Synopses & Reviews
A much celebrated jumping frog, the lack of literature in a gold mining town, and castaways who eat their shoes to survive are among the stories contained in this volume. The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County brings to life the wild American West in the light and humorous spirit of Mark Twain’s early work. His first important work to have been published, the sketches arrived too late to be included in an edition on the Wild West by Artemus Ward, appearing instead in the New York Saturday Press in 1865 and launching the solid foundation of his fame and fortune. Mark Twain helped create and popularize American themes and language and is now one of America's most enduring voices in literature.
Synopsis
A much-celebrated jumping frog, the lack of literature in a gold-mining town, and castaways who eat their own shoes to survive are among the subjects treated in this volume.
Capturing the light and humorous spirit of Mark Twain's early work, these sketches became immensely popular and launched the author's fame.
Synopsis
A much celebrated jumping frog, the lack of literature in a gold-mining town, and castaways who eat their own shoes to survive are among the subjects treated by the stories contained in this volume. The Jumping Frog and Other Sketches captures the light and humorous spirit of Mark Twain’s early work, inspired by his experiences in the mining districts of California and Nevada. These sketches became widely known in America, India, China and England and launched the solid foundation of the author's fame.
About the Author
Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was born in 1835 in Florida, and grew up in Hannibal, Mississippi. He was the sixth of seven children whose father, a country merchant, died when he was 11 years old. The year following his father's death, Twain started working as a printer's apprentice, then as a typesetter and contributor of articles and humorous sketches for the local newspaper, then as a printer in New York City, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and Cincinnati. Aged 22 he began a career as a steamboat pilot until the Civil War broke out in 1861 during which time he travelled across the Great Plains and the Rocky Mountains. These travels provided the material for The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, his first important work, first published in the New York Saturday Press in 1865.