Not only was Samuel Clemens revered during his lifetime as an author, humorist, lecturer, and satirist, but later has been cited as a major influence in 20th -century American fiction by such as Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner. Raised in Hannibal, MO, he worked for brief periods as a printer in Cincinnati, New York, Philadelphia, and St. Louis.

During an 1857 visit to New Orleans, he learned to be a steamboat pilot. He continued as a pilot through the beginning of the Civil War, when the river was closed. He traveled widely from the 1860s onward, holding jobs in all parts of the nation. Clemens turned from journalism to serious literature in 1871, after which was produced such works as Tom Sawyer, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, and the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.