Mark Twain (1835–1910) was born in Missouri. When he was 4, his family moved to Hannibal, on the Mississippi. His childhood there inspired his novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyerand its sequel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

At 11, Twain left school to become a printer. He worked as a steamboat pilot, a miner, and a journalist, before he became a novelist.

In 1887, Twain took a train from his Connecticut home to meet Scottish writer Robert Louis Stevenson in New York City. Stevenson was there for special tuberculosis treatment. They chatted in Washington Square about being famous.