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Cécile Sune

Did You Know That Mark Twain Started Smoking When He Was 8 Years Old?

May 13, 2016December 9, 2018

Mark Twain

In fact, he loved cigars and found smoking very relaxing.

Other fun facts about the author:

  • His real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens.
  • His father died of pneumonia when he was 12, and Mark Twain became an apprentice printer at the Missouri Courier. Later, he wrote for local newspapers.
  • The author also worked as a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi river. He got his pen name, Mark Twain, from steamboat slang for 12 feet of water.
  • During the Civil War, the writer sided with the South, and served in the Confederate Army only for a couple of weeks before heading West to San Francisco where he prospected for silver and gold before resuming his journalism career.
  • Mark Twain hated his home state, Missouri, and said: “If you are born in my state, you pronounce it Missourah. If you are not born in my state, you pronounce it Missouree. But if you are born in my state, and you have to live your entire life in my state you pronounce it misery.”
  • He moved to Hartford, Connecticut in 1874. Harriet Beecher Stowe, author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, was his neighbor.
  • Mark Twain started a publishing house that soon went bankrupt. He had debts most of his life due to bad investments.
  • 3 of his 4 children died before him.
  • Ernest Hemingway was a fan of Mark Twain, especially of his work The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
Fun Facts Mark Twain bankruptcycigarscivil warconfederate armyconnecticutdebtsernest hemingwayfun factsgoldharriet beecher stowehartfordjournalistmark twainmississippi rivermissourimissouri couriernewspaperpneumoniaprinterpublishing houseriverboat pilotsamuel langhorne clemenssan franciscosilversmokingsteamboat

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Cecile

Cécile Sune was born in Lyon, France, and her obsession with books started when she was 14. Her grandparents had lent her Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, and she spent part of the summer indoors reading. Needless to say, her tan didn't really improve that year! It was also around that time that Cécile fell in love with the English language. Several years later, in 1999, Cécile moved to Toronto, Canada, with her cat and 5 suitcases. Her love of reading greatly increased when she discovered that English books were much cheaper than French novels. In 2013, she decided to start a blog to share her passion. Cécile now lives in Ottawa, Canada, with her husband and their daughter, and works as a freelance translator (CS Revision).

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