Current Series
Mark Twain
For our next series, we're covering (possibly) the most important and influential American author of all time, whose work has managed to endure for over 150 years. Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens at birth, Mark Twain would go on to lay the foundation for modern American literature, as well as comedy. Despite being born into a time and place that fully embraced the ideals of slavery and racism, Mark Twain would evolve over time to become one of the loudest, most outspoken anti-racist voices of his time, showing the world along the way that true change comes from within. Though he became known as one of the greatest writers and orators of his day, producing such classics as The Innocents Abroad, Roughing It, The Prince and the Pauper, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the first 30 years of his life would be spent moving from career to career, never even attempting to write a book. He travelled the world, met all manor of celebrity, and lived the life of a high-class superstar, but was almost constantly facing tragedies, and battled depression for most of his life. Through it all, he continued to write, and his unrelenting pursuits as an author would bring him to the highest levels of celebrity possible for the time, firmly establishing him as one of the greatest writers of all time.