Mark Twain

By ro3661

  • Samual Clemens is born

  • Clemens Family moves to Hannibal, Missouri

  • John Clemens, Mark Twain's father, dies

  • Twain begins work as printer for Hannibal Gazette

  • Begins apprenticeship as steamboat pilot

  • Henry Clemens, Twain's youngest brother, dies in steamboat explosion, leaving Twain feeling guilty for encouraging Henry to become a boat pilot

  • Civil War breaks out, ending Twain's steamboat career

  • Twain travels to Nevada with brother Orion and eventually becomes reporter for the Virginia City Daily Territorial Enterprise

  • Twain travels to California, passing through Calaveras County before settling in San Francisco

  • "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" is published in the New York Saturday Press

  • Twain gives his first public lecture, and it's very well-received

  • Twain meets his future wife, Olivia Langdon, the sister of a friend, and falls head-over-heels

  • Twain's first book, The Innocent Abroad, is published and goes on to become a best-seller

  • Twain marries Olivia Langdon, and their first son, Langdon, is born

  • Twain and family move to Connecticut, where their daughter is born, but their son dies of diptheria

  • Twain's second book, The Gilded Age, is published, and his very successful self-pasting scrabook comes out as well

  • Twain's second daughter and third child is born

  • The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is published

  • Twain's third daughter and fourth, and final, child is born

  • Twain's memoir of hi time as a steamboat pilot, Life on the Mississippi, is published

  • Twain founds his own publishing company, , Charles L. Webster & Co, named after his nephew and co-owner

  • Mark Twain's greatest fiction and non-fiction accomplishments are published, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and a biography of President Ulysses S. Grant

  • Twain publishes A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, which gets slammed by the critics

  • Twain moves to Europe for cheaper living after poor decisions leave him and his family in poverty

  • Twain's last novel, Pudd'nhead Wilson, is published, and his finances all but crumble

  • Twain goes on a lecture tour to pay back the money he owes

  • Twain's oldest daughter dies of meningitis, devastating Twain and essentially ending his successful writing career

  • Twain's wife loses her battle with a two-year illness, prompting Twain to move to New York and begin his autobiography

  • Twain's youngest daughter is institutionalized for her severe epilepsy, and his bigrapher moves in with him to collect material

  • Twain, missing his wife and daughters, forms the Angelfish Club, a group of young girls that meet at his house regularly to play cards

  • Twain's youngest daughter dies

  • Mark Twain dies at age 74 in his home in Connecticut