Mark Twain

Roughing It Mark Twain

Publisher Marketing: My brother had just been appointed Secretary of Nevada Territory-an office of such majesty that it concentrated in itself the duties and dignities of Treasurer, Comptroller, Secretary of State, and Acting Governor in the Governor's absence. A salary of eighteen hundred dollars a year and the title of "Mr. Secretary," gave to the great position an air of wild and imposing grandeur. I was young and ignorant, and I envied my brother. I coveted his distinction and his financial splendor, but particularly and especially the long, strange journey he was going to make, and the curious new world he was going to explore. He was going to travel! I never had been away from home, and that word "travel" had a seductive charm for me. Pretty soon he would be hundreds and hundreds of miles away on the great plains and deserts, and among the mountains of the Far West, and would see buffaloes and Indians, and prairie dogs, and antelopes, and have all kinds of adventures, and may be get hanged or scalped, and have ever such a fine time, and write home and tell us all about it, and be a hero. And he would see the gold mines and the silver mines, and maybe go about of an afternoon when his work was done, and pick up two or three pailfuls of shining slugs, and nuggets of gold and silver on the hillside. And by and by he would become very rich, and return home by sea, and be able to talk as calmly about San Francisco and the ocean, and "the isthmus" as if it was nothing of any consequence to have seen those marvels face to face. Review Citations: Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 627 (EAN 9780899665245, Library Binding) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 627 (EAN 9780870527081, Paperback) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 627 (EAN 9780140390100, Paperback) Wilson Senior High Core Col 01/01/2007 pg. 478 (EAN 9780140390100, Paperback) Wilson Senior High Core Col 01/01/2011 pg. 588 (EAN 9780140390100, Paperback) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 627 (EAN 9780520205598, Paperback) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 627 (EAN 9780520205581, Hardcover) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 627 (EAN 9780520024786, Paperback) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 627 (EAN 9780520020184, Paperback) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 627 (EAN 9780451524072, Mass Market Paperbound) Library Journal 04/01/1994 pg. 138 (EAN 9780520084988, Hardcover) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 627 (EAN 9780520084988, Hardcover) Wilson Public Library Catalog 01/01/1998 pg. 627 (EAN 9780606009522, Prebound-Glued) Contributor Bio:  Twain, Mark Mark Twain, born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was an American humorist and writer, who is best known for his enduring novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has been called "the Great American Novel." Raised in Hannibal, Missouri, Twain held a variety of jobs including typesetter, riverboat pilot, and miner before achieving nationwide attention for his work as a journalist with "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." He earned critical and popular praise for his wit and enjoyed a successful career as a public speaker in addition to his writing. Twain's works were remarkable for his ability to capture colloquial speech, although his adherence to the vernacular of the time has resulted in the suppression of his works by schools in modern times. Twain's birth in 1835 coincided with a visit by Halley's Comet, and Twain predicted, accurately, that he would "go out with it" as well, dying the day following the comet's return in 1910.