Tom Sawyer is the protagonist and title character of the Mark Twain novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876). He appears in three other novels by Twain: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), Tom Sawyer Abroad (1894), and Tom Sawyer, Detective (1896).
Sawyer also appears in at least three unfinished Twain works, Huck and Tom Among the Indians, Schoolhouse Hill, and Tom Sawyer's Conspiracy. While all three uncompleted works were posthumously published, only Tom Sawyer's Conspiracy boasts a complete plot, as Twain abandoned the other two works after only finishing a few chapters.
The fictional character's name may have derived from a real life Tom Sawyer with whom Twain was acquainted with San Francisco, California while Twain was employed as a reporter at the San Francisco Call. [1] The character himself is an amalgam of three boys Twain knew while growing up.[2]
The name Sawyer is derived from the Mississippi River pilot's term for a "tree in the bed of the river with its branches reaching the surface and moving up and down with the current". Mark Twain was a river pilot and much of the adventures of his character, Tom Sawyer, derive from this experience. Most adventures in the book really occurred, with one or two Twain's own. The rest were experiences of boys who were schoolmates of Twain.
In 1968/1969 there appeared a half cartoon/half live action series The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn with Tom Sawyer; Becky Thatcher, and Huckleberry Finn chased by Injun Joe (the psycho).
Tom Sawyer appears as an adult in the film The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, where his characterization is based loosely on his appearance in Tom Sawyer, Detective. He is portrayed by Shane West and is an agent of the American secret service, who meets the League in Dorian Gray's library when they are attacked by their enemy the Fantom. Although not one of the six 'planned' members of the League, he is invited to join the team full-time by Allan Quatermain (Sean...