To Mark Twain: 100 Years With Halley's Comet

.On November 30. 1835, two weeks after Halley's Comet made its closest approach to Earth, a child was born in Hannibal, Missouri, along the banks of the Mississippi River. His parents dubbed him Samuel Longhorn Clemens. When he was older, he felt his birth name is lacking, so he gave himself a name that he heard in his childhood from the boatmen as he made sure that their craft is in deep water: Mark Twain.
Today marks the 100th anniversary of Twain's death and after 100 years, or a full century, his writings are considered the cornerstones of American literature. Indeed, before him, there was no such things. There were American writers and novelists but they wrote like their European counterparts and rarely wrote about the country they lived in. Twain wrote what he saw, and he saw America.
Traveling as a newspaper reporter throughout the wild west of the 1860s, he saw many things and heard many stories. His interest was in writing down the tall tales that made up any kind of American literature at the time and making them interesting. It was during this time that his first short story was published, his own tall tale, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County".
It was in the 1870s that Twain's career took off, with his novels about the American experience and everything else. He wrote about life on the Mississippi River and the wild west. For someone who was told he would never amount to much, he sure became a hero to many for writing what he believed in.
As Twain's life moved him into middle age and then old age, his travels became few and his opinions many. His collection of papers, failed stories, and the like still linger on as a testament to his genius. Twain suffered the pains and trials of old age and used it to write the deepest material of his collection.
As the end of his life drew near, he remembered what event had brought him into this world. He wrote in 1909, "I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It's coming again next year and I except to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt, 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.'."
Sure enough, Twain died, at age 74, on April 21st, 1910, the day after Halley's closest approach to Earth. The two unaccountable freaks had indeed gone out together. Just like Halley's Comet, Twain's writings return once in a while to amaze and shock audiences with its brilliance. Althought I don't trust my fate to a comet, I believe that Twain would be happy to know that with each pass of Halley, his work gains its own brightness.
Until the next posting, see ya later!