Editing Mark Twain (section)

==Biography==
===Early life===
[[File:Mark Twain by GH Jones, 1850 - retouched.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Samuel Clemens, age 15 holding [[Sort (typesetting)|metal type]] in a [[composing stick]] that spells out his first name. He understood that the photographic printing process reversed the contents of an image in the same way backward moveable type was reversed in printing to give clear copy.]]
Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born on November 30, 1835, in [[Florida, Missouri]]. He was the sixth of seven children of [[Jane Lampton Clemens|Jane]] (''née'' Lampton; 1803–1890), a native of [[Kentucky]], and [[John Marshall Clemens]] (1798–1847), a native of [[Virginia]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Coplin |first=Keith |date=1970 |title=John and Sam Clemens: A Father's Influence |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41640872 |journal=Mark Twain Journal |volume=15 |issue=1 |pages=1–6 |jstor=41640872 |issn=0025-3499 |access-date=June 4, 2024 |archive-date=June 5, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240605172508/https://www.jstor.org/stable/41640872 |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Hoffman |first=Andrew |date=1997 |title=Inventing Mark Twain |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/inventingmarktwain.htm |access-date=2024-06-04 |website=www.washingtonpost.com |archive-date=December 9, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221209153135/https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/books/chap1/inventingmarktwain.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>

His parents met when his father, a lawyer called to the bar in Kentucky, tried to help Jane's father and uncle avoid bankruptcy.<ref name=Hoffman>{{cite book |url=https://www.nytimes.com/books/first/h/hoffman-twain.html |title=Inventing Mark Twain |first=Andrew J. |last=Hoffman |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170119152242/http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/h/hoffman-twain.html |year=1997 |publisher=William Morrow |isbn=978-0688127695|archive-date=January 19, 2017 }}</ref> They were married in 1823.<ref name="singular">{{cite book |last = Kaplan |first = Fred | author-link = Fred Kaplan (biographer) |title = The Singular Mark Twain |date=2007 |publisher = Doubleday |isbn = 978-0-385-47715-4 |chapter = 1: The Best Boy You Had 1835–1847}} Cited in {{cite web |url=http://classiclit.about.com/library/weekly/aafpr113003b.htm |title = Excerpt: ''The Singular Mark Twain'' |publisher = About.com: Literature: Classic |access-date = October 11, 2006 |archive-date = March 2, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060302091618/http://classiclit.about.com/library/weekly/aafpr113003b.htm |url-status = dead }}</ref> Twain was of [[English people|English]] and [[Ulster Scots people|Scots-Irish]] descent.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Pennsylvania Genealogical Magazine, Volume 41|author=Jeffrey L. (Ed) Egge|page=1}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Mark Twain's ancestor was "witchfinder general" in Belfast trial|url=http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/mark-twains-ancestor-was-witchfinder-general-during-belfast-witchcraft-trial-230973591-237786421.html|author=Michelle K Smith|date=December 31, 2014|access-date=April 16, 2015|archive-date=April 19, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150419025716/http://www.irishcentral.com/roots/mark-twains-ancestor-was-witchfinder-general-during-belfast-witchcraft-trial-230973591-237786421.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Transatlantic Renaissances: Literature of Ireland and the American South|author=Kathryn Stelmach Artuso|page=5}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Genealogy Volume 1–2; a weekly journal of American ancestry|author= Lyman Horace Weeks|page=202}}</ref> Only three of his siblings lived beyond childhood: [[Orion Clemens|Orion]] (1825–1897), Pamela (1827–1904), and Henry (1838–1858). His brother Pleasant Hannibal (1828) died at three weeks of age,<ref>{{Cite book|title=Mark Twain: A Life|url=https://archive.org/details/marktwainlife00powe_0|url-access=registration|last=Powers|first=Ron|publisher=Free Press|year=2006|isbn=9780743248990}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.marktwainhouse.org/man/clemens_family_tree.php|title=Welcome to the Mark Twain House & Museum – Clemens Family Tree|website=www.marktwainhouse.org|access-date=August 17, 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170210081912/http://www.marktwainhouse.org/man/clemens_family_tree.php|archive-date=February 10, 2017}}</ref> his sister Margaret (1830–1839) died when Twain was three, and his brother Benjamin (1832–1842) died three years later.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fears |first=David H. |date=2005 |title=Mark Twain Day by Day: An Annotated Chronology of the Life of Samuel Langhorne Clemens Volume 1 (1835–1856 and a sampler of 1880) |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41641553 |journal=Mark Twain Journal |volume=43 |issue=1/2 |pages=1–114 |jstor=41641553 |issn=0025-3499 |access-date=June 4, 2024 |archive-date=June 4, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240604100739/https://www.jstor.org/stable/41641553 |url-status=live }}</ref>

