of Twains best work was written in the 1870s and 1880s in Hartford or during the summers at Quarry Farm, near Elmira, New York. Roughing It (1872) recounts his early adventures as a miner and journalist; The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) celebrates boyhood in a town on the Mississippi River; A Tramp Abroad (1880) describes a walking trip through the Black Forest of Germany and the Swiss Alps; The Prince and the Pauper (1882), a childrens book, focuses on switched identities in Tudor England; Life on the Mississippi (1883) combines an autobiographical account of his experiences as a river pilot with a visit to the Mississippi nearly two decades after he left it; A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthurs Court (1889) mocks oppression in feudal England. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), the sequel to Tom Sawyer, is considered Twains masterpiece. Huckleberry Finn, which is almost entirely narrated from Hucks point of view, is noted for its authentic language and for its deep commitment to freedom. Twains skill in capturing the rhythms of that life help make the book one of the masterpieces of American literature. In 1884 Twain formed the firm Charles L. Webster and Company to publish his works and other writers books, notably Personal Memoirs (2 volumes, 1885-1886) by the American general and president Ulysses S. Grant. A disastrous investment in an automatic typesetting machine led to the firms bankruptcy in 1894. Twains successful worldwide lecture tour and the book based on those travels, Following the Equator (1897), paid off his debts. Stress and sorrow came with the deaths of Twains daughter Susy in 1896 and of his wife in 1904. His writings of the late 1890s and 1900s became more pessimistic than ever. Significant works of this period are Puddnhead Wilson (1894), a novel about miscegenation and murder, and Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (1896), a sentimental biography. Some of Twains later writings include short stories...
