American writer Samuel Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, has given us some literary gems with Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn and his travel adventures in 19th-century Europe and to Australia and New Zealand. In How to Tell a Story and Other Essays, Twain discusses the telling of stories, rather than providing more stories. Humor, Twain says, is American while comic is English and witty is French. He follows this typically brilliant essay with examples of storytelling and some intriguing experiences of "mental telegraphy".