ng Samuel went to work as an assistant to a publisher. Ten years later, he became a pilot on a steamboat that sailed on the Mississippi. He heard the riverboat workers call out the words mark twain! That was a measure for the depth of water. Later he used this word combination as a pen-name.
In 1861 Clemens travelled west and became a reporter for newspapers in Nevada and California. He wrote news stories, editorials and sketches under his pen-name Mark Twain. He became one of the best known storytellers in the West. He developed his own narrative style— friendly, funny, and often satirical, which won him a wide audience. The first success came with the story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.
Mark Twain travelled a lot during his lifetime not only round the USA but also to Europe and the Holy Land. He naturally began writing books about his travels. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was published in 1876, and soon after he began writing a sequel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
It took Mark Twain longer to write The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn than any of his other books. He started writing in 1876, but put the story away after about two years of work. He returned to it in 1883, and the following year it was published.
From the beginning, the book was strongly debated. Some critics praised its realism and honesty but the others strongly disliked it. They protested against the personality of Huck— a rough, dirty and disobedient boy. They could not agree that such a person should be the main character of a book. Whats more, critics disliked the way Mark Twain used the language of a common, uneducated person to tell the story; no writer had ever done that before.
Today there is no longer any debate about the importance of The Adven
Страницы: << < 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53 > >>