How many children did Mark Twain and Olivia have? They had four children in all: one son and three girls. Their son, Langdon
Mark Langdon
Mark Ian Langdon was an Australian rules footballer who played with St Kilda in the Victorian Football League.
Diphtheria
Infection of the nose and throat caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae.
Full Answer
How did Mark Twain's son die?
Twain's Children - Mark Twain House Langdon Clemens was the first-born child – and the only son – born to Sam and Olivia Clemens. He was born prematurely on Nov. 7‚ 1870‚ and continued to be weak and sickly throughout his short life. He died of diphtheria on June 2‚ 1872‚ at the age of only 19 months.
Who was Mark Twain's wife and children?
Mark Twain Spouse Olivia Langdon ( m. 1870; died 1904) ... Children 4, including Susy, Clara, and Jean Parents John Marshall Clemens (father) Relatives Orion Clemens (brother) 9 more rows ...
Where did Mark Twain Live when he was born?
Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens on November 30, 1835, in Florida, Missouri, the sixth of seven children born to Jane (née Lampton; 1803–1890), a native of Kentucky, and John Marshall Clemens (1798–1847), a native of Virginia.
What happened to Mark Twain’s daughters Jean and Clara?
In 1909, Jean returned to Twain’s home, where she drowned in a bathtub, having suffered a seizure. By the time Jean died, Twain’s blatant cavorting with angelfish had been thwarted by his other daughter, Clara. In the summer of 1908, Clara returned from a European concert tour and was appalled by her father’s new interest.
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A family life marred by tragedy
Sam (we'll call him by his real name) and Livy's marriage was, by all accounts, remarkable, and lasted until Livy's death in 1904, after which Sam simply couldn't carry on.
In the end, only one child remained
Sam and Livy's second daughter, Clara Langdon Clemens, was born two years after Susy, in 1874. By all accounts, Clara was more adventurous than her sister and tended to get into accidents. She traveled with her mother and father on Sam's world tours, and developed a reputation as a concert pianist.
How did Mark Twain make money?
Twain made a substantial amount of money through his writing, but he lost a great deal through investments. He invested mostly in new inventions and technology, particularly the Paige typesetting machine. It was a beautifully engineered mechanical marvel that amazed viewers when it worked, but it was prone to breakdowns. Twain spent $300,000 (equal to $9,000,000 in inflation-adjusted terms ) on it between 1880 and 1894, but before it could be perfected it was rendered obsolete by the Linotype. He lost the bulk of his book profits, as well as a substantial portion of his wife's inheritance.
What clubs did Mark Twain give talks to?
He gave paid talks to many men's clubs, including the Authors' Club, Beefsteak Club, Vagabonds, White Friars, and Monday Evening Club of Hartford.
What inventions did Mark Twain make?
Twain patented three inventions, including an "Improvement in Adjustable and Detachable Straps for Garments" (to replace suspenders) and a history trivia game. Most commercially successful was a self-pasting scrapbook; a dried adhesive on the pages needed only to be moistened before use. Over 25,000 were sold.
How many of Mark Twain's siblings survived?
Only three of his siblings survived childhood: Orion (1825–1897), Henry (1838–1858), and Pamela (1827–1904). His brother Pleasant Hannibal (1828) died at three weeks of age, his sister Margaret (1830–1839) when Twain was three, and his brother Benjamin (1832–1842) three years later.
Why did Mark Twain move to Europe?
Twain and his family closed down their expensive Hartford home in response to the dwindling income and moved to Europe in June 1891. William M. Laffan of The New York Sun and the McClure Newspaper Syndicate offered him the publication of a series of six European letters. Twain, Olivia, and their daughter Susy were all faced with health problems, and they believed that it would be of benefit to visit European baths. : 175 The family stayed mainly in France, Germany, and Italy until May 1895, with longer spells at Berlin (winter 1891-92), Florence (fall and winter 1892-93), and Paris (winters and springs 1893-94 and 1894–95). During that period, Twain returned four times to New York due to his enduring business troubles. He took "a cheap room" in September 1893 at $1.50 per day (equivalent to $43 in 2020 in 2021) at The Players Club, which he had to keep until March 1894; meanwhile, he became "the Belle of New York," in the words of biographer Albert Bigelow Paine. : 176–190
What is Mark Twain's most famous novel?
