Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is a fictional story about a mischievous young boy named Tom Sawyer and his friend Huckleberry Finn. Although the story is fictional (which means it is not true), it is said that Twain based the character of Tom Sawyer on a real man named Sawyer he knew. This man was a firefighter who had shared tales of his life with Twain over drinks. He was a heroic person who once saved the lives of ninety people.

However, the true origin of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is unclear to this day. This is because Twain said that he based the story on three boys and then later said that he based it on his memories of his own younger self. He also claimed that he never knew a person named Sawyer even though Sawyer the firefighter swore Twain was writing about him. All of these contradictory claims about the inspiration for the story make it difficult to know the truth. However, they do suggest that Twain was likely motivated to write at least partly by his life experiences, from the adventures he had in his own boyhood days to the stories he heard from his friends.