Roughing It is a personal account of Twain's nomad years. It's a hilarious adventure story that blends real facts with a healthy dose of the author's unique vision, which helped shape American literature. Mark Twain was a competent chronicler of his own life and experiences, while being most known for his fictional novels The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain travelled extensively throughout the wild American West with his brother as a child, working as a gold prospector, reporter, and lecturer as he went from town to town.