Samuel Langhorne Clemens (aka Mark Twain) is one of the most beloved of all American writers, known best, probably, for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, embodying his boyhood memories of life in Missouri. Capturing the letter and the spirit of an age and time, he has given us with countless hours of enjoyment, education and entertainment through memorable characterizations and consummate humor. Always involved in writing of some sort, Samuel also spent time as a river boat pilot on the mighty Mississippi, which gave him the opportunity to observe a multitude of characters, and also provided him with his pen name, “Mark Twain†– “two fathoms deep†in river-speak. His long career(s) included novel-writing, travel-writing, journalism and lecturing, the proceeds from which helped to offset his losses in business endeavors. He was happily married to Olivia Langdon, but that happiness was also darkened by the death of a baby son in 1872, the death of one of his three adult daughters in 1896, followed by the death of his wife in 1904 and a second daughter in 1909. He himself died in 1910 at the age of 74, but he is truly made immortal through his writings, and in them, for his gentle insistence upon the essential purity of human nature.
