1. Mark Twain was “the most American of writers.” What does that mean?
2. Where was Hannibal, Missouri, located? What sort of town was it? (A frontier river town).
3. Where does Sam Clemens go when he leaves Hannibal? (St. Louis)
4. What work does he find there? (working for a printer)
5. What was the Mississippi River like during the 1850s? (Exciting, full of action, the major route of commerce connecting the interior of America with New Orleans)
6. Who are the most “unfettered and independent” of all people according to Twain? (river boat pilots)
7. Between what two cities does Twain travel as a river boat pilot? (St.Louis and New Orleans)
8. What were steamboats like for travelers? (unutterable pomp and luxury)
9. What ends Twain’s steamboat career? (The Civil War)
10. How long did Twain participate in the Civil War and what did he specialize in? (two weeks, retreat)
11. What was the name of the gold vein in Nevada where Mark Twain worked? (Comstock Lode)
12. Where does Twain go when he leaves the gold mines in Nevada? (San Francisco)
13. Twain became successful with Innocents Abroad:the world’s most amusing travel book made Twain’s career.
14. Characterize Twain’s marriage (he loved his wife, Livy-the light of my wife-"Mama loves morals and Papa loves cats”
15. What did Twain call the age of properity and technological progress at the end of the 19th Century (He coined the term “gilded age")
16. What was the attitude toward bicycles? (30% of all fallen women were former bicycle riders)
17. Posing for photographs becomes a new fad.
Child labor and sweat shops--
19. Twain was proud of knowing Thomas Edison, raging tearing booming 19th Century--"People don’t dream, they work”
20. What national political figure did Twain save from poverty (US Grant--Twain published his memoir)
21. 1893 Worlds Fair in Chicago--A forward looking, progressive era--it was an era of financial trouble and Twain’s publishing business was failing
22. The time around T Roosevelt Imperial aggression and commercial frenzy appalled Twain