05/20/2026
/ Mark Twain /
"If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man."
"Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced", and William Faulkner called him "the father of American literature". His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the latter of which has often been called the "Great American Novel". Twain also wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court and Pudd'nhead Wilson. Twain was raised in Hannibal, Missouri, which later provided the setting for Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He served an apprenticeship with a printer and then worked as a typesetter, contributing articles to the newspaper of his older brother Orion Clemens. He later became a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River before heading west to join Orion in Nevada."
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Born: Samuel Langhorne Clemens, November 30, 1835, Florida, Missouri, U.S.
Died: April 21, 1910, Stormfield House, Redding, Connecticut, U.S.
Pen name: Mark Twain, Josh, Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass
Occupation: Writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, lecturer
Mark Twain, Pudd'nhead Wilson
