Mark Twain is the father of the American novel and the author of two all-time classics, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in a small town in Missouri, he led the kind of childhood evoked so vividly in his novels. Andrew Hoffman draws on thousands of original sources to reveal how the tragic early deaths of Clemens's father and siblings left him guilt-ridden throughout his formative years. He examines his turbulent marriage to Olivia Langdon and explores the care with which he crafted Mark Twain. He also describes the profound ambivalence Clemens felt towards his more famous persona. Journalist, lecturer, publisher, businessman and speculaor, as well as an authorand socialite, Samuel Langhorne Clemens was a man of many and conflicting talents. Here Andrew Hoffman peels back the layers to lay bare the essence of one of the world's greatest literary talents.