Mark Twain

Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, the American humorist and novelist often called the father of American literature. A former riverboat pilot and journalist, he drew on the Mississippi Valley of his boyhood to write The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the latter widely regarded as a cornerstone of the American canon. His wit ranged from boyish adventure to biting social satire, skewering hypocrisy, racism, and greed, and he remained one of the country’s most quoted writers long after his death in 1910.