Mark Twain: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Ernest Hemingway: Mark Twain knew and loved from his own years on the riverboats. All modern American literature comes from one book by "Huckleberry Finn." Mark Twain was a man of extraordinary contrasts. Although he left school at 12, when his father died, he was eventually awarded honorary degrees from Yale University, the University of Missouri, and Oxford University. His career cncompassed such varied occupations as printer, Mississippi riverboad pilot, journalist, travel writer, and publisher. He made fortunes from his writing, but toward the end of his life he had to resort to lecture tours to pay his debts. He was hot-tempered, profane, and sentimental and also cynical and tortured by self-doubt. My comment: I admire Mark Twain but I am more optimistic with faith and cheerful with self-confidence. Xie Shihao a.k.a. Francis Shieh. July 13, 2007 at 7 p.m.