This is probably a very familiar book for many people. If you haven’t read the book, you may have seen one of the movies. If you had an ancestor who lived along the Mississippi, or the Ohio, or maybe even the Missouri river, or was a child in the 1850’s, which is when this was set, then you might enjoy this book. One note: Twain was known for his keen ear for dialect. In our current era, some of his dialogue will seem very politically incorrect. It was correct at the time it was written. If you suggest this book to a younger member of your family, and you don’t want them to get the wrong idea, you could explain to them that, just as we no longer swing dead cats in the graveyard at midnight to cure warts, so too we have improved the way we describe different people.
Twain, or rather Samuel Clemens, grew up in Hannibal, MO in the 1850’s, and even worked on a river boat for a time, which is where he got his nom-de-plume. While this is not an autobiography, it purports to describe the life of a boy in a river town in this era. Tom, however, does not have a typical summer as described in the book! Between witnessing a murder, testifying at a trial, getting lost in a cave, and thought to be dead (twice!), he definitely has adventures. This book will not give you much in the way of how life was lived at the time, except for one specific school boy. He mentions clothing briefly, does not really discuss food, and only mentions occupations in passing. Twain’s thumbnail sketches of some of his characters, and of society in general, are marvelous, however.
The town of Hannibal has taken advantage of being the birthplace of Samuel Clemens, and Tom Sawyer. If you visit, you will want to check out the Mark Twain Boyhood Home and Museum complex. You can find information at www.marktwainmuseum.org.
If this was your family, how would you research them? Tom got into the newspaper at least once, according to the author. Local newspapers are a potential gold mine of information. There are subscription sites, but I always start at Chronicling America, https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/. Tom was a witness at a trial; court proceedings are a resource that I know I should review more often. You can find quite a few through Family Search. Go to “Catalog”, then drill down through your state and county. One thing I was curious about: Tom is an orphan, living with his aunt, cousin, and half-brother. If these were real people, you know I would be looking for census, marriage, birth, and death records!