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Mark Twain is the pseudonym of Samuel Langhorn Clemens (born 1835, died 1910), a famous and popular humorist and author of a series of fictional books involving Tom Sawyer. His classics Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are widely read in schools across the U.S., as well as in many other western countries.

Twain began as a writer of light humorous verse; he ended as a grim, almost profane chronicler of the vanities, hypocrisies and killing of men. At mid-career, with "Huckleberry Finn," he combined rich humor, sturdy narrative and social criticism in a way almost unrivaled in world literature.

Twain was a master at rendering colloquial speech, and helped to create and popularize a distinctive American literature, built on American themes and language.

The name "Mark Twain" is a pun reference to a riverboat depth measurement. He also used the pseudonym "Sieur Louis de Conte" for his fictional autobiography of Joan of Arc.

In recent years, there have been attempts to ban the book from various libraries, because Twain's use of local color offends some people. His family suppressed an especially irreverent work, Letters from the Earth until recently.

Mark Twain says, "A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain."

Additional Works Include:

The $30,000 Bequest (fiction): http://selfknowledge.com/beqst11.htm
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (fiction): http://selfknowledge.com/hfinn10.htm
Adventures of Tom Sawyer (fiction): http://selfknowledge.com/sawyr10.htm
Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven (fiction): http://selfknowledge.com/cptsf10.htm
A Connecticut Yankee (fiction): http://selfknowledge.com/yanke11.htm
A Horse's Tale (fiction): http://selfknowledge.com/hrstl10.htm
Life on the Mississippi (fiction): http://selfknowledge.com/lmiss11.htm
Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg (fiction): http://selfknowledge.com/hdlyb10.htm
Pudd'n'head Wilson (fiction): http://selfknowledge.com/puddn10.htm
Tom Sawyer Abroad (fiction): http://selfknowledge.com/sawy210.htm
Tom Sawyer Detective (fiction): http://selfknowledge.com/sawy311.htm
A Tramp Abroad (fiction): http://selfknowledge.com/tramp11.htm
What Is Man? (essay): http://selfknowledge.com/wman10.htm