Mark Twain

Mark Twain, whose real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was born in 1835 in Florida, Missouri, and died in 1910 in Redding, Connecticut. The American author and humorist grew up in Hannibal on the Mississippi. He initially worked as a printer and journalist, later becoming a Mississippi riverboat pilot and a reporter in the American West. His pen name came from his time on the river: “mark twain” was a call indicating sufficient water depth for navigation. Twain gained international attention with the humorous story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County.” His best-known works include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Life on the Mississippi, and A Tramp Abroad. He was regarded as one of the major American authors of the nineteenth century.