Mark Twain is the subject of Time Magazine's seventh annual Making of America issue; see The Dangerous Mind of Mark Twain for a number of fascinating articles.

Ernest Hemingway said that all of American literature can be traced back to Mark Twain and William Faulkner called him the father of American literature. He has also been called the godfather of Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, America's first super star, and the inventor of the American novel.

Twain packaged attacks on slavery and racism in stories that seemed concerned with other things. His Adventures of Huckleberry Finn has been controversial for varying reasons since it was first published; for it's depiction of the dual personalities forced on slaves, for it's coarseness, and for its use of the 'n' word. Pudd'nhead Wilson uses the classic 'babies switched at birth' trope to follow the son of a slave switched with his half brother by the masters' wife. The views presented are all the more powerful for coming from a man from a slave owning state who fought briefly on the confederate side.

Here are all the Public Domain elements of Time Magazines essential Twain. (some of his other works: all our Twain)