Group photo portrait of author and humorist Mark Twain (a.k.a. Samuel L. Clemens; middle), noted American Civil War correspondent and author George Alfred Townsend (left), and David Gray, editor of the Buffalo Courier (right).
Mark Twain and Samuel Clemens
He has a strong claim to having written the great American novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and yet this book is frequently banned from US schools and libraries. Mark Twain was the pen name of Sam Clemens, printer, miner, journalist, riverboat pilot and novelist. He was also the first writer to ever send a typewritten manuscript to a publisher.
Discover the private man behind the very public persona. Learn about the tragedy behind the comedy and laughter (Mark Twain, as a speaker, was promoted as “the funniest man in the world”).
This talk shows why his novels were so ground-breaking, and looks at his huge influence on American literature, but it also looks at one of the first writers to become a celebrity and use his superstar status to promote his books.