50 Fun Facts About The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Which Saturday chore does Tom Sawyer con other boys into paying him for the privilege of doing?

Whitewashing a fence looks so desirable in Tom's hands that boys trade firecrackers, a tin soldier and twelve marbles for a turn. By mid-afternoon the boards have three coats and Tom is rich.

Which event do Tom Sawyer and two fellow runaways watch in secret from the church gallery?

Their own funeral is in full flow, the town mourning three drowned boys, when they march up the aisle alive. The minister orders a hymn and the congregation shakes the rafters.

Which new invention did Mark Twain boast of using to produce the manuscript of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer?

The typewriter caught Twain's eye in a Boston store in 1874, and he bought one out of curiosity. Researchers found his memory slipped: a later book of his was the first typed manuscript.

Which former riverboat pilot wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer under the pen name Mark Twain?

Samuel Clemens said he took the name from the riverman's cry for two fathoms, a depth that meant safe water ahead. He spent more than two years earning his pilot's license.

Which Canadian rock trio opened their 1981 album Moving Pictures with a song named Tom Sawyer?

Rush built the track on a poem by lyricist Pye Dubois, and it became the band's signature song. Rolling Stone readers voted it the group's best.

Which theme park added Tom Sawyer Island in 1956, a year after its gates first opened?

Disneyland built it as an island that guests reach by raft. A twin attraction later opened at the Tokyo park.

Asked in Sunday school to name the first two disciples, which famous pair does Tom Sawyer blurt out?

David and Goliath is his desperate guess, made before a visiting judge and the whole Sunday school. Twain draws a curtain over the rest of the scene.

What do Tom Sawyer and Huck carry to the graveyard at midnight, believing it will cure warts?

A dead cat, Huck explains, should be flung after the devils who come to carry off a wicked man, and the warts will follow. The boys see a murder instead.

Which judge's daughter, newly arrived in town, wins Tom Sawyer's heart and gets engaged to him with a kiss?

Becky Thatcher was based on Laura Hawkins, a real childhood friend of the author. The engagement lasts minutes: Tom lets slip that he has been engaged before.

What do Tom Sawyer, Huck and a schoolmate set out to become when they raft away to a river island?

Pirates need fearsome names, so Huck becomes the Red-Handed and their schoolmate the Terror of the Seas. Tom's contribution to the voyage is a boiled ham.

Which relative of Tom Sawyer, his late mother's sister, raises him alongside a tattling half-brother?

Aunt Polly owns spectacles built for style, not service: Twain says she could see through a pair of stove-lids just as well. It breaks her heart every time she has to punish Tom.

Which river, where Mark Twain once worked as a pilot, flows past Tom Sawyer's village?

The Mississippi is a trifle over a mile wide three miles below the village, Twain writes, broad enough to hide three runaways on a wooded island.

Which Missouri town, Mark Twain's boyhood home, served as the model for Tom Sawyer's fictional village?

Hannibal began staging National Tom Sawyer Days around the Fourth of July in 1956, with frog jumping among the contests. Twain moved there at four from his birthplace, the hamlet of Florida.

After witnessing the graveyard murder, what do Tom Sawyer and Huck use to sign their written oath of silence?

Blood from their pricked thumbs seals the oath, which Tom has scrawled on a pine shingle. He has to show Huck how to make an H and an F.

Which hard-drinking fisherman stands trial for murder until Tom Sawyer testifies in his defense?

Muff Potter wakes from a blow to the head with the knife in his hand and believes he did it. The guilt-ridden boys bring tobacco and matches to his cell.

How does Injun Joe die in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer after the cave door is sheathed in iron and locked?

Starvation takes him at the foot of the door, where he has broken his knife hacking at the sill and eaten candle stubs and bats. Tom learns of the lock two weeks too late.

Which child actress, later an Oscar winner, played Tom's sweetheart in the 1973 musical film Tom Sawyer?

Jodie Foster played the part as a child, reunited with Johnny Whitaker a year after the pair starred in Napoleon and Samantha. The film earned three Oscar nominations.

