Best known as Mark Twain, Samuel Clemens was born 30 November 1835 and raised in Hannibal, Missouri. There he absorbed many of the influences that would inform his most lasting contributions to American literature. During his youth, he delighted in the rowdy play of boys on the river and became exposed to the institution of slavery. He began to work as a typesetter for a number of Hannibal newspapers at the age of twelve. In the late 1850s, he became a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River. This job taught him the dangers of navigating the river at night and gave him a firsthand understanding of the river's beauty and perils. These would later be depicted in the books Life on the Mississippi and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

After a brief stint as a soldier in the Confederate militia, Clemens went out west, where he worked as...