I chose to do Samuel Langhorne Clemens (Mark Twain) because I believe Twain is the greatest American author of all time. Samuel Langhorne Clemens may have been one of the greatest American authors of all time. Samuel, Son of John and James Clemens, was born on November 30, 1835 in the town of Florida, Missouri. Samuel was born two months premature and it seemed unlikely that Samuel would survive the harsh winter but indeed he did. Death would take other children in the family instead: Margaret in 1836, Benjamin in 1842, and Henry in 1858(Miller, 2&3). According to Miller, Samuel remembered his father as: "A proud, a silent austere man who considered himself to be a member of the profession