Publisher's Synopsis
Mark Twain was an American artist, humorist, entrepreneur, editor, and lecturer who used the pen name Samuel Langhorne. He was dubbed "the father of American literature" by William Faulkner and hailed as "the best humorist the United States has made." His works include Tom Sawyer's Adventures (1876) and Huckleberry Finn's Adventures (1884), the latter dubbed "The Great American Novel."Twain grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, the setting for Tom Sawyer's and Huckleberry Finn's novels. He worked as a typesetter and contributed stories to his older brother Orion Clemens' newspaper after serving an apprenticeship with a printer. Later, he became a Mississippi River riverboat pilot before going west to Nevada to join Orion. He joked about his lack of success in mining and how he ended up working for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise as a reporter. "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County," a satirical tale based on a story he learned at Angels Hotel in Angels Camp, California, where he worked as a miner, was published in 1865. The short story was well-received all over the world, and it was also translated into French. He was a friend to politicians, writers, industrialists, and European royalty, and his humor and satire in prose and expression won him acclaim from critics and peers.
