Samuel L. Clemens was born in the small village of Florida, Missouri on November 30, 1835. His family moved from there to Hannibal, Missouri in mid November of 1839. Sam stayed there until the age of seventeen when he set out to see the world and support himself. His years in Hannibal provided the background for his best known books, "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" and "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn".