Mark Twain was an American author best known for his novels, including Life on the Mississippi. As a boy, Twain dreamed of becoming a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River. In Life on the Mississippi, Twain uses dialect and descriptions of the scenery and empty streets to set the scene and tone of a summer morning in his hometown along the Mississippi River. He illustrates the common speech and lack of education of many people at that time through the dialect used by men conversing in the book.