Which young actor played Huck beside Jonathan Taylor Thomas's Tom Sawyer in the 1995 film Tom and Huck?

Brad Renfro had made his debut in The Client a year earlier, cast with no acting experience at all. Elijah Wood had played Huck for the same studio in 1993.

Which prize does Tom Sawyer claim at Sunday school with tickets he traded for rather than earned?

A Bible was meant to cost a pupil two thousand memorized verses, paid out in colored tickets. Tom gets his by swapping away the loot from his Saturday swindle.

What brings Dr. Robinson and two hired men to the cemetery at midnight in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer?

To steal a body for medical study, the young doctor has hired two men with shovels and a handbarrow. A quarrel over extra pay turns into a fatal fight beside the open grave.

Which grand European city lends its name to the fictional village where Tom Sawyer lives with his aunt?

St. Petersburg is, in Twain's words, a poor little shabby village. He repeats the joke with a neighboring town twelve miles away, which he names Constantinople.

Which wealthy woman takes Huck into her home at the end of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer after he saves her?

Widow Douglas gives Huck clean sheets, a knife and fork, and church on Sundays, and he endures it for three weeks before bolting. Her sister Miss Watson joins the civilizing effort in the sequel.

What kind of craft carries Tom Sawyer, Huck and Jim to Africa in Mark Twain's sequel Tom Sawyer Abroad?

A balloon built by a maniacal professor whisks them to the Pyramids in a send-up of Jules Verne's adventure tales. Huck tells the story, as he does in every sequel.

Which day of the week makes Tom Sawyer and Huck put off exploring the haunted house?

Friday strikes Huck as no day to tackle a haunted house, and his bad dream about rats settles the matter. The boys spend the afternoon playing instead.

Which legendary outlaw do Tom Sawyer and a friend act out in the woods, fighting strictly by the book?

Robin Hood must win as the story says, so when his playmate will not fall, Tom insists the text requires it. Then they swap parts so each gets a turn to die.

Which country saw The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in print first, six months before the American edition?

England got the book in June 1876 from the London firm Chatto and Windus. A pirated Canadian edition was on sale before the American edition arrived that December.

Which bosom friend of Tom Sawyer runs away with him and Huck, then is the first to turn homesick?

Joe Harper runs off because his mother whipped him for drinking cream he never touched. She later remembers, in tears, that she threw it out herself because it was sour.

Which well-behaved half-brother of Tom Sawyer points out the black thread on his collar to their aunt?

Sid notices that the collar their aunt sewed shut with white thread is now stitched in black, proof that Tom went swimming. Tom pays him back with a hail of clods.

What has Tom Sawyer been secretly eating in the closet when his aunt catches him in chapter one?

Jam on his hands and mouth gives him away, but Tom dodges the switch by telling her to look behind her and bolting. She laughs in spite of herself.

What is Ben Rogers pretending to be, bells and all, when he finds Tom Sawyer hard at his Saturday chore?

A steamboat named the Big Missouri, to be exact: Ben plays boat, captain and engine bells all at once. Minutes later he has traded his apple for a turn at Tom's job.

What fills the box that Tom Sawyer and Huck finally haul out of Injun Joe's hiding place in the cave?

Gold coins worth a little over twelve thousand dollars turn up, enough to give each boy nearly a dollar a day once the money is put out at six per cent.

Which Saturday Evening Post cover artist illustrated editions of both Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn?

Norman Rockwell illustrated more than 40 books in all. His pictures for Twain's two boyhood classics went on display at the Mark Twain museum in Missouri.

Which former sweetheart does Tom Sawyer blurt out the name of, moments after getting engaged to a new girl?

Amy Lawrence had taken Tom months to win, and he forgot her the instant he saw the newcomer. He later flirts with Amy again purely to make his new love jealous.

What of the schoolmaster's does Tom Sawyer's sweetheart tear, a crime Tom then takes the whipping for?

