A True Story

Content Warning: This section references racism, enslavement, and white supremacist organizations.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, commonly known by his pen name Mark Twain, was born in Florida, Missouri, on November 30, 1835. After early jobs in printing, mining, typesetting, and riverboat piloting, Twain started his career in writing in 1863 for the Virginia Daily Union. His early writing was characterized by light, humorous work that quickly gained him popularity. His first published work, “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” earned him jobs writing travel letters and travel correspondence across America. This early travel literature was often humorous and poked fun at American traditions, society, and romanticism. In 1874, Twain published “A True Story, Word for Word as I Heard It” in the Atlantic Monthly. The short story featured his now well-established light tone but also prefigured his later complex looks at America, the South, and racism. The figure of Aunt Rachel was based on a real woman named Mary Ann Cord, though it is impossible to know whether Twain did in fact record her story in her own words.

In 1876, Mark Twain published one of his most famous works, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which tells the story of a boy living on the Mississippi River.