Roughing it, Mark Twain, 1872. Autobiographical novel by one of the fathers of American literature, Mark Twain. This book contains the first description of the practice of surfing on one of the trips Twain made to Hawaii where he attemted to surf with little success, as he recounts in the book. Therefore, this book is of great importance since, together with the literature of another of the great American writers and also a great speaker on surfing, Jack London, they reflect the attraction and the impact that surfing would have on the society of the mid-twentieth century.