Mark Twain, whose real name was Samuel Clemens, has frequently been called the most American of all our writers. Certainly he lived through some stirring days in the history of our country.

Growing up in Hannibal, Missouri, on the banks of the Mississippi River, he knew as a boy all the life of that great river. As a young man he piloted a steamboat between St. Louis and New Orleans during the busiest days of river traffic. When the Civil War put an end to that career, he joined the gold rush to Nevada, where he spent six years as a prospector and newspaper reporter in the pioneer west.

His best-known books all show how deeply he loved and understood American life. Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn tell directly about this boyhood in the pioneer state of Missouri. Life on the Mississippi paints the glory of the old river days. Roughing It describes his life in the west. When Mark Twain was born there were only two states in the Union west of the Mississippi. He lived to see the country stretch from the Atlantic to the Pacific.

Even his travel books breathe the American spirit. Much of the flavor of The Innocents Abroad comes from the fact that it describes a typical American, seeing the sights of Europe and Asia for the first time. The man himself never lost his native, homespun quality after years of literary success.

The fact that he grew up in a poverty-stricken home, and had little schooling, was in his case almost an advantage. No boy from a sheltered home could have seen and done the things he did. Few men have ever been more warmly human. Feted and honored by thousands, he remained to the end of his days a simple, mighty in rage and in laughter—a true American.

From the dust jacket