| In 1861, Samuel Clemens was still years away from becoming the famous author known as Mark Twain. He'd been working as a steamboat pilot, but lost his job when the Civil War broke out and traffic stopped going up and down the Mississippi River. So when his older brother Orion was appointed secretary to the territorial governor of Nevada, Sam Clemens jumped at the chance to take a trip out West.
Roughing It - which covers the years 1861-1866 - tells the story of their journey by stage from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Virginia City, Nevada, and Clemens' subsequent trip to San Francisco. where he'll settle down, at least for a time. It's there he'll begin his career as a journalist and adopt his pen name. Clemens tells all kinds of funny stories about the people he meets (sometimes their dialect is hard to understand) and the sights he sees. He devotes paragraph after paragraph to sagebrush, prairie-dogs, and "cayotes" and many pages to Indians, and outlaws. | ||
|
Plot & Themes job/profession: Job/profession/poverty story Yes Period of greatest activity? - 1600-1899 Subject of Biography Gender - Male Profession/status: Ethnicity - White Nationality - American Setting How much descriptions of surroundings? - 10 () United States Yes The US: - West Mountains/Cliffs Yes Desert? Yes City? Yes Century: - 19th century Writing Style Book makes you feel? - very happy - like laughing Pictures/Illustrations? - More 6-10 B&W How much dialogue in bio? - significantly more descript than dialog How much of bio focuses on most famous period of life? - 0-25% of book |
||