MARK TWAIN  

Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in 1835 in Florida, Missouri, though he moved to the Mississippi River town of Hannibal when he was four. He served in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, but by 1863 he was writing regularly, and had adopted the name of Mark Twain. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was published in 1874, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn ten years later. Among his other best-known novels is The Prince and the Pauper (1872).

He had a difficult life, with both his wife and two daughters dying from illness; and an unfortunate business venture driving him into bankruptcy. This introduced a darker note into his works. But he was recognised in his lifetime as a principal American literary figure. Mark Twain died in 1910.