Samuel's childhood was probably where many of his ideas and stories all originated. He used his adventures as a boy in many novels, such as Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Life on the Mississippi, and many others. There was an adventure everyday during his life in Hannibal and his friends were just as mischievous as Sam was. The novel A Yankee in King Arthur's Court was strongly influenced by Mark Twain's life. It showed the battle that was happening inside Twain between his different feelings for slavery. It also showed Mark's hate towards any sort of authority. (Cox, 169) This was probably provoked by his early days with his slaveholding family. He saw many times as a child what "authority" could do to innocent souls and it stayed in his heart for many decades. The Civil War broke out in 1861 and Samuel Clemens decided to side with the Confederacy unlike his whole family. He joined a volunteering unit and fought with the Marion Rangers for some time. Most of this time the small unit was retreating and Sam said, "I could have become a [good] soldier myself, if I had waited, I had got part of it learned, I knew more about retreating than the man that invented retreating." (Cox, 49) During his life, Mark Twain always had some trouble financially. He had had many jobs, but he was often in need of money. When he worked as a pilot on the Mississippi, Twain was receiving no pay for he was an apprentice. During this time, he took a job watching freight piles during the night for some money. He later said " I can ...
