Mark Twain was born in Hannibal, Missouri on November 30, 1835. Mark Twain, however, was only his pen name; his actual name was Samuel Langhorne. Growing up, he lived on a port along the Mississippi River. As a kid and teenager, he worked on boats and also spent a lot of time around railroads and working on them as well. Growing up in Missouri, Twain saw lots of slavery and hypocrisy of religion. These 2 themes would later influence much of his writings. As Twain grew older, he enjoyed technology and inventions. He wrote many famous novels including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. As he aged, he experienced a period of deep depression when his daughter died. He died of a heart attack on April 21, 1910.