Writer of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn Samuel Langhorn Clemens ("Mark Twain") died painlessly at 6:30 tonight of angina... "Give me my glasses." These were his last words.

Ernest Hemingway called Huckleberry Finn “the best book we’ve ever had.” There was nothing before. There’s been nothing as good since. Mark Twain makes possible an American Literature which would other wise not have been possible.