Great Lives

Mark Twain

1835–1910 · American humorist and novelist, author of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Writers & Poets19th Century

Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, born in 1835 in Florida, Missouri. When he was four his family moved to Hannibal, a town on the Mississippi River that later became the model for St. Petersburg in his novels. His father died when he was eleven, and he left school to work as a printer's apprentice. In 1857 he began training as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi, a job he loved until the Civil War stopped river traffic. He went west to Nevada and California, where he worked as a miner and a newspaper reporter and first used the name Mark Twain, a riverboat term for water two fathoms deep. His story 'The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County' (1865) made him famous, and The Innocents Abroad (1869) described a trip to Europe and the Holy Land. In 1870 he married Olivia Langdon. His books include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), The Prince and the Pauper (1881), Life on the Mississippi (1883) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). He died in Redding, Connecticut, in 1910.

Mark Twain is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: A Presbyterian. Source: Wikipedia

Mark Twain by Unknown authorUnknown author (Copyright 1907)
Mark Twain by Unknown authorUnknown author (Copyright 1907) Source · Public domain

Key dates

  • 1835 Born in Florida, Missouri
  • 1859 Licensed as a steamboat pilot
  • 1865 The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
  • 1870 Marries Olivia Langdon
  • 1876 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer published
  • 1884 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn published
  • 1910 Dies in Redding, Connecticut

See where they lived

Official museums and historic homes we don’t run. Follow each site’s link for learning resources and current visiting information.

  • Mark Twain built his Hartford, Connecticut house in the 1870s and wrote major works there, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The Mark Twain House & Museum offers education programs for students and teachers. (His childhood home was in Missouri.)

    Mark Twain House & Museum — education

Fun facts

  • His pen name came from his days as a Mississippi riverboat pilot: 'mark twain' was the call for water two fathoms (12 feet) deep, safe for a steamboat. (Source: Mark Twain (Wikipedia))
  • Tom Sawyer was modelled on Twain himself as a boy. (Source: Mark Twain (Wikipedia))

Watch

  • Biography Mark Twain: His Amazing Adventures | Full Documentary | Biography. Biography. Watch on YouTube

  • Biography Mark Twain: Father of American Literature - Fast Facts | History. HISTORY. Watch on YouTube

Videos load from YouTube in privacy-enhanced mode only when you press play.

Read about them

Grades 3–5

Grades 6–8

Grades 9–12

More lives

Edwin A. Abbott · Jane Addams · Louisa May Alcott · Hans Christian Andersen · Jane Austen · Honoré de Balzac