so he secretly asked Langdon's servant to do something about the seat of the carriage so that he could sit on it and fall to the ground. When the luggage was arranged and he shook hands with his master, the coachman waved a whip. At the moment when the horse started running, the seat suddenly fell backwards, and Mark Twain fell to the ground as planned.
His eyes were closed and the situation seemed quite serious. The Langdon family quickly carried him into the room and let him lie in the guest room. He did not get out of bed for the next two weeks. But in fact, he was not injured at all. When he fell from the carriage, he gave full play to the skills he learned in his hometown when he was a child and cleverly protected his body. But he has been lying in bed, happily receiving the careful care of his sweetheart Olivia.
At that time, Olivia called him "honey", and his name was Olivia "Livy", which remained until Olivia died 34 years later. Olivia regards the love letter he wrote to her as a treasure and keeps it in the bank every year when she goes to other places for recuperation.
Olivia read every manuscript written by Mark Twain and revised it for him. Before going to bed every night, Mark Twain would put the manuscript written that day on his wife's pillow so that she could read it before going to bed. Olivia will delete the vulgar sentences in the manuscript one by one. She wants her husband's work to be perfect. No matter how she modified it, Mark Twain obeyed without any objection.
Mark Twain was so afraid of losing or forgetting his manuscript that he forbade the maid to tidy up his desk, and even drew a white line on the ground beside the desk, and forbade the maid to enter the white line.
At the age of 70, he thought that he should do what he liked at his age, so he ordered a dozen white suits, 100 white tie, all of which were white. He even has a whole white dress.
Mark Twain was born in 1835, which is the age when Halley's Comet appeared. Halley's Comet only appeared once every 76 years. He always hoped to live to see Halley's comet again, and he really realized this wish. 19 10 years, on the night of his death, Halley's comet shone in the night sky. But his other wish could not come true, that is, when he died, his daughter Siji could sing his favorite ancient Scottish folk songs for him, but her daughter died before him.
He asked someone to carve the following four lines on the tombstone of Four Seasons, which is just right for the American people who love him.
The warm sunshine in summer shines gently on this grave! The warm south wind is blowing the grave warmly! The green grass is growing gently. Goodbye, my beloved child! Goodbye! Goodbye!