Often called the father of American literature, a noted American humorist and author, Mark Twain was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri. His birth name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. He was born, the sixth child of seven children, to John Marshall Clemens and Jane Lampton. On the night of his birth, the sky was filled with the light of Haley's Comet, a comet that Twain had predicted would return at the time of his death. Just as he predicted, on April 21, 1910, Haley's Comet still filled the sky (bio.com). When he was four years old, he and his family moved to the much larger town of Hannibal, Missouri, where Twain would spend the rest of his childhood. The Clemens family “became nearly destitute” in 1847, when Twain's father died, forcing his mother to become the breadwinner. Although life had become financially difficult for Twain and his family, Hannibal was a pleasant enough place to grow up. Many of his stories, such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, are based on the same adventures he and his childhood friends experienced (bio.com). After serving in a series of jobs, in July 1861, Twain headed west to Nevada and California where he would finally begin something of a writing career. After moving to Virginia City, Nevada, he began working as a reporter for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise. He covered the entire spectrum of the newspaper, from news to editorials and sketches. Around this time he adopted the pseudonym "Mark Twain", slang for 12 feet of water (which would have been a sigh of relief to steamboat captains, as it meant it was finally safe to travel safely along the water). Twain had become the West's most famous storyteller, and, by... middle of paper... a)”. Although Twain uses the word crazy, this word can be exchanged for hindered from the truth when referring to man's refusal to change. Blindness due to the illusion of an "author of the world", or God, is confused by man with happiness; therefore, he will be more reluctant to change when faced with the truth. Works Cited by Eby, EH "Mark Twain's Testament." Modern Language Quarterly 23.3 (1962): 254. "Biography of Mark Twain." Bio.com A&E Networks Television and Web. March 6, 2014. Reale, Derek Parker. “Terrible dreams of creative power. Question no. 44. Studies in the Novel 31.1 (1999): 44.Simmons, Ryan. “Who cares who wrote “The Mysterious Stranger”?” College Literature 37.2(2010): 125-146.Twain, Mark. The mysterious stranger and other stories. New York: Harper & Bros., 1922. Print