“Recently some one in Missouri has sent me a picture of the house I was born in. Heretofore I have always stated that it was a palace, but I shall be more guarded, now.”
Mark Twain
Autobiography of Mark Twain
Mark Twain was born in Florida. If you want to win an easy bet throw that statement out. Because the majority of people will disagree with you and say that the great writer was born in Missouri. Many people associate Twain’s early years with Hannibal, Missouri which is fitting because he moved there when he was four years old and it served as the inspiration for his early stories including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
But he was born in Florida. Really, he was—Florida, Missouri. He was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens on November 30, 1835 in a small two-room house where eight people lived. (Not a typo—eight people. And not two bedrooms, two rooms.) The house is still in Florida, Missouri and I saw it Wednesday when I passed through the town about 40 miles south east of Hannibal in the north west part of Missouri not too far from the Iowa-Missouri border. I took the photo below of the house at the Mark Twain Birthplace Historic Site which is located in Florida, Missouri.
Twain’s connection to Florida once again proves that great talent can come from obscure places.
In Twian’s Autobiography he wrote, “My parents removed to Missouri in the early ‘thirties; I do not remember just when, for I was not born then and cared nothing for such things. It was a long journey in those days, and must have been a rough and tiresome one. The home was made in the wee village of Florida, in Monroe County, and I was born there in 1835. The village contained a hundred people and I increased the population by 1 per cent.”
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[…] Mark Twain was born in Florida. If you want to win an easy bet throw that statement out. Because the majority of people will disagree with you and say that he was born in Missouri. Most people associate Twain with Hannibal, Missouri which is fitting because he moved there went he was young and it […] Original Source… […]
“Tom Sawyer” will be the first ballet performed at the recently opened Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts in Kansas City, Missouri October 14-23, 2011.
Tom Sawyer in a ballet…I’m sure Twain would be amused, and if alive would attend. I’ve only seen the Kauffman Center from the outside but it’s an impressive looking place.