Mark Twain（1835一1910），pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens. was an American humorist，satirist，lecturer and writer，He was born in Florida，Missouri.His father was a country merchant。When Twain was four，his family moved to Hannibal，a port town on the Mississippi River that would serve as the inspiration for the fictional town of St；Petersburg in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer（1876）and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn（1885），the two novels for which Twain is most noted，Twain enjoyed immense public popularity.He introduced colloquial speech into American fiction and changed American literature forever.His colloqial style，keen wit and sharp satire earned him praise from both critics and peers.He described uniquely American subjects in a humorous and colloquial，yet poetic，language.William Faulkner called Twain“the father of American literature” Hemingway remarked，“All modern American.an literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn”
Twain did not receive much formal education.He was 12 when his father died a bankrupt man He was forced to leave school and was apprenticed to a printer.This trade gave him a useful education because his work required him to travel a lot and that he could have access to many good books printed in the print shop.At the age of 21，he apprenticed himself as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi He may have taken his pen name from the cry of the steamboat leadsmen.
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