His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, the Adventures of Huck leberry Finn (1884), the latter often called " The Great American Novel ". Twain was raised in Hannibal, Missouri, which later provided the setting for Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.
Why was the book Huckleberry Finn banned?
In 1905, the Brooklyn Public Library banned both The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer from the children's department because of their language.
What did Mark Twain do after his father died?
Twain at age 15. In 1848, the year after his father’s death, Clemens went to work full-time as an apprentice printer at a newspaper in Hannibal. 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.
How many children did Olivia Clemens have?
The Clemenses had four children, including a son who died as a toddler and two daughters who passed away in their 20s. Olivia Clemens died in 1904 at age 58, while on April 21, 1910, her renowned husband, whose health had been in decline for a number of months, died at age 74 at his home in Redding, Connecticut.
Why was Adventures of Huckleberry Finn banned?
Just a month after its American release in 1885, it was banned by the public library in Concord, Massachusetts, for its supposedly coarse language and low moral tone.
What is Mark Twain's pen name?
Clemens’ pen name, Mark Twain, comes from a term signifying two fathoms (12 feet), a safe depth of water for steamboats. 4. Twain briefly served with a Confederate militia. Twain in 1870. In June 1861, shortly after the Civil War began, 25-year-old Clemens joined the Marion Rangers, a pro-Confederate militia.
Why did Mark Twain move to Europe?
In 1891, Twain closed up his 25-room Hartford home, where he had lived since 1874, and relocated with his family to Europe in order to live more cheaply (he also hoped the change of scenery would help his wife, who was in poor health).
How long did the Marion Rangers stay with the Union?
His time with the group turned out to be brief: After two weeks of conducting drills, the poorly supplied Marion Rangers disbanded upon hearing a rumor that a Union force—led by Ulysses Grant, as Clemens eventually learned—was headed their way.
What was Samuel Clemens' job?
Samuel Clemens worked on the Pennsylvania until early June. 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 was devastated by the incident but got his pilot’s license in 1859. He worked on steamboats until the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, when commercial traffic along the Mississippi was halted. Clemens’ pen name, Mark Twain, comes from a term signifying two fathoms (12 feet), a safe depth of water for steamboats.
What was Mark Twain's financial failure?
Clemens had the further burden of financial failure. He had a tendency to gamble with investments, and he gambled badly, backing inventions that never came to fruition, or didn't sell, or otherwise proved to be economic sinkholes. After a lifetime of best-selling books and literary fame under the name Mark Twain — The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, and others — he found himself deeply in debt. Rather than declare bankruptcy, he went back to work, touring the country and the globe, giving comic lectures to packed and enthusiastic concert halls. He repaid his debts in full and had a comfortable cushion for his later years. But those years were lonely. Twain often suffered from black depression, and the losses of his family members weighed on him terribly. He didn't really get along with his remaining child, a daughter, and they often quarrelled.
What books did Mark Twain write?
After a lifetime of best-selling books and literary fame under the name Mark Twain — The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, and others — he found himself deeply in debt.
What did Mark Twain suffer from?
But those years were lonely. Twain often suffered from black depression, and the losses of his family members weighed on him terribly. He didn't really get along with his remaining child, a daughter, and they often quarrelled. His health began to fail.
What did Sam's father do when he was 12?
His father died when Sam was 12, and the boy entered the workforce, learning the printing trade. Eventually he became a steamboat pilot, a childhood dream, and used that position to get his brother, Henry, a job on one of the craft.
Where was Mark Twain born?
When you look at Mark Twain's history, it's a wonder that he even smiled at all. He was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in 1835 in a wee hamlet in Missouri, says Biography. The family moved to Hannibal, relatively larger and on the banks of the Mississippi River, when he was four.
Who was the first humorist and social commentator?
And here's Mark Twain, one of America's first and most enduring humorists and social commentators, who could tease gently or skewer thoroughly. When you look at Mark Twain' s history, it's a wonder that he even smiled at all.
What did Mark Twain collect?
