Mark Twain Mark Twain Mark Twain (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), real name Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. Among his novels are "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (1876) and its sequel, the "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (1885), the latter often called "The Great American Novel". Twain was raised in Hannibal, Missouri, which later provided the setting for "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn". He served an apprenticeship with a printer and then worked as a typesetter, contributing articles to the newspaper of his older brother Orion Clemens. He later became a riverboat pilot on
Mark Twain in Nevada stories in the "Mercury" in 1864, and due to his encouragement Twain would later send his story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" to New York in 1865 where it would become a national success.) Despite Ward's early death in March 1867, "The Mark Twain Encyclopedia" states: "His style, manner, and mantle…[were] adopted by others, including especially Mark Twain. ...the attitudes and persona of Ward were influential on Twain's literary comedy in both general and specific ways." In January 1864, Twain began covering another legislative session in Carson City. Thanks in part to his familial political connections, Twain's political