Mark TwainThe complex and fascinating life of "the Father of American Literature" (William Faulkner), as told by a Pulitzer prize winning biographer. Born in 1835, the man who would become America's first, and most influential, literary celebrity spent his childhood dreaming of piloting steamboats on the Mississippi. However, when the Civil War interrupted his career on the river, the young Mark Twain went west and accepted a job at the local newspaper, writing