Samuel Clemens rose from a hardscrabble boyhood in the backwoods of Missouri to become, as Mark Twain, America’s best-known and best-loved author. Considered in his time the funniest man on earth, Twain was also an unflinching critic of human nature who used his humor to attack hypocrisy, greed and racism. He created some of the world’s most memorable characters as well as its most quoted sayings. And, in his often-misunderstood novel Huckleberry Finn, he shared with the world the masterpiece that Ernest Hemingway would call the true beginning of American literature.

Mark Twain tells the story of the writer’s extraordinary life – full of rollicking adventure, stupendous success and crushing defeat, hilarious comedy and almost unbearable tragedy. By the end, the film helps us to see how Twain could claim with some justification, “I am not an American, I am the American.”

A Film Directed By
KEN BURNS

Written By
DAYTON DUNCAN
GEOFFREY C. WARD

Produced By
DAYTON DUNCAN
KEN BURNS

Edited By
ERIK EWERS
CRAIG MELLISH

Cinematography
BUDDY SQUIRES
ALLEN MOORE
KEN BURNS

Narrated By
KEITH DAVID

Voice of Mark Twain
KEVIN CONWAY

Funding Provided By
General Motors Corporation
The Pew Charitable Trusts
Public Broadcasting Service
Connecticut Office of Tourism
Corporation for Public Broadcasting
The Arthur Vining Davis Foundations
Park Foundation

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Original Broadcast January 2002

Film Honors:
• Telluride Film Festival, 2001
• Leon Award for Best Documentary, St. Louis Film Festival, November 2001