An anatomy book it is: the teacher, who once hoped to be a doctor, keeps it locked in his desk and reads it in idle moments. Tom's false confession wins the girl back.

What does Tom Sawyer get from Huck in exchange for the tooth his aunt has just pulled out?

A tick, the first Huck has seen that year, goes to school with Tom in a percussion-cap box. He and his deskmate herd it across a slate until the teacher pounces.

Which disguise lets Injun Joe slip back into the village after fleeing Tom Sawyer's courtroom testimony?

A deaf-mute Spaniard in green goggles, with long white hair and bushy whiskers, fools the whole village. The boys learn the truth only when he speaks in the haunted house.

Which mark, drawn in candle smoke on a rock, shows Tom Sawyer where Injun Joe's treasure lies in the cave?

A cross fits the words the boys overheard in the haunted house, where the thieves named their hiding place as Number Two. Tom reasons that no ghost would linger near one.

What does Tom Sawyer unwind behind him so he can explore the cave's side passages and find his way back?

A kite line from his pocket takes him, at full stretch, to a speck of daylight and a way out. The exit turns out to be five miles down the river from the cave's mouth.

What does Tom Sawyer promise Huck a place in, provided he goes back to live respectably with his guardian?

A robber gang is a high-toned affair, Tom explains: in most countries robbers rank among dukes and the nobility. Huck agrees to try respectability for a month.

What unusual shape is the one-room study where Mark Twain worked on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer?

Octagonal and set apart from the house, it was built in 1874 as a surprise from his sister-in-law at Quarry Farm in Elmira, New York. It was later moved to a college campus.

Which illustrator of Mark Twain's Roughing It drew the pictures for the first American edition of Tom Sawyer?

True Williams was the first artist to show readers what Tom and Huck looked like, and he slipped his own name onto a gravestone in one picture. He was also a notorious drunk who missed deadlines.

In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which food loaded with quicksilver is said to float toward a drowned person?

Loaves of bread will drift to the spot and stop, Huck explains, while a cannon fired over the water raises the drowned. The runaways then realize the search is for them.

Which Japanese studio put its own name in the title of a 1989 Tom Sawyer role-playing game for the Famicom?

Square, the studio behind Final Fantasy, called it Square's Tom Sawyer and released it only in Japan. The music was by Nobuo Uematsu.

Which illness keeps Tom Sawyer in bed for two weeks while a religious revival sweeps the village?

Measles keeps him out of circulation just long enough to miss the revival, so he recovers to find every friend, even Huck, quoting Scripture. Then he relapses for three more weeks.

By which nationality does Mark Twain refer to old Mr. Jones, the neighbor Huck wakes for help in Tom Sawyer?

The Welshman and his two tall sons arm themselves and chase the prowlers off the hill. He later tries to surprise the village with the news of Huck's bravery.

Under which name does the Missouri cavern now named for Mark Twain appear in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer?

McDougal's Cave borrows from life: the real cavern belonged to a Dr. McDowell, who once entombed his daughter there in a copper cylinder. It was renamed for the author in 1880.

Where does Tom Sawyer find Huck hiding out after he flees three weeks of respectable living?

In an empty hogshead, a barrel big enough to sleep in, behind the abandoned slaughterhouse. It was Huck's usual bed in wet weather; in fine weather he chose doorsteps.

In one account, Mark Twain took the name Tom Sawyer from a San Francisco drinking companion in which job?

Fireman Tom Sawyer was a local hero, credited with rescuing 90 passengers after a shipwreck. Twain met him in 1863, and the two often drank and gambled together.

Which novel did Mark Twain co-write with Charles Dudley Warner before writing Tom Sawyer alone?

The Gilded Age, a satire of greed and political corruption, gave a whole era of American history its nickname. It is the only novel Twain wrote with a collaborator.

Which Hollywood producer made the first color film of Tom Sawyer in 1938, a year before his greatest hit?

David O. Selznick shot it in Technicolor a year before Gone with the Wind reached cinemas. The film's cave sequence was designed by William Cameron Menzies.