When he was four, Twain's family moved to [[Hannibal, Missouri]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/95nov/twain.html |title=Mark Twain, American Author and Humorist |access-date=October 25, 2006 |archive-date=October 29, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061029203544/http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/95nov/twain.html |url-status=live }}</ref> a port town on the [[Mississippi River]] that inspired the fictional town of St.&nbsp;Petersburg in ''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' and ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn''.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|url=http://encarta.msn.com/sidebar_701509634/Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_The.html |title=Adventures of Huckleberry Finn |access-date=November 11, 2006 |last=Lindborg |first=Henry J. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091028010000/http://encarta.msn.com/sidebar_701509634/Adventures_of_Huckleberry_Finn_The.html |archive-date=October 28, 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref> [[History of slavery in Missouri|Slavery was legal in Missouri]] at the time, and it became a theme in these writings. His father was an attorney and judge who died of [[pneumonia]] in 1847, when Twain was only 11.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://shs.umsystem.edu/historicmissourians/name/c/clemens/ |title=John Marshall Clemens |publisher=State Historical Society of Missouri |access-date=October 29, 2007 |archive-date=September 23, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130923110634/http://shs.umsystem.edu/historicmissourians/name/c/clemens/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> The following year, Twain left school after the fifth grade to become a printer's apprentice.<ref name="housebio"/> In 1851, he began working as a [[typeset]]ter, contributing articles and humorous sketches to the ''[[Hannibal Journal]]'', a newspaper that Orion owned. When Twain was 18, he left Hannibal and worked as a printer in [[New York City]], [[Philadelphia]], [[St. Louis]], and [[Cincinnati]], joining the newly formed [[International Typographical Union]], the printers' [[trade union]]. Twain [[autodidact|educated himself]] in [[public library|public libraries]] in the evenings, finding wider information than at a conventional school.<ref>Philip S. Foner, ''Mark Twain: Social Critic'' (New York: International Publishers, 1958), p. 13, cited in Helen Scott's "The Mark Twain they didn't teach us about in school" (2000) in the ''[[International Socialist Review (1900)|International Socialist Review]]'' 10, Winter 2000, pp. 61–65, at [http://www.marxists.de/culture/twain/noteach.htm#n2] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020616093459/http://www.marxists.de/culture/twain/noteach.htm#n2|date=June 16, 2002}}</ref>

Twain describes his boyhood in ''[[Life on the Mississippi]]'', stating that "there was but one permanent ambition" among his comrades: to be a steamboatman. "Pilot was the grandest position of all. The pilot, even in those days of trivial wages, had a princely salary – from a hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty dollars a month, and no board to pay." As Twain described it, the pilot's prestige exceeded that of the captain. The pilot had to "get up a warm personal acquaintanceship with every old snag and one-limbed cottonwood and every obscure wood pile that ornaments the banks of this river for twelve hundred miles; and more than that, must... actually know where these things are in the dark". [[Steamboat]] pilot [[Horace Ezra Bixby|Horace E. Bixby]] took Twain on as a cub pilot to teach him the river between [[New Orleans]] and St. Louis for $500 ({{Inflation|US|500|1858|fmt=eq|r=-3}}), payable out of Twain's first wages after graduating. Twain studied the Mississippi, learning its landmarks, how to navigate its currents effectively, and how to read the river and its constantly shifting channels, reefs, submerged snags, and rocks that would "tear the life out of the strongest vessel that ever floated".<ref>Clemens, Samuel L. ''Life on the Mississippi'', pp. 32, 37, 45, 57, 78, Harper & Brothers, New York and London, 1917.</ref> It was more than two years before he received his pilot's license. Piloting also gave Twain his pen name from "[[Depth sounding#Terminology|mark twain]]", the [[Chains (nautical)|leadsman's cry]] for a measured river depth of two fathoms (12 feet), which was safe water for a steamboat.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.seatalk.info/cgi-bin/nautical-marine-sailing-dictionary/db.cgi?db=db&uid=default&FirstLetter=m&sb=Term&view_records=View+Records&nh=2|title=Nautical Dictionary, Glossary and Terms directory: Search Results|website=www.seatalk.info|access-date=August 17, 2017|archive-date=August 17, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170817202956/http://www.seatalk.info/cgi-bin/nautical-marine-sailing-dictionary/db.cgi?db=db&uid=default&FirstLetter=m&sb=Term&view_records=View+Records&nh=2|url-status=usurped}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/marktwain.htm|title=What do Mark Twain and your depth sounder have in common?|website=www.boatsafe.com/index.html|access-date=September 10, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180623045650/http://boatsafe.com/nauticalknowhow/marktwain.htm|archive-date=June 23, 2018|url-status=dead}}</ref>

