Mark Twain's childhood portrayal The Adventures of Tom Sawyer [1876] is among the most beloved American novels of all time. Tom Sawyer is reputed to be a mischief-maker. He lives with his aunt Polly in the deeply religious small town of Saint Petersburg, but when they go to church, he prefers to amuse himself by agitating a beetle rather than listening to the sermon. The summer depicted in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is spent on pranks and youthful adventures, often with his friend Huckleberry Finn, who is »cordially hated and dreaded by all the mothers of the town.« MARK TWAIN [1835-1910] was an American author raised in Missouri, which also serves as the setting for several of his novels. He is most renowned for the timeless depictions of childhood in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer [1876] and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn [1884]. Twain's literary legacy is deeply intertwined with the American identity, with William Faulkner considering him the father of American literature, and Ernest Hemingway stating, »All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn.«