The life of author Mark Twain, born Samuel Langhorn Clemens, is profiled in this live-action biography. Many of Twain's characters and plots were derived from his boyhood along the Mississippi River. After finishing his schooling early, he entered the printing trade and wrote for newspapers in Hannibal, Missouri. In 1853, he left for St. Louis, Philadelphia and New York, and then returned to the Mississippi in 1857 to become a steamboat pilot until the Civil War put an end to river traffic. Twain established his fame as a humorist and storyteller with the publication of Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County. He is also well-known for such works as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Tom Sawyer and The Prince and the Pauper.