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"A hymn to liberty"
:His personality and his humor have been an integral part of American life for so long that it has seemed almost impossible to realize an America without him.<ref>"His Countrymen's Tribute," ''The New York Times,'' April 22, 1910, p. 2</ref>
:His personality and his humor have been an integral part of American life for so long that it has seemed almost impossible to realize an America without him.<ref>"His Countrymen's Tribute," ''The New York Times,'' April 22, 1910, p. 2</ref>
His most famous books are ''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' and ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.''
His most famous books are ''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' and ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.''
==A "hymn to liberty"==
[[George Orwell]] said that "all that is best in [Twain]'s work centers about the Mississippi river and the wild mining towns of the West." He specifically mentions ''Tom Sawyer,'' ''Huckleberry Finn,'' and ''Life on the Mississippi.''
Orwell, who later would write ''Nineteen Eighty-Four,'' was writing during the Second World War, when individual freedom in Europe and England were at a low point. Orwell says that these books are set in
:the golden age of America, the period when the great plains were opened up, when wealth and opportunity seemed limitless, and human beings felt free, indeed ''were'' free, as they had never been before and may not be again for centuries.
He called these books "ragbag[s] of anecdotes, scenic descriptions and social history both serious and burleque." But Orwell felt that they had a central theme:
:This is how human beings behave when they are not frightened of the sack[i.e. being fired from their job].
Orwell says Twain did not ''mean'' to write "a hymn to liberty," but did so simply by reporting what he saw. He feels that Twain's colorful characters were able to develop their "strange and sometimes sinister individuality because of the lack of any outside pressure:
:If you disliked your job you simply hit your boss in the eye and moved further west.... The "log cabin to White House" myth was true while the free land lasted. In a way, it was for this that the Paris mob had stomred the Bastille, and when one reads Mark Twain, [[Bret Harte]], and [[Walt Whitman|Whitman]] it is hard to feel that their effort was wasted.<ref>Orwell, George (1943), "Mark Twain—The Licensed Jester;" ''The Collected Essays, Journalism and Letters of George Orwell,'' volume 2, pp. 325-339</ref>
==The pen name "Mark Twain"==
==The pen name "Mark Twain"==
Clemens began using the pen name "Mark Twain" in his early newspaper columns.
Clemens began using the pen name "Mark Twain" in his early newspaper columns.