HANNIBAL might well have been just another medium-sized river settlement, had not Samuel Langhorne Clemens, who renamed himself Mark Twain after the cry of pilots on the Mississippi, spent his boyhood here. Although Hannibal does have other industries, downtown is little more than a Twain theme park, with attractions such as museums, period buildings and wax displays. Just about every business in town is flogging souvenirs featuring Twain's ashen visage, or is named for the scribe, including Huck's Taxi Service, Injun Joe Campground and even the Mark Twain Roofing Company.

Mark Twain wrote surprisingly little about his home town in his extensive nonfiction works; you could say he spoke with his feet when he left for good at seventeen to become a journeyman printer, riverboat pilot, journalist and writer. However, those of his books most specifically set in Hannibal - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and the sequel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - provide vivid accounts of growing up in the rowdy frontier riverport he renamed St Petersburg for his books.

More about Hannibal:

The Town

Hannibal

• Hannibal
• The Town
• Practicalities

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