As a young pilot, Clemens served on the steamer ''A. B. Chambers'' with [[Grant Marsh]], who became famous for his exploits as a steamboat captain on the Missouri River. The two liked and admired each other, and maintained a correspondence for many years after Clemens left the river.<ref>Hanson, Joseph Mills. ''The Conquest of the Missouri: Being the Story of the Life and Exploits of Captain Grant Marsh,'' pp. 24–29, Murray Hill Books, Inc., New York and Toronto, 1909.</ref>

While training, Samuel convinced his younger brother Henry to work with him, and even arranged a post of [[mud clerk]] for him on the steamboat ''[[Pennsylvania Steamboat|Pennsylvania]]''. On June 13, 1858, the steamboat's boiler exploded; Henry succumbed to his wounds eight days later. Twain claimed to have foreseen this death in a dream a month earlier,<ref name="autov1">{{cite book |title=Autobiography of Mark Twain: Volume 1 |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=Harriet Elinor |year=2010 |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |isbn=978-0-520-26719-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/autobiographyofm00twai_0 }}</ref>{{rp|275}} which inspired his interest in [[parapsychology]]; Twain was an early member of the [[Society for Psychical Research]].<ref>For a further account of Twain's involvement with parapsychology, see {{cite book |last=Blum |first=Deborah |title=Ghost Hunters: William James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death |publisher=Penguin Press |date=2006}}.</ref> Twain was guilt-stricken and held himself responsible for the rest of his life. Twain continued to work on the river and was a river pilot until the [[American Civil War|Civil War]] broke out in 1861, when traffic was curtailed along the Mississippi River.

At the start of hostilities, he enlisted briefly in a local [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] unit, the Marion Rangers as a Second Lieutenant.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.militarytimes.com/off-duty/military-culture/2023/04/18/why-mark-twain-had-an-incredibly-brief-stint-as-a-confederate-soldier/ |title=Why Mark Twain had an incredibly brief stint as a Confederate soldier |work=Military Times |last=Barrett |first=Claire |date=April 18, 2023 |access-date=November 10, 2024}}</ref> Twain later wrote the sketch "[[The Private History of a Campaign That Failed]]", describing how he and his friends had been Confederate volunteers for two weeks before their unit disbanded.<ref name="Hannibal">{{cite web |title =Mark Twain Biography |publisher =The Hannibal Courier-Post |url =http://www.marktwainhannibal.com/twain/biography/ |access-date =November 25, 2008 |archive-date =November 20, 2008 |archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20081120213517/http://www.marktwainhannibal.com/twain/biography/ |url-status =live }}</ref>

Twain then left for Nevada to work for his brother Orion, who was Secretary of the [[Nevada Territory]]. Twain describes the episode in his book ''[[Roughing It]]''.<ref>Clemens, Samuel L. ''Roughing It'', p. 19, American Publishing Company, Hartford, CT, 1872. {{ISBN|0-87052-707-X}}.</ref><ref name="lemaster">{{cite book|first=J. R. |last=Lemaster|title=The Mark Twain Encyclopedia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zW1k-XS6XLEC&pg=PA147|year=1993|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=978-0824072124}}</ref>{{Rp|147}}

