美國作家馬克·吐溫簡介
馬克·吐溫（l835～1910）美國作家，本名塞繆爾·朗赫恩·克萊門斯。馬克·吐溫是其筆名。出生於密西西比河畔小城漢尼拔的壹個鄉村貧窮律師家庭，從小出外拜師學徒。當過排字工人，密西西比河水手、南軍士兵，還經營過木材業、礦業和出版業，但有效的工作是當記者和寫作幽默文學。
馬克·吐溫是美國批判現實主義文學的奠基人，世界著名的短篇小說大師。他經歷了美國從“自由”資本主義到帝國主義的發展過程，其思想和創作也表現為從輕快調笑到辛辣諷刺再到悲觀厭世的發展階段。他的早期創作，如短篇小說《競選州長》（1870）、《哥爾斯密的朋友再度出洋》（1870）等馬克·吐溫簡介，以幽默、詼諧的筆法嘲笑美國“民主選舉”的荒謬和“民主天堂”的本質。中期作品，如長篇小說《鍍金時代》（1874，與華納合寫）、代表作長篇小說《哈克貝裏·費恩歷險記》（1886）及《傻瓜威爾遜》（1893）等，則以深沈、辛辣的筆調諷刺和揭露像瘟疫般盛行於美國的投機、拜金狂熱，及暗無天日的社會現實與慘無人道的種族歧視。《哈克貝裏·費恩歷險記》通過白人小孩哈克跟逃亡黑奴吉姆結伴在密西西比河流浪的故事，不僅批判封建家庭結仇械鬥的野蠻，揭露私刑的毫無理性，而且諷刺宗教的虛偽愚昧，譴責蓄奴制的罪惡馬克·吐溫簡介，並歌頌黑奴的優秀品質，宣傳不分種族地位人人都享有自由權利的進步主張。作品文字清新有力，審視角度自然而獨特，被視為美國文學史上具劃時代意義的現實主義著作。19世紀末，隨著美國進入帝國主義發展階段，馬克·吐溫壹些遊記、雜文、政論，如《赤道環行記》（1897）、中篇小說《敗壞了哈德萊堡的人》（1900）、《神秘來客》（1916）等的批判揭露意義也逐漸減弱，而絕望神秘情緒則有所伸長。
馬克·吐溫被譽為“美國文學中的林肯”。他的主要作品大多有中文譯本。
Mark Twain (l835～1910)
Write without pay until someone offers it. If no one does so within three years, sawing wood is what you were intended.
Mark Twain was the pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, who grew up in Hannibal, Missouri. His father was a storekeeper and died in 1847. His early occupations included apprenticeship to a printer, writing for his brother's newspaper and, just as importantly in retrospect, piloting ships on the Mississippi (where, incidentally, he was actively discouraged from reading). It was this latter job that provided material for his most famous books, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), and gave him his working name. Mark twain is a naval term meaning two fathoms deep.
In fact, Twain published his early works under the name Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass but he settled on the now familiar pseudonym as a correspondent for a variety of Nevada and California magazines. He achieved fame as a humorist with The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and Other Sketches (1867) and Innocents Abroad (1869), and began a first English lecture tour in 1872. His writing covered numerous topics but frequently utilised autobiography (Roughing It (1872), Life on the Mississippi (1883)) and fantasy (The Prince and the Pauper (1882), A Connecticut Yankee in the Court of King Arthur (1889)).
Twain's most famous books remain Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, both of which concern life on and around the Mississippi and contain much of the social and political satire familiar from his other writings. However, their success could not prevent Twain from experiencing financial troubles in the last twenty years of his life. He left for worldwide lecture tours and wrote many less purposeful books, although The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg (1900) is pleasingly inventive. Twain died in 1910 having made it to a ripe old age for a man who reportedly *** oked forty cigars per day.