Remembering Mark Twain, the author who gave us Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, on his 183rd birthday

Samuel Langhorn Clemens, better known as Mark Twain — the pseudonym that the American humourist, journalist and novelist had adopted — weaved into his writings his childhood memories of growing up along the banks of the Mississippi, enticing young and old for decades with his utterly amusing narratives. [caption id=“attachment_5640301” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  30 November, 2018 marks the 183rd birthday of the American journalist, author and columnist Mark Twain. Image via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] Hugely popular for his novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and those of Sawyer’s best friend (Adventures of Huckleberry Finn), Twain was born on 30 November, 1835, in Florida, Missouri and this day marks the author’s 183rd birth anniversary. In both these young boys and their antics, Twain put in a lot of his own childhood that was largely spent in the Mississippi River port town of Hannibal. A lot of his mischief, largely attributed to an indulgent mother whilst he lived in Florida, also found its way into the character of Tom Sawyer. Twain worked as a labourer for most of his youth and it was only after he was well into his thirties that he travelled extensively through America. He also served as a riverboat pilot and occasionally published articles and comical sketches in his brother’s newspaper, Muscatine Journal. During his time on the riverboat, he recalled envying his senior pilot Isaiah Sellers’ pen name, Mark Twain. Twain’s first travel narrative, The Innocents Abroad, published in 1869, was well received, and was followed by yet another work, Roughing It (1872). Twain is also known for some of his other witty writings such as The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and Other Stories, The Prince and the Pauper and The Gilded Age. Clemens was born a few days after an appearance of Halley’s Comet and he predicted that he would leave the world with it as well. True to his foresight, Twain died on 21 April at Redding, Conneticut a day after Halley’s Comet flashed through the sky.