David R. Collins

Samuel Clemens grew up in a child's paradise--Hannibal, Missouri. There, mischief added humor to everyday events as Sam encountered the folks who would one day reappear as Huck Finn, Aunt Polly, and Becky Thatcher in his books, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. At eighteen, Sam left Hannibal to seek his fortune. He became a newspaperman and story writer. Then, always a restless spirit, he tried his hand as a steamboat...

As a small boy, Charles Dickens worked in a dark, musty London warehouse, pasting labels onto pots of boot polish. He tried not to listen to his grumbling stomach or the rats squeaking on the stairs. His dream was to escape that misery one day and become a fine, educated gentleman. Through his gift for writing, that day did come for Dickens. But he never forgot what it was like to be poor. He wrote stories about London's lower classes--tales that...

E. B. White first recognized the magic in words when he was very young. As a child, some of his happiest hours were spent finding just the right words to describe his feelings and experiences. After graduating from college, he took a job with a new magazine called The New Yorker. The magazine's readers soon began to look forward to the poetry and essays written by E. B. White. His writing was clear and lively with no wasted words, and it could make...