MARK TWAIN

Mark Twain 

Born on November 30, 1835, in Florida, Missouri.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens is internationally known by his pen name, Mark Twain. The author of numerous works, Twain's legacy includes two classic American novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, both of which are still read and studied worldwide. Born in 1835, Twain grew up in Hannibal, Missouri and left school after the fifth grade. He worked as a typesetter and reporter for the local newspaper and became a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi River. Twain claimed that he had invented his pseudonym from his riverboat experiences and he had earlier adopted the pen name Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass. Twain followed his brother to Nevada, where he quickly abandoned mining in favor of writing for the Virginia City newspaper. In 1865, Twain's story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" brought him international renown. Eventually he moved east, settling in Connecticut where he died in 1910. A humorist and lecturer, Twain had friendships with presidents, kings, and celebrities. His name lives on, among other ways, in numerous community and school names, along with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor awarded annually through the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER SUMMARY

On a magical day in London, two boys are born into two different families, and they just happen to look exactly like one another. One boy, Tom Canty, is poor. The other boy, Prince Edward of Wales, is obviously rich.

Fast forward a bit, and Tom is a young boy living in the slums of London. He has an abusive father and grandmother, a kind mother and sisters, and a pretty sad life. But he has a dream: one day, he wants to meet a real-life prince.

After dreaming about living in the lap of luxury, Tom makes his way to Westminster Palace one day. When he gets a little too close to the gate, a guard attacks him. Lucky for Tom, this attracts the attention of the prince, who rebukes the guard and lets our little pauper into the palace. It's his dream come true.

Surprisingly enough, the two little boys hit it off. Turns out they both have pretty terrible fathers, so we guess that's something to bond over. Eventually Tom gets to tell the prince about his life, and the prince thinks this sounds amazing. You know what's coming next: they decide to swap lives, just for a little while.

But right in the middle of all of this, the prince storms out, determined to discipline the guard who bruised Tom. What he wasn't expecting was to be mistaken for Tom and kicked out of the palace because no one could recognize him without his fancy clothes. Now he's just another poor person on the street.

The prince tries to tell everyone he comes across what happened to him, but it doesn't work; everyone just thinks he's crazy. Meanwhile, Tom starts to get a little fidgety at the palace. The prince has been gone for a pretty long time, and Tom's worried about getting caught. He tries to turn himself in, but everyone just assumes that he's crazy, too. So, the prince's dad, King Henry VIII, orders that no one talk about his son's mental illness. Looks like Tom is going to be the new Prince of England.

Tom's first days as a prince are pretty hard, because he doesn't know any of the etiquette or procedures of prince hood. It's so bad that he drinks the water meant for washing his hands and stuffs his pockets with nuts at his first royal dinner. Classy.

Back to Prince Edward. John Candy has found him—er, wait, we mean John Canty has found him, and John is pretty angry that Edward doesn't have any money to give him. He brings the prince home, assuming that he's Tom, and beats him for saying that he's the prince. Only Tom's mom believes that the prince is not her son. Because moms always know.

But the family doesn't have a lot of time to deal with these strange developments: they have to skip town when they find out that John Canty has killed Father Andrew. The prince takes advantage of all the distracted hurry to get out of John Canty's clutches and find out how to get back to the palace.

Being a smart kid, Edward does make it back to the palace, but no one believes that he is the real prince. The crowd is just about ready to tear him to pieces when Miles Hendon comes to save the day. Also, everyone gets pretty distracted when it's announced that King Henry VIII has died.

So that makes Edward the king. Awesome. You know, except for that whole his father is dead thing. Oh yeah, and no one knows that Edward is the prince, so Tom is the one the royal court turns to. Tom's first act as king is to end Henry VIII's reign of terror by pardoning a bunch of people who have been condemned to grisly deaths.

Miles Hendon takes Edward to his home, and the Edward pretty much takes over everything. Hey, he's a prince: he's used to it. After a nap and dinner, Miles tells his whole life story. Apparently, he was forced to spend three years away from home because his brother convinced his dad that he was going to elope. Edward is so sad about the story that he gives Miles the right to sit in his presence rather than stand all the time. What a great gift.

Now it's time for another nap, and while Edward sleeps, Miles heads out on an errand. While he's gone, some thugs convince Edward to leave the safety of his apartment. So now Miles goes on a mission to find the boy.

Back to Tom Canty. After a long and involved dressing ceremony, Tom gets down to the boring legal matters of being king. He has some improvements in mind, but no one wants to listen to him. After that, Tom meets his whipping boy, Humphrey Marlow. Instead of having him whipped, however, he uses the kid as a way to get information about everything that's going on in the court.

The next day, Tom meets some people scheduled to be killed and pardons all of them from their ridiculous sentences. When the court sees how "wise" he is, they're convinced that he's not crazy. On top of that, the next day, Tom aces his first public dinner. Piece of cake.

Meanwhile, Miles Hendon has been searching for Prince Edward, who has been taken hostage by John Canty. Neither John nor any of his rowdy gang of friends believes that the boy is actually the king, and they make fun of him. When they try to make Edward beg for food, he manages to get the gang in trouble and runs away, taking refuge in a farm.

After getting a good meal there, however, Edward gets cornered by the thieves again. When he runs into the woods, he comes across a hermit. Normally, that could be a good thing, but this hermit is crazy. Actually, he was driven insane by the actions of none other than the prince's dad, King Henry VIII. Sometimes it's not a good thing to be famous.

So, this hermit wants to kill Edward, but he's thwarted by Miles Hendon. While the hermit is distracted, John Canty and his friends once again steal Edward. Is your head spinning yet?

So, the thieves are not too happy that Edward tricked them, and they want to get even. They set him up for a crime, and he is sent to jail. Lucky for him, Miles Hendon manages to get him out of that, too.

Once all of this is over with, Miles decides that the only safe place to go is his home, Hendon Hall. He expects to get a royal homecoming, but instead, everyone pretends not to know him, even his precious Lady Edith. His treacherous brother Hugo throws Miles and Edward in jail.

Finally, Miles is sentenced to three hours in the stocks. But since he volunteers to take the prince's lashings for him, everyone sees what a good and kind person he is. So no one tries to assault him while he's locked up.

When all of that is done, it's time to head back to London. Miles and Edward get there just in time, because they arrive during the giant party for Tom's coronation. Tom is having a great time and has finally settled into his role as king... or at least he was having a great time until his mom showed up and reminded him how horrible he was for ignoring his family.

Just at the moment when the Archbishop of Canterbury is about to put the crown on Tom Canty's head, Edward barges in and declares that he is the real king. Tom agrees with him, and together they prove that Edward is the real prince, since the prince is the only person who could know where the Great Seal is. Once Edward tells where to find the Great Seal, he's recognized as the real king.

So, Edward is crowned, and now it's time for justice. Humphrey Marlow brings Miles Hendon to Edward, and after they've celebrated their bromance, Edward makes Miles a noble with tons of honors, land, and gold. Tom Canty doesn't get left out, either: he also gets a bunch of fancy-schmancy titles and a pile of money.

To wrap things up, Miles's brother Hugo runs away to Europe and dies, leaving Miles to marry Lady Edith. Tom's dad disappears, and King Edward is a pretty awesome king even though he only reigns for a few years.

They all live happily ever after. At least until Edward dies. The end.