Monday, November 30, 2009

A great American writer


Mark Twain (born Samuel Langhorne Clemens) was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri. At the age of 12 he began working at a local newspaper as a printer's apprentice; for the next decade he worked as a printer throughout the country, until a trip down the Mississippi river caused him to change paths and become a steamboat pilot. His childhood in the South and his experiences working on the river served as the foundation for many of his later essays and works of fiction. His most famous book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, has been hailed as one of the Great American Novels, lauded for its piercingly accurate depictions of the South during slavery. Why not celebrate Twain's contributions to American literature by checking out one of his many books on your next trip to the library? Or, if you'd like to learn more about the man himself, try Mark Twain: A Life by Ron Powers.

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