But grandfathers can have grandsons as well as granddaughters, and Twain, the creator of one of literature’s most famous adolescents, surely celebrated boys’ cheeky energy. There was more, then, to his strange sorority than an elderly man’s yearning for grandchildren, more even than nostalgia for his daughters’ childhoods. “As for me,” Twain wrote at the age of seventy-three, “I collect pets: young girls —girls from ten to sixteen years old; girls who are pretty and sweet and naive and innocent—dear young creatures to whom life is a perfect joy and to whom it has brought no wounds, no bitterness, and few tears.”
Why did Twain caution Helen?
More disappointing still, she had a boyfriend, and Twain was jealous: he cautioned Helen to preserve her innocence; he wanted the younger man out of the way. Twain’s obsession with adolescent girls can be explained in part by his exalting of his own teenaged years—years of daring and adventure.
How many schoolgirls did Mark Twain collect?
By 1908, he had collected ten schoolgirls, dubbed them his “angel-fish,” and awarded them membership in his Aquarium Club.
What was the first object I saw in that spacious and far-reaching place?
the first object I saw in that spacious and far-reaching place was a little girl seated solitary at a table for two. I bent down over her and patted her cheek and said, affectionately and with compassion, ‘Why you dear little rascal—do you have to eat your breakfast all by yourself in this desolate way?’
What did the scamps call Marjorie?
Their correspondence was playfully flirtatious: he called her his “little witch”; she called him “darling.”. He sent her a copy of his favorite book, the writings of “a bewitching little scamp” named Marjorie, who had died just short of her ninth birthday, in Scotland in 1811.
Where did Mark Twain send his letters?
Many contained invitations to the girls to visit him in his palatial house in Redding, Connecticut, which he named Innocence at Home.
Where did Twain's daughter live?
During the years that Twain collected his angelfish, he spurned the companionship of his real daughter, Jean, who had been living in medical institutions where her epilepsy could be monitored. In the summer of 1908, Twain’s secretary and assistant, Isabel Lyon (the Lioness, he called her, and she called him King), arranged for Jean to live in Gloucester, Massachusetts; she stayed there briefly, unhappily, until she left the country with friends. In 1909, Jean returned to Twain’s home, where she drowned in a bathtub, having suffered a seizure.
How did Jervis and Olivia Clemens die?
Life was difficult for them at first. Jervis died of cancer in August, followed a month later by Olivia's friend Emma Nye, who died in the Clemens' home. Their first child, Langdon Clemens, was born in November but was premature. Olivia contracted typhoid fever and became very ill.
Why did Samuel and Olivia leave the Hartford house?
The family left for Europe in 1891 and lived there for four years. This was mainly prompted by financial need—Samuel's investments in a publishing company and the Paige Compositor lost money, and the family's expenses were catching up with them. They permanently closed up the Hartford house and spent the four years in various temporary accommodations. In 1894, Samuel was forced to declare bankruptcy. Olivia was given “preferred creditor” status, and all Samuel's copyrights were assigned to her. These measures saved the family's financial future.
What did Olivia Clemens do for her husband?
Olivia helped her husband with the editing of his books, articles, and lectures. She was a "faithful, judicious, and painstaking editor," Clemens wrote. This was one of the things that Livy had on her list of things to do, and she prided herself in helping her husband to edit these works.
Where did Mark Twain and Olivia Clemens live?
However, Twain frequently broke the rule and secretly saw her in order to exchange love letters and kisses. By the end of 1903, doctors’ advice led the Clemens family to move to Italy for the warm climate; they resided in a villa outside of Florence. Graves of Olivia Langdon Clemens and Mark Twain.
Where was Olivia Langdon born?
Early life. Olivia Langdon was born in 1845 in Elmira, New York, to Jervis Langdon and Olivia Lewis Langdon. Her childhood home from 1847 to 1862 was the building at what is now 413 Lake Street. Jervis was a very wealthy coal businessman.
How long did the Langdon family live?
In 1874, they moved into a distinctive house they had had built on land they purchased. They lived there until 1891. Langdon, their son, died in 1872, a year and a half after his birth.
How did Olivia Clemens' daughter die?
