Uzbekistan state university of world languages english language faculty №2 Course paper Theme: The development of American literature after the war.

3. Mark Twain and O. Henry's contributions to the development of American literature.
Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in the tiny village of Florida, Missouri on November 30, 1835, the sixth child of John and Jane Clemens. When he was 4, his family moved to nearby Hannibal, a bustling river town of 1,000. John Clemens worked as a storekeeper, lawyer, judge and land speculator, dreaming of wealth, but never achieved it, sometimes it was difficult for him to feed his family. He was an unsmiling guy; According to one legend, young Sam never saw his father laugh. His mother, in contrast, was a cheerful, kind-hearted housewife who spent many winter nights telling stories for her family. She became head of the family in 1847 when John died unexpectedly. The Clemens family "became almost destitute," as biographer Everett Emerson wrote, and were forced into years of economic struggle, a fact that would influence Twain's later career. His best-known novels included The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), which are loosely based on Twain's childhood experiences in Missouri. Twain also wrote numerous short stories, most notably "The Famous Jumping Frog of Calaveras County". A bestseller during Twain's lifetime (and one of the most popular travel stories ever published), Innocents Abroad documented Twain's travels through Europe and the Middle East in an amusing way. Twain's magnificent experiments with vernacular inspired writers around the world to create works of art. outside the language spoken by their compatriots - writers such as Johannes W. Jensen, considered the first great contemporary Danish writer to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Mark Twain's writing style is characterized by humor, strong storytelling and catchy descriptions, and brilliant control of spoken language. Mark Twain was a humorist, journalist, and writer who became famous throughout the world for his distinctive style of travel and fictional storytelling.One of Mark Twain's inspirations was John Ross Brown's note-taking style.
Twain's greatest contribution to American and world literature is the novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Also very popular are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The Prince and the Pauper, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and Life on the Mississippi, a collection of autobiographical stories. Mark Twain began his career with unpretentious humorous couplets, and ended with sketches of human manners full of subtle irony, sharply satirical pamphlets on socio-political topics, and philosophically deep and, at the same time, very pessimistic reflections on the fate of civilization. Many public speeches and lectures were lost or not recorded; individual works and letters were banned from publication by the author himself during his lifetime and for decades after his death. Twain was an excellent orator. Having received recognition and fame, Mark Twain spent a lot of time searching for young literary talents and helping them to break through, using his influence and the publishing company he acquired. Twain was fond of science and was friendly with Nikola Tesla. They spent a lot of time together in Tesla's laboratory. In his work A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, Twain introduced time travel, as a result of which many modern technologies were introduced in Arthurian England. The technical details given in the novel testify to Twain's good acquaintance with the achievements of contemporary science.
O. Henry (1862–1910) was an American short story writer whose real name was William Sidney Porter. Henry's rich artistic canon reflected his wide range of experience and was notable for its poignancy, clever puns, and unexpected endings. finally found his calling as a writer of short stories. He began working in his uncle's pharmacy in 1879 and became a licensed pharmacist by the age of 19. His first creative manifestations came while working in a pharmacy, where he made sketches of the townspeople who frequented the store. Customers responded warmly to his drawings, and he was admired for his artistry and ability to draw. Henry's best stories are "The Gift of the Magi", "The Red Chief's Ransom", "Cabbage and Kings", "After Twenty Years", and "Whirligigs". He was a prolific author, publishing some three hundred stories and several poems in his short literary career. He wrote stories inspired by ordinary people and everyday life, and his stories about middle and lower class New Yorkers were extremely popular during and shortly after his life. His well-known and famous stories include "The Gift of the Magi", "The Ransom of the Red Leader", "The Cop and the Anthem", "The Way of the Caballero" and "The Reformation Restored". In a word, typical O. Henry writing styles can be summarized as follows: humorous language, unexpected endings and a tearful smile.He was a prolific author, publishing some three hundred stories and several poems in his short literary career. He wrote stories inspired by ordinary people and everyday life, and his stories about middle and lower class New Yorkers were extremely popular during and shortly after his life. Henry's stories often end unexpectedly. At one time he was called the American answer to Guy de Maupassant. While both writers wrote plot twists, O. Henry's stories were significantly more playful and also known for their witty storytelling. Henry's short story "After Twenty Years" is about the reunion of two old friends: Jimmy and Bob. During their brief meeting, they explore themes of friendship, loyalty and trust. Bob's punctuality in keeping up with Jimmy perhaps best demonstrates his commitment to their friendship. Henry's stories are interesting because they usually have an unexpected twist at the end. A twist in history is when something happens that you don't expect. Let's take a look at some of O. Henry's most famous stories. Some of his short stories, such as "The Sacrifice", "His Duty" and "Trying to Get Arrested" were adapted as silent films during his lifetime. Henry and Mark Twain These are authors with extensive experience writing classic literature. Classical authors use their unique style to stand the test of time. Their style allows them to have topics that are still relevant.O. Henry's only novel, Kings and Cabbage, was published in 1904. In fact, this is not a novel, but a collection of short stories united by a common place of action. It was followed by collections of short stories: "Four million" (the number of inhabitants of the then New York), 1906), "The Burning Lamp" (The Trimmed Lamp, 1907), "Heart of the West" (Heart of the West, 1907), "Voice of the City (The Voice of the City, 1908), The Gentle Grafter (1908]), Roads of Destiny (1909), The Choice (Options, 1909), Business People (Strictly Business, 1910) and Rotation (Whirligigs, 1910). The stories of O. Henry, each of which almost always contained a lot of beautifully contoured faces and an original, intricate plot, quickly gained popularity among American readers. Critics began to call the writer "American Kipling", "American Maupassant", "American Gogol", "American Chekhov" The collection "Postscripts" (eng. Postscripts), published after the death of O. Henry, included feuilletons, sketches and humorous notes written by him for the newspaper "Post" (Houston, Texas, 1895-1896). In total, O. Henry wrote about 600 stories[13], the complete collection of his works is 18 volumes. The characters in the works of O. Henry are often resilient petty swindlers. At the same time, they are kind and even noble. But, born in poor families, they are doomed to a miserable existence, from which they try with all their might to escape, and usually unsuccessfully. Their attempts to be happy, as a rule, are futile and turn into only new troubles, sometimes sad and funny.