Part one of term paper
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 Langhorne Clemens on Nov. 30, 1835, in the small town of Florida, Mo. (Compton's) H ...

Part two of term paper
... his father; Aunt Polly, his mother; Sid Sawyer, his brother Henry; Huck Finn, a town boy named Tom Blankenship; and Tom Sawyer, a combination of several boys including himself. His father died when he was 12, and the boy was apprenticed to a printer. An apprentice works for someone in order to learn a trade. This was the first step toward his career as 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 r ...