Mark Twain *

a.k.a. Samuel Langhorne Clemens

Author Code: AMTX

Twain spent his youth on the shores of the Mississippi, first as a printer's apprentice, then as a pilot on the river. He became a newspaper correspondent in 1862 in Nevada. It was then he adopted the pseudonym Twain, which was based on the leadsman's call on the Mississippi. His first important piece was Jim Smiley and his Jumping Frog in 1865, which gave him recognition as a writer. He cruised the Mediterranean in 1867, which resulted in his popular Innocents Abroad in 1869. In 1872 he published Roughing It, which told the story of his life in Nevada. He settled in Hartford, Connecticut in 1870 and over the next twenty years published The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), A Tramp Abroad (1880), The Prince and the Pauper (1882), Life on the Mississippi (1883), The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), considered his masterpiece, and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889). His poor business decisions left him in debt and in 1890 he moved his family to Europe where he published The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894) and Personal Recollection of Joan of Arc (1895). He returned to the US in 1900 and became a star on the lecture circuit for many years.