[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. Res. 690 Agreed to Senate (ATS)]

111th CONGRESS
  2d Session
S. RES. 690

    Commemorating the 175th anniversary of the birth of Mark Twain.


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                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           November 30, 2010

   Mrs. McCaskill (for herself and Mr. Bond) submitted the following 
             resolution; which was considered and agreed to

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
    Commemorating the 175th anniversary of the birth of Mark Twain.

Whereas Mark Twain was born with the name Samuel Langhorne Clemens on November 
        30, 1835, in Florida, Missouri, the 6th child of John Marshall and Jane 
        Lampton Clemens;
Whereas in 1839, the Clemens family moved to Hannibal, Missouri, the inspiration 
        for the fictional town of St. Petersburg depicted in the novels ``The 
        Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' and ``Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'', where 
        the Clemens family lived until 1853, including several years of 
        residence at 206 Hill Street, known as the boyhood home of Mark Twain;
Whereas in 1848, Samuel Clemens left school to become a printer's apprentice at 
        the Missouri Courier newspaper, his first in a series of occupations 
        that include, most notably, author, but also, printer, typesetter, 
        steamboat pilot, journalist, lecturer, publisher, editor, prospector, 
        and political activist;
Whereas while working at the Virginia City newspaper, the Territorial 
        Enterprise, Clemens first used the pen name ``Mark Twain'' in 1863;
Whereas with the publication of the short story ``Jim Smiley and His Jumping 
        Frog'' in The Saturday Press in 1865, Mark Twain experienced his first 
        significant success as an author;
Whereas in 1869, Twain's first book, ``The Innocents Abroad'', was published, 
        detailing Twain's adventures through Europe and the Middle East;
Whereas Samuel Clemens, known for the love and affection he demonstrated for his 
        wife and family and to whom the quote, ``What is a home without a 
        child?'', is attributed, in 1870 married Olivia Langdon, with whom he 
        had 4 children, Langdon, Olivia Susan, Clara Langdon, and Jane Lampton;
Whereas the book ``Roughing It'', part autobiography and part tall tale, 
        chronicling Twain's adventures in the early American West and critiquing 
        society's treatment of Chinese Americans, was published in 1872;
Whereas ``The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today'', a novel Twain wrote in 
        collaboration with Charles Dudley Warner satirizing political corruption 
        and greed in American life, was published in 1873;
Whereas Twain's novel, ``The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'', through which he sought 
        ``to pleasantly remind adults of what they once were themselves, and of 
        how they felt and thought and talked, and what queer enterprises they 
        sometimes engaged in'', was published in 1876;
Whereas in 1881, Twain addressed class issues and attacked injustice and 
        hypocrisy in English society with the publication of his novel, ``The 
        Prince and the Pauper'';
Whereas in 1883, ``Life on the Mississippi'', Twain's book exploring the history 
        and lore of the Mississippi River and detailing his time spent as a 
        Mississippi River steamboat pilot, was published;
Whereas Mark Twain's most famous work, ``Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'', which 
        attacked the institution of slavery, the failures of Reconstruction, and 
        the continued mistreatment of African Americans in American society, and 
        which is considered a masterpiece of American fiction and is widely 
        known as one of the Great American Novels, was published in 1884;
Whereas Twain's powerful social critique, ``A Connecticut Yankee in King 
        Arthur's Court'', was published in 1889;
Whereas ``The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson'', Twain's strongest critique of 
        racism and the institution of slavery, was published in 1894;
Whereas on April 21, 1910, Samuel Clemens died at the age of 74; and
Whereas the 175th anniversary of the birth of Mark Twain is an historic 
        occasion: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the Senate commemorates the 175th anniversary of the 
birth of Mark Twain on November 30, 2010, and his enduring legacy as 
one of our Nation's greatest authors and humorists.
                                 <all>