Thomas "Tom" Sawyer () is the 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). He is around 12 to 13 years old.
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 has a complete plot, as Twain abandoned the other two works after finishing only a few chapters. It is set in the 1840s along the Mississippi.
Inspiration The fictional character's name may have been derived from a jolly and flamboyant chief named Tom Sawyer, with whom Twain was acquainted in San Francisco, California, while Twain was employed as a reporter at The San Francisco Call. Twain used to listen to Sawyer tell stories of his youth: "Sam, he would listen to these pranks of mine with great interest and he'd occasionally take 'em down in his notebook. One day he says to me: 'I am going to put you between the covers of a book some of these days, Tom.' 'Go ahead, Sam,' I said, 'but don't disgrace my name.'" Twain himself said the character sprang from three people, later identified as: John B. Briggs (who died in ), William Bowen (who died in ), and himself. However, Twain later changed his story saying Sawyer was fully formed solely from his imagination, but Robert Graysmith said, "The great appropriator liked to pretend his characters sprang fully grown from his fertile mind."
Personality Tom Sawyer is mischievous and sometimes gets himself and his friends into trouble. He is also superstitious but he actually has a pure heart. "Although unthinking, he is not really a bad boy; he is capable of generosity and occasionally surprises even himself with magnanimous acts."
Portrayals Actors who have portrayed Tom Sawyer in films and TV:
+ NameDateNotes 1917 Film, Tom Sawyer 1920 Film, Huckleberry Finn 1930, 1931 Films, Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn 1938 Film, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 1938 Film, Tom Sawyer, Detective 1944 Film, The Adventures of Mark Twain 1955 Film, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 1956 TV musical, Tom Sawyer 1960 TV series, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 1968 TV series, The New Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 1968 Romanian/French/German TV series Les Aventures de Tom Sawyer/Tom Sawyers und Huckleberry Finns Abenteuer 1973 Film, Tom Sawyer 1975 Film, Huckleberry Finn 1979 TV series, Huckleberry Finn and His Friends 1981 TV film, Rascals and Robbers: The Secret Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn 1981 Soviet three-episode TV miniseries, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn 1985 Film, The Adventures of Mark Twain 1986 TV series, American Playhouse Series 5: Adventures of Huckleberry Finn parts I, II, III and IV 1990 TV film, Back to Hannibal: The Return of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn 1995 Film, Tom and Huck 2000 Voice, animated musical film, Tom Sawyer 2003 Voice, animated TV series, The Fairly OddParents 2003 Film, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen 2011, 2012 Film, Tom Sawyer), Die Abenteuer des Huck Finn 2014 Film, Tom Sawyer & Huckleberry Finn 2015 Film, Band of Robbers 2015 3DS game, Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. 2016 TV series, Once Upon a TimeSeth Green2016TV series, Family Guy
References
External links
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain at Project Gutenberg The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain at Archive.org