ONE OF AMERICA’S MOST BELOVED AUTHORS DIES AT 74

By Madison Nef

Samuel Clemmens, better known as the great humorist, Mark Twain, passed away in his New England home at 6:22 a.m., on April 21^st, 1910. He died of a heart attack. For 14 years, Twain had been through deep depression following the death of his favorite daughter, Susy, and his wife, Livy. His other daughter, Jean, also died. Some say depression led to the heart attack. I personally think that while that is probably true, loneliness probably had something to do with it as well. Though loneliness might have led up to the attack, during his last days, Twain was not alone. His remaining family stayed by his bed until his last breath. Twain, in his last days, was unconscious most of the time. In the time that he was awake, however, he enjoyed reading Carlyle’s French Revolution. He had been reading the book all year and kept re-reading it. As he couldn’t speak clearly during his last days, he would write his words down on paper. One of his most frequent messages was: “hand me my glasses”. On the 20^th, Twain seemed to make an amazing recovery. Sadly, the recovery was a fake, and Twain fell back into another coma, this time permanently. His last words were: “Get me my glasses”.

The Career of Mark Twain

Mark Twain is probably most famous for his classic books and speeches. From Innocents Abroad to the very end, Mark Twain kept his audiences laughing and entertained. Perhaps that is why his work still lives on today, over a century after his death. Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn have become classic children’s books and are now read by 10-13 year-olds around the world. Teen and adult alike still enjoy reading some of Twain’s work for older people, such as the Tragedy of Puddn’head Wilson, and Innocents Abroad. Twain was also famous for taking lecture tours around the world. Twain was a humorist, and could always keep his crowd in stitches. However, he had trained himself to keep a straight face while doing his jokes and stories, making believe that it was a very serious matter; nothing to joke about. Twain uses the same deadpan humor in his novels. The reader is just above the level of the book so as to see the humor in it, and to the character in the book, they seem to see nothing funny, even if they have just said a joke. Twain also lets his characters tell the story, such as in Huckleberry Finn, where he turns the novel over to Huck. The story from that point on is told from Huck’s point of view, which means from the perspective of a young, un-schooled boy. Twain went to great lengths to make sure that even years after his death, his work could not be copied. This ended after his last living descendant died without children in the 20^th century.

The Life of Samuel Clemmens

Samuel Clemmens was a very different person from Mark Twain. While in some sense they were the same people, they had two different faces. Mark Twain was the face that Clemmens used to shield the public from the sorrow and loneliness in his life. Clemmens wanted attention, and wanted love. He wanted to be noticed by everyone. But that comes later. Clemmens was born into a town on the Mississippi, and all his childhood wanted nothing more than to leave. When he was 17, he left to pursue his dreams of becoming a silver miner in the west. He ended up being a failure, but while in the saloons in the west heard some outrageous tales that he would later use to create his much-loved books. He returned to Connecticut and married his friends younger sister, Livy. He told her she had to make him into a better person. He had 4 children with her. His first child was a son, who died when he was but 3 months old.  He also had 3 daughters, Susy, Clara, and Jean. While he was going on one of his lecture tours, his favorite daughter Susy died at their home from pneumonia. Livy tried to get back in time to see her, but Clemmens received a telegram while she was heading back that Susy had passed. This dealt a hard blow for Clemmens. Even worse, his beloved wife Livy died 2 years later. This made Clemmens lonely, and he started moping and writing stories about failure and depression. These stories were not published until after his death. Yet another strike came when Clemmens was forced to declare bankruptcy after investing all his money in the latest invention, a type-setting machine that promised to bring in tons of money. Clemmens’ plan was to strike it rich off of the machine and open up his own publishing business, never having to write a book again. However, his plan backfired when the type-setting machine failed to work and updates were never made. Clemmens had invested in many other inventions before, but this one sucked 30,000 dollars away from him and drove him into bankruptcy.

The End of Twain???

Twain, in his time, was among the greatest authors in America. In the 21^st century, while he is not the greatest author, he is among one of the most beloved of the 19^th century authors. His work lives on to this day, and with his work, Twain himself lives on through the readers of his work. Twain was a literary genius that will always have a special place in the hearts of all readers of his books. Mark Twain and Samuel Clemmens both hold different places in the world; Mark Twain, the greatly loved author and humorist, and Samuel Clemmens, the darker side of Twain, the one that felt the emotional pain and the hardship. In a way, Clemmens wore Twain as a mask for the time he was needed, and fooled everyone into feeling happy, and making them believe that he himself felt this. As Shakespeare once said, “the world is a stage, and we all wear many masks and play many different parts”. After reading this, we must ask ourselves: was Samuel Clemmens really a person to love? An idol to look up to? What do we love, his books and speeches, or him? Ask yourself this. I think that we found ourseleves looking up to Clemmens through his writing and speeches, and without that, Clemmens would be a person that had barely any dignity and that would have no one looking up to him except his children.