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A onetime printer and Mississippi River boat pilot, became one of America's greatest authors. His 'Tom Sawyer', 'Huckleberry Finn', and 'Life on the Mississippi' rank high on any list of great American books. (Compton's Concise Encyclopedia) was born Samuel Lang ....

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.... a writer. In 1857 he apprenticed himself to a riverboat pilot. He became a licensed pilot and spent two and a half years at his new trade. The river swarmed with traffic, and the pilot was the most important man aboard the boat. He wrote of these years in 'Life on the Mississippi'. The Civil War ended his career as a pilot. Clemens went west to Nevada and soon became a reporter on the Virginia City newspaper. Here he began using the pen name . It is an old river term meaning two fathoms, or 12 feet (4 meters), of water depth. In 1864 he went to California. The next year he wrote his 'Jumping Frog' story, which ran in many newspapers. He was sent to th ....