Samuel Clemens was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri. As a young man, he worked variously as a printer, newspaper reporter, riverboat pilot, and soldier. In 1864, Clemens began his writing career in earnest, under the pseudonym Mark Twain
, a term derived from his days as a steamboat pilot. His early writings were humorous accounts of his travels, which were published in newspapers in California and New York.
In 1870, Clemens married and settled in Hartford, Connecticut. He began writing novels, in addition to his ever popular travel stories. Some of his best known books are
Clemens was a prolific writer, in part because of the constant financial stress caused by his bad investments. In any event, Clemens is considered one the most important American novelists. He died in April, 1910.
The famous quote about lies and statistics appears in his Autobiography of Mark Twain, published in 1924.