He got out his worldly wealth and examined it — bits of toys, marble, and trash; enough to buy an exchange of work maybe, but not enough to buy as much as half an hour of pure freedom". One of those most irrepressible and exuberant characters in the history of literature, Tom Sawyer explodes onto the page in a whirl of bad behavior and incredible adventures. Whether he is heaving clods of earth at his brother, faking a gangrenous toe, or trying to convince the world that he is dead, Tom's infectious energy and good-humor shine through. The Adventures of Tom sawyer is Mark Twain's joyful and nostalgic recollection of tall tales from his own boyhood by the Mississippi some "thirty or forty years ago". It was an instant success on its first publication in 1876, and has continued to delight children of all ages ever since. Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born in Missouri in 1835, the son of a lawyer. Early in his childhood, the family moved to Hannibal, Missouri — a town which would provide the inspiration for St. Petersburg in Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. After a period spent as a traveling printer, Clemens became a river pilot on the Mississippi; a time he would look back upon as his happiest. When he turned to writing in his thirties, he adopted the pseudonym Mark Twain ("Mark Twain" is the cry of a Mississippi boatman taking dept measurements, and means "two fathoms"), and a number of highly successful publications...
