Berths Macias, age l2, of Visalia, Calif., for her question:

Where did Mark Twain live?

He lived in the central states, in the Fast and the Far West, and every part of America he visited became home to him. He visited Europe and at the age of 60 started out on a world lecture tour. And he described his foreign visits from the point of view of an American.

He was born in the small town of Florida in Missouri. The date was November 30, l835, and his name was Samuel Langhorne Clans. No one guessed that he would become one of America's greatest writers. Like all great writers he had to describe things as he himself saw thin. He gathered years of real life experience before he was ready to write, When he was four, his family moved to Hannibal and young Sam's boyhood years belonged to the Mississippi River.

But years of experience, of visiting and living in other places were needed before he was ready to give us a true and rounded picture of his boyhood. He was 4l when he gave us "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," that vivid story of a Mississippi River boy. Meantime he had lived in Keokuk, Iowa and in Cincinnati, working as a printer. At 22 he became a Mississippi River pilot and after the war between the states he went west.

For a whip he tried mining in Nevada, but now the young man was aware of his talent as a writer. He became a reporter for the territorial enterprise in Virginia City  and Sam Clemens became Mark Twain. His odd pen name dated back to his days as a river pilot when the words "maxk twain" meant that the channel was deep enough for the boat to move safely ahead. From Nevada, he moved on to work for newspapers in San Francisco and Sacramento and his outstanding stories and reports became famous from coast to coast.

 At the age of 3l Mark Twain was sent by his newspaper to report on Europe and the Holy Land. In his book, "The Innocents Abroad," he described life in foreign lands as he saw it as an American. He had a wonderful talent for humor and his writing was easy to follow. His observations often were very funny, sometimes bitter, but always honest. After his marriage in l870, his home was Buffalo, N.Y., then Hartford, Conn. From l88l to l900, he lived with his family in Berlin and then returned to America. His last years were spent in New York City and Redding, Conn.

Wherever he visited he lived and wherever he lived he worked on his world famous novels and short stories. But Mark Twain was never rich. He tried to print and publish his own books, but this business failure left him with a debt of $l00,000. Mark Twain was then 60 years old and in poor health  but he refused to become a bankrupt. With money from his writing and lectures he managed to pay back the last dollar of his debt before his death in l9l0.