The next year, their daughter Susy, who had remained at home in the US, died of spinal meningitis at age 24, a devastating blow to Olivia. The family lived in Switzerland, Austria, and England until 1902. Other places the Clemens' lived include Sweden, Germany, France, and Italy.
Overview
Biography
Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born on November 30, 1835, in Florida, Missouri. He was the sixth of seven children of Jane (née Lampton; 1803–1890), a native of Kentucky, and John Marshall Clemens (1798–1847), a native of Virginia. His parents met when his father moved to Missouri. They were married in 1823. Twain was of Cornish, English, and Scots-Irish descent. Only thr…
Writing
Twain began his career writing light, humorous verse, but he became a chronicler of the vanities, hypocrisies, and murderous acts of mankind. At mid-career, he combined rich humor, sturdy narrative, and social criticism in Huckleberry Finn. He was a master of rendering colloquial speech and helped to create and popularize a distinctive American literature built on American them…
Views
Twain's views became more radical as he grew older. In a letter to friend and fellow writer William Dean Howells in 1887, he acknowledged that his views had changed and developed over his lifetime, referring to one of his favorite works:
When I finished Carlyle's French Revolution in 1871, I was a Girondin; every time I have read it since, I have read it differently – being influenced and changed, little by little, by life and environ…
Pen names
Twain used different pen names before deciding on "Mark Twain". He signed humorous and imaginative sketches as "Josh" until 1863. Additionally, he used the pen name "Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass" for a series of humorous letters.
He maintained that his primary pen name came from his years working on Mississippi riverboats, where two fathoms, a depth indicating water safe for the passage of boat, was a measure on the sounding …
Legacy and depictions
While Twain is often depicted wearing a white suit, modern representations suggesting that he wore them throughout his life are unfounded. Evidence suggests that Twain began wearing white suits on the lecture circuit, after the death of his wife in 1904. However, there is also evidence showing him wearing a white suit before 1904. In 1882, he sent a photograph of himself in a white s…
See also
• Mark Twain bibliography
• Mark Twain in popular culture
Further reading
• Nathan G. Alexander, "Unclasping the Eagle's Talons: Mark Twain, American Freethought, and the Responses to Imperialism." The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 17, no. 3 (2018): 524–545. doi:10.1017/S1537781418000099.
• Lucius Beebe. Comstock Commotion: The Story of the Territorial Enterprise and Virginia City News, Stanford University Press, 1954 ISBN 1-122-18798-X
Early life
Naming
- In 1857, Clemens became an apprentice steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River. The following year, while employed on a boat called the Pennsylvania, he got his younger brother, Henry, a job aboard the vessel. Samuel Clemens worked on the Pennsylvania until early June. Then, on June 13, disaster struck when the Pennsylvania, traveling near Memphis, experienced a deadly boiler …
Later life
- As it happened, later in life Clemens became friends with Ulysses Grant, and in 1885 published the former presidents memoir, which became a best-seller and rescued Grants widow from poverty after her husband lost most of their money to bad investments.
Early career
- In May 1864, Twain challenged a rival Nevada newspaperman with whom he was feuding to a duel but fled before an actual fight took place, supposedly to avoid being arrested for violating the territorys anti-dueling law. Twain headed to San Francisco, where he got a job as a reporter but soon grew disenchanted with the work and eventually was fired. Later that year, Twain posted b…
Setting
- Set in the antebellum South, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the story of the title character, a young misfit who floats down the Mississippi River on a raft with Jim, a runaway slave. Huck Finn made his literary debut in Twains 1876 novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, appearing as Sawyers sidekick. The model for Huck Finn was Tom Blankenship, a boy four years older than T…
Controversy
- What is certain is that from the time of its publication, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been controversial. Just a month after its American release in 1885, it was banned by the public library in Concord, Massachusetts, for its supposedly coarse language and low moral tone. In the mid-20th century, critics began condemning the book as racist and in the ensuing decades it was re…
Family
- In 1870, Clemens married Olivia Langdon, who was raised in an abolitionist family in Elmira, New York. The couple was introduced by Olivias younger brother, who had met Clemens during a voyage to Europe and the Holy Land aboard the steamship Quaker City in 1867. (Clemens wrote about this excursion in his best-selling 1869 travel book, The Innocents Abroad.) The Clemense…