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Mark Twain, pseudonym of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, described himself as southern writer. And he is credited with introducing America’s South all around the world.  Born on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri, his family moved to Hannibal, Missouri, a rural town along the Mississippi when he was four years old.  During his youth, Clemens developed strong ties to the Mississippi River, as steamboats stopped in Hannibal up to three times a day.

In 1848, a year after his father’s death, he was an apprentice to a local printer, who published the Missouri Courier. By the age of 16, in 1851, Clemens wrote his first published sketches for the Hannibal Western Union. One year later his sketches were published in Philadelphia’s Saturday Evening Post.  At eighteen, he left Missouri to travel the world and write about everything he experienced.

Under the pen name Mark Twain, he was a writer, journalist and humorist.  He won an international audience for his travelogue, Innocents Abroad, and his fictional adventures of Tom Sawyer and  Huckleberry Finn.   Some of his other great works, include The Tragedy of Puddin’ Head Wilson, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaverus County is still considered one of the best short stories every written.

Twain’s success gave him the financial security he needed to marry Olivia Langdon, a native upstate New Yorker.  They settled down in Connecticut  while he continued to lecture in the United States and England.  Between 1876 and 1884 he published several masterpieces including the aforementioned Tom Sawyer (1881) and Huckleberry Finn in 1884, as well as The Prince and the Pauper (1881). Life on the Mississippi (1883).

After the death of Olivia, Twain’s health began deteriorating. This was a dark time in his life as his autobiography, published posthumously reflects.  In April of 1910, at the age of 74, Mark Twain died in his bed.  A  large funeral procession was held in New York City, and a service was held at the Presbyterian Brick Church.  He was buried alongside his wife and children at Woodlawn Cemetery, in Elmira, New York.

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