Samuel Langhorne Clemens (30 November 1835 - 21 April 1910), better known by his pen name Mark Twain, is widely acknowledged to be the best American humorist of his age. Mark Twain’s greatest literary achievements are the unforgettable characters he created; his riotous inventiveness, both in short and long fiction; and his unrivalled skill in the handling of plot. Twain is also celebrated for his biting wit and satire, which can be sampled in all the stories in this volume, chief among which are the `The Story of the Bad Little Boy’, `Luck’, The celebrated Jumping frog of Calaveras County’ and `A Burlesque Biography’. It was for his towering accomplishments in the world of letters that Twain was hailed by William Faulkner as the father of American literature.