Mark Twain is one of the most quoted people on the planet. Wisdom, wit and a way with words made this man a literary hero.

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Early Life & Career

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, later to be known as Mark Twain, was born in Florida, a village in Missouri, on November 30, 1835, the same year that Halley’s Comet passed in sight of Earth.

In 1835, his family moved to Hannibal on the Mississippi River, which was the setting for his later and most famous work, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. As a teenager Clemens became an apprentice on a steamboat and gained his pilot’s licence in 1859, the year following his brother’s death due to an explosion aboard a steamboat. In 1861, due to the civil war, the Mississippi was closed and his short career as a pilot came to an end.

Clemens worked not only as a writer but also as a reporter, lecturer, and entrepreneur.

Samuel Clemens Becomes Mark Twain

Samuel Clemens adopted the pen name Mark Twain in 1863. The cry “mark twain!” was heard on Mississippi river boats when navigating through shallows and the depth was tested. “Twain” meant “two”, indicating the water was two fathoms (12 feet) deep and therefore safe to continue.

Mark Twain wasn’t the first pen name Samuel Clemens had used. Prior to his most famous pseudonym, he had written under various names including Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass, and W. Epaminondas Adrastus Blab. In 1859, he also wrote under the name Sergeant Fathom, another reference to the river boat.

Huckleberry Finn

Mark Twain’s most famous novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is considered to be an example of ‘the Great American Novel’. It took nine years to develop from conception to publication, with several interruptions, and was published in by his own firm in 1885.

Hard Times

Ten years later, Mark Twain’s firm had been bankrupted by bad investments, particularly in an automatic typesetting press, and he promised to pay off his debts by embarking on a world lecture tour. He was successful in his venture. Twain wrote a book based on his tour called Following the Equator, published in 1897.

Later Life & Halley's Comet

In 1907, Mark Twain received an honorary doctorate from Oxford University.

Mark Twain met many influential people, such as Mahatma Gandhi and Sigmund Freud.

Twain was born in 1835, the year Halley’s Comet passed Earth. In Mark Twain: A Biography, he is quoted as saying, “I came in with Halley's comet in 1835. It's coming again next year (1910), and I expect to go out with it. The Almighty has said no doubt, 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.’” He died on 21 April, 1910, about the time the comet returned. His life almost exactly matched the comet’s period of orbit.

"When I was a boy of fourteen, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be twenty-one, I was astonished at how much he had learned in seven years."

"Golf is a good walk spoiled."

"I am a person who would quit authorizing in a minute to go to piloting, if the madam would stand it. I would rather sink a steamboat than eat, any time." Letter to W. D Howells, Dec. 8, 1874

"The Mississippi River will always have its own way; no engineering skill can persuade it to do otherwise..." From Mark Twain in Eruption

"Although I wouldn't cross an ocean again for the price of the ship that carried me, I am glad to do it for an Oxford degree." Letter to Charles Frederic Moberly Bell, 1907

"It is my belief that nearly any invented quotation, played with confidence, stands a good chance to deceive." From Following the Equator