Many of you may not know that today is American author and humorist Mark Twain’s birthday. Mark Twain, born Samuel Langhorne Clemens, was born on November 30, 1835 in Florida, Missouri. He is most famous for writing Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

In honor of Mr. Twain’s birthday we decided to compile some interesting facts about the famous writer:

• Hayley’s comet was visible in the sky on the night that Mark Twain was both born and passed away.
• Prior to adopting Mark Twain as his pen name, Clemens wrote under the pen name Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass for a number of humorous pieces that he contributed to the Keokuk Post.
• Mark Twain wasn’t just a writer. At one point he was a a steamboat pilot, a gold prospector and a journalist in Nevada and San Francisco during the gold rush.
• Mark Twain published more than 30 books throughout his career. Those include Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Letters from the Earth, The Mysterious Stranger, and many more. There is a complete list of his works here.

• Mark Twain is known as “The Father of American Literature.”

“Let us live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry.” -Mark Twain