Samuel Langhorne Clemens November 30 1835 April 21 1910 known by his pen name Mark Twain was an American writer humorist entrepreneur publisher and lecturer He was lauded as the quotgreatest humorist the United States has producedquot and William Faulkner called him quotthe father of American literaturequot His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 1876 and its sequel the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 1884 the latter often called quotThe Great American Novelquot Twain was raised in Hannibal Missouri which later provided the setting for Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn He served an apprenticeship with a printer and then worked as a typesetter contributing articles to the newspaper of his older brother Orion Clemens