Mark Twain, the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, is one of America’s most celebrated and revered authors. While typically thought of as a humorist, Twain was also deeply concerned with social issues, class inequality, the hypocrisy of governments and religion, and humanity’s capacity for cruelty. In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Twain writes about St. Petersburg and Tom as if he knew both of them. Twain grew up along the Mississippi River in Hannibal, Missouri, and much of his writing reflects this sensibility, from his values to his adroit use of various dialects.

Twain wrote constantly, which was made easier by his keen powers of observation. He recorded nearly everything he saw, both for his own amusement and for possible use in future pieces of writing. Twain was a great lover of tall tales. His travelogues, Roughing It and The Innocents Abroad, describe, respectively, his journey west during the American expansion and his tour abroad in various European countries. Everywhere he went, he found children embellishing the stories they told. However, this inspiration wasn’t limited to his youthful characters. His adult characters are just as given to exaggeration and tall tales.

Twain favored a deadpan sense of humor that would often befuddle early readers unaccustomed to

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