MARK TWAIN was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens at Florida, Missouri, in 1835 and died at Redding, Connecticut, in 1910. The various occupations in which he was engaged included that of printer, journalist, magazine editor, travel-writer and of course, Mississippi riverboat pilot, (hence his pseudonym, taken from the navigational practice of lowering a plumb-line and marking off the depth in fathoms, i.e 'Mark twain' meaning two fathoms, twelve feet, safe water.
He made fortunes from his writings, but later became bankrupt and went on a round-the-world lecture tour in order to pay off his creditors.