Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) Born

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, popularly known as Mark Twain, was born November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri and spent his childhood in nearby Hannibal.

Twain is best known for the novels set in his boyhood world beside the Mississippi River, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and his masterpiece, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884).

As a young man, Clemens worked as a typesetter for his brother Orion's newspaper before following his dream of navigating the Mississippi on paddle wheel steamboats. He piloted boats for three years until the outbreak of the Civil War stopped river traffic in 1861.

Source: Library of Congress Added by: Aimee Lucido

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), better known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American author and humorist. Twain is most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has since been called the Great American Novel, and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. He is extensively quoted. During his lifetime, Twain became a friend to presidents, artists, industrialists, and European royalty.

Twain enjoyed immense public popularity. His keen wit and incisive satire earned him praise from both critics and peers. William Faulkner called Twain "the father of American literature".

Source: Wikipedia Added by: Aimee Lucido
“

Yes, take it all around, there is quite a good deal of information in the book. I regret this very much; but really it could not be helped: information appears to stew out of me naturally, like the precious ottar of roses out of the otter. Sometimes it has seemed to me that I would give worlds if I could retain my facts; but it cannot be. The more I calk up the sources, and the tighter I get, the more I leak wisdom. Therefore, I can only claim indulgence at the hands of the reader, not justification.”

— Prefatory to Mark Twain's Roughing It
Source: Library of Congress Added by: Aimee Lucido