Because he was sickly, Clemens
was often coddled, particularly by his mother, and he developed early
the tendency to test her indulgence through mischief, offering only
his good nature as bond for the domestic crimes he was apt to
commit. When Jane Clemens was in her 80s, Clemens asked her
about his poor health in those early years: “I suppose that during that
whole time you were uneasy about me?” “Yes, the whole time,” she
answered. “Afraid I wouldn’t live?” “No,” she said, “afraid you
would.”
Mark Twain, pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens,
(born November 30, 1835, Florida, Missouri, U.S.—died April 21,
1910, Redding, Connecticut), American humorist, journalist, lecturer,
and novelist who acquired international fame for his travel narratives,
especially The
Innocents
Abroad (1869), Roughing It (1872),
and Life on the Mississippi (1883), and for his adventure stories of
boyhood, especially The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876)
and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885). A gifted raconteur,
distinctive
humorist, and irascible moralist, he transcended the
apparent limitations of his origins to become a popular public figure
and one of America’s best and most beloved writers.
Samuel Clemens, the sixth child of John Marshall and Jane
Lampton Clemens, was born two months prematurely and was in
relatively poor health for the first 10 years of his life.
