Mark Twain

Who is Mark Twain?

Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, born in Florida, Missouri, and raised in the Mississippi River town of Hannibal, which shaped much of his fiction. Before becoming a writer he worked as a printer, a riverboat pilot, and a journalist in the American West. His novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885) are landmarks of American literature, celebrated for their vernacular voice, humor, and unsparing look at slavery and society along the Mississippi. Ernest Hemingway called Huckleberry Finn the source of all modern American literature. Twain was also a popular lecturer and satirist whose sharp wit and social criticism made him a national figure. Despite financial troubles late in life, he remained one of America's most beloved and quoted authors, blending comedy with serious moral reflection.

Sources: Mark Twain, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885) · Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) · Ron Powers, Mark Twain: A Life (2005)