rter and later a feature editor for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, a Nevada newspaper. During his reporting of the Nevada Constitutional Convention, Samuel Langhorne Clemens officially adopted for himself the pen name “Mark Twain” (Works of Twain: Brief Account). Clemens got the name from a river term which means two fathoms, or twelve feet of water depth (“Twain”). “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaverous County” the first writing of Twain was published in the New York Saturday Press on November 18, 1865 and won him almost instant recognition (Works of Twain: Brief Account). That same year he was sent to Hawaii as a roving reporter, or mobile reporter, but returned to the mainland shortly after and became a lecturer. In 1869, Twain made a lecture tour of the Mediterranean and the Holy Land. While he was on tour he sent letters back to America that were later published as The Innocents Abroad (Works of Twain: Brief Account). In 1870, William Dean Howells, editor of the Atlantic Monthly and a highly respected novelist, became his close friend and literary advisor. Twain purchased a publishing firm in Hartford, Connecticut that went insolvent in 1894. By this time Twain was having financial difficulties due to high living and failed investments such as the printing firm and a typesetting machine that he spent a fortune promoting (“Twain”). In 1894 and 1896, Twain wrote two new sequels to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but neither of these were successful. In another attempt to repay his debts, Twain launched a world lecture tour. Twain repaid all of his debts by 1898. Twain wrote very little in his last days due to family and personal problems. Twain- America’s favorite humorist- turned into a pessimistic writer, whose last works are filled with darkness and grimness (Works of Twain: Brief Account). Twain met Olivia Langdon in 1867 and married her in 1870. Five years after ...
