![]() ![]() In June 1861, shortly after the Civil War began, 25-year-old Clemens joined the Marion Rangers, a pro-Confederate militia. Twain briefly served with a Confederate militia. ![]() Clemens’ pen name, Mark Twain, comes from a term signifying two fathoms (12 feet), a safe depth of water for steamboats. He worked on steamboats until the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, when commercial traffic along the Mississippi was halted. Samuel Clemens was devastated by the incident but got his pilot’s license in 1859. Then, on June 13, disaster struck when the Pennsylvania, traveling near Memphis, experienced a deadly boiler explosion among those who perished as a result was 19-year-old Henry. Samuel Clemens worked on the Pennsylvania until early June. The following year, while employed on a boat called the Pennsylvania, he got his younger brother, Henry, a job aboard the vessel. In 1857, Clemens became an apprentice steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River. His career as a riverboat pilot was marred by tragedy. In 1853, 17-year-old Clemens left Hannibal and spent the next several years living in places such as New York City, Philadelphia and Keokuk, Iowa, and working as a printer. In 1851, he moved over to a typesetting job at a local paper owned by his older brother, Orion, and eventually penned a handful of short, satirical items for the publication. ![]() In 1848, the year after his father’s death, Clemens went to work full-time as an apprentice printer at a newspaper in Hannibal. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |