Mark Twain works are enjoyed worldwide. His real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens and he was born the 30th of November 1835, in the village of Florida, Monroe County, Missouri. After his father's death in 1847, Twain was apprenticed to a printer and wrote for his brother's newspaper. Later, Twain worked as a licensed Mississippi riverboat pilot, adopting his name from the call ('Mark twain!' - meaning by the mark of two fathoms) used when sounding river shallows. After the Civil War brought an end to the steamboat traffic, Clemens moved to Virginia City. On February 3, 1863, 'Mark Twain' was born when he signed a humorous travel account with his new name.

In 1864 Twain went to San Francisco to work as a reporter. He traveled in France and Italy and his experiences were recorded in 1869 in THE INNOCENTS ABROAD, which brought him wide popularity, and made fun at both American and European prejudices and manners.

In 1870 he married Olivia Langdon. Together they relocated to Hartford a year later. Meanwhile, Twain continued to lecture in the United States and England. Between 1876 and 1884 he published several masterpieces, including Tom Sawyer, the Prince and the Pauper, Life on the Mississippi, and Huckleberry Finn.

In the 1890s Twain lost most of his earnings in financial speculations and in the downhill of his own publishing firm. The death of his wife and his second daughter brough a sense of gloom in the author's later years, which is seen in writings and his autobiography. Twain died on April 21, 1910.

"When in doubt, tell the truth."