Mark Twain’s first nationally successful book was The Innocents Abroad, a travel book that recounted his 1867 trip to Europe and the Holy Land, a huge best seller that made satiric comment on both the Old World and America, a combination of humor and straight description. Twain drew on the emerging tradition of American travel writing, often skewering the tradition and the form, but also helping its further development. Travel writing runs throughout Twain’s career, including Roughing It, A Tramp Abroad, Life on the Mississippi, and Following the Equator. In his time, Twain was more often considered and celebrated as a travel writer than a writer of fiction.