Mark Twain's real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. He was born on 30 November 1835, in Florida, Missouri. Twain worked first as a printer and then as a pilot on Mississippi steamboats. The name Mark Twain is a phrase used on riverboats to indicate that the water is two fathoms deep. Twain later worked as a prospector, a journalist and a publisher.

Twain wrote many books but his most famous works are The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885). He is also well known as the author of The Prince and the Pauper (1882) and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889).

Twain moved around a great deal during his life and lived in Europe for some years. He finally settled near Redding in Connecticut where he died on 21 April 1910.