Editing Mark Twain (section)

===In the American West===
[[File:Mark Twain by Abdullah Frères, 1867.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Twain, age 31]]
Orion became secretary to [[Nevada Territory]] governor [[James W. Nye]] in 1861, and Twain joined him when he moved west. The brothers traveled more than two weeks on a [[stagecoach]] across the [[Great Plains]] and the [[Rocky Mountains]], visiting the [[Mormon pioneers|Mormon community]] in [[Salt Lake City]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Powell |first1=Allan Kent |title=Mark Twain's Utah |date=April 22, 2016 |url=https://historytogo.utah.gov/mark-twains-utah/ |publisher=Utah Division of State History |access-date=November 7, 2022 |archive-date=November 7, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221107145433/https://historytogo.utah.gov/mark-twains-utah/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Twain's journey ended in the silver-mining town of [[Virginia City, Nevada]], where he became a [[mining|miner]] on the [[Comstock Lode]].<ref name="Hannibal"/> Twain failed as a miner and went to work at the Virginia City newspaper ''[[Territorial Enterprise]]'',<ref>''Comstock Commotion: The Story of the Territorial Enterprise and Virginia City News'', Chapter 2.</ref> working under a friend, the writer [[Dan DeQuille]]. Twain first used his pen name here on February 3, 1863, when he wrote a humorous [[travel literature|travel account]] titled "Letter From Carson&nbsp;– re: Joe Goodman; party at Gov.&nbsp;Johnson's; music" and signed it "Mark Twain".<ref name=MT_quotes>{{cite web |title = Mark Twain quotations |url = http://www.twainquotes.com/teindex.html |access-date = January 3, 2007 |archive-date = August 13, 2021 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210813091643/http://www.twainquotes.com/teindex.html |url-status = live }}</ref><ref>For further information, see [[Mark Twain in Nevada]].</ref>

Twain's experiences in the [[Western United States|American West]] inspired ''Roughing It'', written during 1870–71 and published in 1872.<ref>{{Citation |last=Messent |first=Peter |title=Roughing It and the American West |date=1997 |work=Mark Twain |pages=44–64 |editor-last=Messent |editor-first=Peter |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25271-8_3 |access-date=2024-06-04 |place=London |publisher=Macmillan Education UK |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-1-349-25271-8_3 |isbn=978-1-349-25271-8}}</ref> His experiences in Angels Camp (in Calaveras County, California) provided material for "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" (1865).<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-05-14 |title=Great Read: The frog that jump-started Mark Twain's career |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/great-reads/la-et-c1-mark-twain-california-20150514-story.html |access-date=2024-06-04 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US |archive-date=October 12, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191012152236/https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/great-reads/la-et-c1-mark-twain-california-20150514-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cuff |first=Roger Penn |date=1952 |title=Mark Twain's Use of California Folklore in His Jumping Frog Story |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/536886 |journal=The Journal of American Folklore |volume=65 |issue=256 |pages=155–158 |doi=10.2307/536886 |jstor=536886 |issn = 0021-8715}}</ref>

Twain moved to [[San Francisco]] in 1864, still as a journalist, and met writers such as [[Bret Harte]] and [[Artemus Ward]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kamiya |first=Gary |date=October 9, 2015 |orig-date=October 9, 2015 |title=How Mark Twain got fired in San Francisco |url=https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/How-Mark-Twain-got-fired-in-San-Francisco-6562309.php |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181212234554/https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/How-Mark-Twain-got-fired-in-San-Francisco-6562309.php |archive-date=December 12, 2018 |access-date=August 22, 2024 |website=The San Francisco Chronicle}}</ref> He may have been romantically involved with the poet [[Ina Coolbrith]].<ref>{{cite book|publisher=The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco|author=Dickson, Samuel|url=http://www.sfmuseum.org/bio/isadora.html|title=Isadora Duncan (1878–1927)|access-date=July 9, 2009|archive-date=June 29, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170629233522/http://www.sfmuseum.org/bio/isadora.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Twain's first success as a writer came when his humorous [[tall tale]] "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" was published on November 18, 1865, in the New York weekly ''[[The Saturday Press (literary newspaper)|The Saturday Press]]'', bringing him national attention. A year later, Twain traveled to the [[Hawaiian Islands|Sandwich Islands]] (present-day Hawaii) as a reporter for the ''[[Sacramento Union]]''. His letters to the ''Union'' were popular and became the basis for his first lectures.<ref name="PBS">{{cite web |title =Samuel Clemens |publisher =PBS:The West |url =https://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/a_c/clemens.htm |access-date =August 25, 2007 |archive-date =September 11, 2007 |archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20070911181827/http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/a_c/clemens.htm |url-status =live }}</ref>

In 1867, local newspapers
''[[The Daily Alta California|The Alta California]]'' and ''[[New-York Tribune]]'' funded Twain's trip to the [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]] aboard the ''Quaker City'', including a tour of Europe and the Middle East. He wrote a collection of travel letters which were later compiled as ''[[The Innocents Abroad]]'' (1869). It was on this trip that Twain met fellow passenger Charles Langdon, who showed him a picture of his sister [[Olivia Langdon Clemens|Olivia]]. Twain later claimed to have [[Love at first sight|fallen in love at first sight]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Gunderman|first1=Richard|title=Mark Twain's adventures in love: How a rough-edged aspiring author courted a beautiful heiress|url=https://theconversation.com/mark-twains-adventures-in-love-how-a-rough-edged-aspiring-author-courted-a-beautiful-heiress-90739|access-date=February 12, 2018|work=[[The Conversation (website)|The Conversation]]|date=February 12, 2018|archive-date=February 12, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180212135805/http://theconversation.com/mark-twains-adventures-in-love-how-a-rough-edged-aspiring-author-courted-a-beautiful-heiress-90739|url-status=live}}</ref>

Upon returning to the United States, Twain was offered honorary membership in [[Yale University]]'s secret society [[Scroll and Key]] in 1868.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EWvU21-vV8EC&pg=PA281|title=Mark Twain's Letters: 1867–1868|author1=Mark Twain |author2=Edgar Marquess Branch |author3=Michael B. Frank |author4=Kenneth M. Sanderson |publisher=University of California Press |year=1990|isbn=978-0520906075}}</ref>