True Williams

True Williams
Self-caricature from Roughing It
Born	Truman W. Williams (1839-03-22)March 22, 1839 Allegany County, New York
Died	November 23, 1897(1897-11-23) (aged 58) Chicago
Notable work	The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Truman W. "True" Williams (March 22, 1839 – November 23, 1897) was an American artist known as the most prolific illustrator to Mark Twain's books and novels. He drew all illustrations to the first edition of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and was thus the first to illustrate such characters as Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. He was also sole illustrator of Twain's Sketches, New and Old and primary illustrator of Roughing It and The Innocents Abroad. Working with a number of publishers he also illustrated works by writers Bill Nye, George W. Peck, Joaquin Miller, and others. His style in Tom Sawyer influenced E. W. Kemble's work in his illustrations to Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884).

Born in Allegany County, New York, Williams grew up in Watertown. His father died when he was 10, and Williams moved to Illinois and served in a volunteer infantry unit in the Civil War, from December 21, 1863, to October 9, 1865, during which he worked under General William T. Sherman as a topographical engineer. He began illustrating professionally in the late 1860s, working largely with the American Publishing Company. In addition to his work with Twain, he illustrated an autobiography of P. T. Barnum and works by the likes of humorists George Wilbur Peck and Bill Nye, and his work appeared in Harper's Weekly and Harper's Bazar.