A Tramp Abroad (Barnes & Noble Library of Essential Reading) »

Riverboat pilot, journalist, failed businessman (several times over): Samuel Clemens -- the man behind the figure of Mark Twain -- led many lives. But it was in his novels and short stories that he created a voice and an outlook on life that will be forever identified with the American character.

In A Tramp Abroad (1880), written eleven years after the best-selling Innocents Abroad, Mark Twain claims to be mad for adventure. Instead, he is more likely to scale a mountain by telescope or launch a fantasy expedition to conquer a mountain hotel. In the end, Twain weaves observation, folk tales, tall tales, and imagination into a narrative that both celebrates travel and satirizes the traveler.

Born November 30, 1835, in the frontier town of Florida, Missouri, Samuel L. Clemens adopted the pen name Mark Twain. The name was a term that he often heard during his days as a Mississippi River pilot. A prolific author, Twain is best known for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.