The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain is the penname for Samuel Langhorne Clemens, a man born in Missouri in 1835.  Growing up with books, Clemens loved to read, soon entering the publishing business himself.  He began by writing for a small-town paper he and his older brother ran. Later, he traveled to New York, lived there for awhile, but then moved west again, taking up steamboat navigating and learning the quintessential American traditions of frontier individualism.  When the Civil War came, he briefly joined the Confederate side, but circumstances persuaded him to resign his position and find work elsewhere.  His career as a journalist, novelist, and even humorist continued to develop during this time, and his writing became increasingly read throughout the United States.  After becoming quite famous, he married Olivia Langdon, the sister of an acquaintance.  She worked as his editor.  He died in April of 1910, having become one of the best known and most loved American writers/philosophers of all time.  Twain would be best remembered for his two classic novels- Tom Sawyerand the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.