Birth of Mark Twain

Mark Twain was born on 30 November 1835 in Florida. An American author and humorist, Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Clemens, who grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, and worked as a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi before turning to writing. His novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn drew on that world, and the latter is often called the Great American Novel for its use of vernacular speech and its treatment of race and freedom. He also wrote travel books, essays and satires, and was a popular lecturer. After business failures he went into bankruptcy, but paid his debts. He was born and died in years when Halley's Comet was visible.

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