Samuel Langhorne Clemens, also known as Mark Twain, was a world-famous novelist whose works are still read and praised. Twain was a famous American writer who wrote about his personal experience of the world and his surroundings. In Twain's memorable life he was a Confederate soldier, a printer, a prospector, a businessman, a riverboat pilot, and above all he was a natural, self-taught, and entertaining writer. His literary works are known for their realistic details, humor and characters. Mark Twain is not only famous for his writings, but his accomplishments, family life, and greatest hits are what made him the famous writer known today. Mark Twain was born on November 30, 1835 in a small town called Florida, Missouri. He was the sixth of seven children of his father, John Marshall and mother Jane Lampton Clemens and only three of his siblings would survive to adulthood. At the age of four, Mark moved to Hannibal, Missouri, a port city near the Mississippi River, in hopes of finding better living conditions. Hannibal was made up of slaveholding families who provided a mix of Southern tradition and frontier life, a lifestyle that would later influence Twain's writings, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. In his youth, Mark was very mischievous, just like his character Tom Sawyer, Mark spent his childhood with a gang of boys, who would participate in mischief. Mark, being accustomed to life on a river, became interested in becoming a steamboat pilot. Mark's studies ended at the young age of twelve because his father died. After Mark's father John died in 1847, the family experienced great financial difficulties. To help his family through this economic upheaval he became a printer's apprentice and worked... in the medium of paper......ion for over thirty years, books, short stories and essays. Mark Twain died of a heart attack on April 21, 1910, and remains one of, if not the, greatest and most influential American authors of all time. Mark Twain's writings remain in libraries, on shelves, and in the minds of people around the world. Mark captured the American spirit with humor, through personal experience, and wrote about topics that the average person could identify with. During the long life of this incredible author, he experienced many things and worked in many different professions. Mark Twain worked as a printer's apprentice, gold prospector, Confederate soldier, riverboat pilot, orator, businessman, and, of course, arguably the greatest American writer of all time. Mark Twain also left an everlasting influence on the hundreds of thousands of people around the world who read his works.