Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Mark Twain, born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in 1835, left school at age 12. His career encompassed such varied occupations as printer, Mississippi riverboat pilot, journalist, travel writer, and publisher, which furnished him with a wide knowledge of humanity and the perfect grasp of local customs and speech manifested in his writing. It wasn't until The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885), that he was recognized by the literary establishment as one of the greatest writers America would ever produce. Toward the end of his life, plagued by personal tragedy and financial failure, Twain grew more and more cynical and pessimistic. Though his fame continued to widen--Yale and Oxford awarded him honorary degrees--he spent his last years in gloom and desperation, but he lives on in American letters as "the Lincoln of our literature."

• ContentsIntroductionTom Plays, Fights, and Hides The Glorious Whitewasher Busy at War and Love Showing Off in Sunday School The Pinch Bug and His Prey Tom Meets Becky Tick-Running and a Heartbreak A Pirate Bold to Be Tragedy in the Graveyard Dire Prophecy of the Howling Dog Conscience Racks Tom The Cat and the Painkiller The Pirate Crew Set Sail Happy Camp of the Freebooters Tom's Stealthy Visit Home First Pipes -- "I've Lost My Knife" Pirates at Their Own Funeral Tom Reveals His Dream Secret The Cruelty of "I Didn't Think" Tom Takes Becky's Punishment Eloquence -- and the Master's Gilded Dome Huck Finn Quotes Scripture The Salvation of Muff Potter Splendid Days and Fearsome Nights Seeking the Buried Treasure Real Robbers Seize the Box of Gold Trembling on the Trail In the Lair of Injun Joe Huck Saves the Widow Tom and Becky in the Cave Found and Lost Again "Turn Out! They're Found!" The Fate of Injun Joe Floods of Gold Respectable Huck Joins the GangLiterary Allusions and NotesCritical ExcerptsMark Twain on The Adventures of Tom SawyerSuggestions for Further Reading