Mark Twain

Samuel Clemens, whom we know as Mark Twain, wasn’t just any other writer. He was a journalist, a lecturer, an inventor, and an entrepreneur, and more importantly, he was a riverboat pilot. There’s only much one can learn in a lifetime, but Twain’s sense of wanderlust is also apparent in his major classics such as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain’s boyhood experiences fueled his writing. He often alluded to the violence he often witnessed as a boy to scenes in both his major novels. Before he started writing, Twain fulfilled his childhood dream of piloting a steamboat, a job that would provide him stability. However, a Civil War arose, which impeded civilian traffic on the river. Due to the looming uncertainty, he headed west and worked for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise as a reporter, which was the job that gassed up Twain’s writing prowess.

Twain’s final resting place was in Woodlawn cemetery. He was buried among US veterans and congressmen. His gravestone is quite simple; visitors would often leave pennies and cigarettes, the few pleasures he was accustomed to.