Mark Twain 1835 – 1910

Biography

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known as Mark Twain, was born in Florida, Missouri, and grew up in Hannibal, a river town that became the setting for his greatest fiction. After working as a printer and a Mississippi riverboat pilot, he turned to journalism and then to literature, winning fame with The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn made him the defining voice of American humor and conscience, praised for their vernacular speech and their attack on slavery and hypocrisy. He toured the world as a lecturer, lost a fortune in business ventures, and kept writing until his later years turned darker and more satirical. He died in Redding, Connecticut, in 1910, and is remembered as the father of American literature. His autobiography, published a century after his death, confirmed his standing as America’s sharpest critic of empire, greed, and human folly.