Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, born in Missouri in 1835. He was a typesetter, a river-boat pilot on the Mississippi and a gold prospector before achieving enormous fame as a writer and public speaker.
On his death in 1910 President William Howard Taft said of him:
"Mark Twain gave pleasure - real intellectual enjoyment - to millions, and his works will continue to give such pleasure to millions yet to come. . . His humour was American, but he was nearly as much appreciated by Englishmen and people of other countries as by his own countrymen. He has made an enduring part of American literature."
