Samuel Clemens began a 57- year habit of traveling around the world in 1953 at the age of seventeen when he first left his home in Hannibal, Missouri. It was not until 1861 that he began his western adventures when he accompanied his brother Orion to Nevada. The adventures that he experienced during this trip and other trips to the West became the basis of some of Mark Twain's future writings. Samuel Clemens actually adopted the pen name of Mark Twain in 1963 between his Nevada adventures and the California experiences.
Clemens had decided to make the trip with his brother who had newly been appointed as
Secretary of the Territory of Nevada because, as he explained later in life, he regarded himself quite a rich man from his earnings as a steamboat pilot for the previous couple of years and was paying his brother's passage for him. As
From here he traveled to Jackass Hill to stay with friends and while there recorded the folk lore or "tall tales" of the minors. One of these stories, he later turned into his article "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." Having exhausted all his financial resources by 1865, Clemens had to take employment as the San Francisco correspondent of the "Enterprise." Within five months, he had managed to get out of debt and was ready for another change. This time his travels took him to the Sandwich Islands or Hawaii where he wrote letters for the "Sacramento Union." These letters were widely read and when he returned to California, Clemens found that he was famous. Being advised by his friend, Thomas McGuire to take advantage of this fame, Clemens broke into the lecture field, where he became a great
success. In 1866, Clemens left the West to return to New York and
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