===In the American West===
[[File:Mark Twain by Abdullah Frères, 1867.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Twain, age 31]]
Orion became secretary to [[Nevada Territory]] governor [[James W. Nye]] in 1861, and Twain joined him when he moved west. The brothers traveled more than two weeks on a [[stagecoach]] across the [[Great Plains]] and the [[Rocky Mountains]], visiting the [[Mormon pioneers|Mormon community]] in [[Salt Lake City]].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Powell |first1=Allan Kent |title=Mark Twain's Utah |date=April 22, 2016 |url=https://historytogo.utah.gov/mark-twains-utah/ |publisher=Utah Division of State History |access-date=November 7, 2022 |archive-date=November 7, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221107145433/https://historytogo.utah.gov/mark-twains-utah/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Twain's journey ended in the silver-mining town of [[Virginia City, Nevada]], where he became a [[mining|miner]] on the [[Comstock Lode]].<ref name="Hannibal"/> Twain failed as a miner and went to work at the Virginia City newspaper ''[[Territorial Enterprise]]'',<ref>''Comstock Commotion: The Story of the Territorial Enterprise and Virginia City News'', Chapter 2.</ref> working under a friend, the writer [[Dan DeQuille]]. Twain first used his pen name here on February 3, 1863, when he wrote a humorous [[travel literature|travel account]] titled "Letter From Carson&nbsp;– re: Joe Goodman; party at Gov.&nbsp;Johnson's; music" and signed it "Mark Twain".<ref name=MT_quotes>{{cite web |title = Mark Twain quotations |url = http://www.twainquotes.com/teindex.html |access-date = January 3, 2007 |archive-date = August 13, 2021 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210813091643/http://www.twainquotes.com/teindex.html |url-status = live }}</ref><ref>For further information, see [[Mark Twain in Nevada]].</ref>

Twain's experiences in the [[Western United States|American West]] inspired ''Roughing It'', written during 1870–71 and published in 1872.<ref>{{Citation |last=Messent |first=Peter |title=Roughing It and the American West |date=1997 |work=Mark Twain |pages=44–64 |editor-last=Messent |editor-first=Peter |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-25271-8_3 |access-date=2024-06-04 |place=London |publisher=Macmillan Education UK |language=en |doi=10.1007/978-1-349-25271-8_3 |isbn=978-1-349-25271-8}}</ref> His experiences in Angels Camp (in Calaveras County, California) provided material for "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" (1865).<ref>{{Cite web |date=2015-05-14 |title=Great Read: The frog that jump-started Mark Twain's career |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/great-reads/la-et-c1-mark-twain-california-20150514-story.html |access-date=2024-06-04 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US |archive-date=October 12, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191012152236/https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/great-reads/la-et-c1-mark-twain-california-20150514-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Cuff |first=Roger Penn |date=1952 |title=Mark Twain's Use of California Folklore in His Jumping Frog Story |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/536886 |journal=The Journal of American Folklore |volume=65 |issue=256 |pages=155–158 |doi=10.2307/536886 |jstor=536886 |issn = 0021-8715}}</ref>

Twain moved to [[San Francisco]] in 1864, still as a journalist, and met writers such as [[Bret Harte]] and [[Artemus Ward]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Kamiya |first=Gary |date=October 9, 2015 |orig-date=October 9, 2015 |title=How Mark Twain got fired in San Francisco |url=https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/How-Mark-Twain-got-fired-in-San-Francisco-6562309.php |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181212234554/https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/How-Mark-Twain-got-fired-in-San-Francisco-6562309.php |archive-date=December 12, 2018 |access-date=August 22, 2024 |website=The San Francisco Chronicle}}</ref> He may have been romantically involved with the poet [[Ina Coolbrith]].<ref>{{cite book|publisher=The Virtual Museum of the City of San Francisco|author=Dickson, Samuel|url=http://www.sfmuseum.org/bio/isadora.html|title=Isadora Duncan (1878–1927)|access-date=July 9, 2009|archive-date=June 29, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170629233522/http://www.sfmuseum.org/bio/isadora.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

Twain's first success as a writer came when his humorous [[tall tale]] "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" was published on November 18, 1865, in the New York weekly ''[[The Saturday Press (literary newspaper)|The Saturday Press]]'', bringing him national attention. A year later, Twain traveled to the [[Hawaiian Islands|Sandwich Islands]] (present-day Hawaii) as a reporter for the ''[[Sacramento Union]]''. His letters to the ''Union'' were popular and became the basis for his first lectures.<ref name="PBS">{{cite web |title =Samuel Clemens |publisher =PBS:The West |url =https://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/a_c/clemens.htm |access-date =August 25, 2007 |archive-date =September 11, 2007 |archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20070911181827/http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/people/a_c/clemens.htm |url-status =live }}</ref>

In 1867, local newspapers
''[[The Daily Alta California|The Alta California]]'' and ''[[New-York Tribune]]'' funded Twain's trip to the [[Mediterranean Sea|Mediterranean]] aboard the ''Quaker City'', including a tour of Europe and the Middle East. He wrote a collection of travel letters which were later compiled as ''[[The Innocents Abroad]]'' (1869). It was on this trip that Twain met fellow passenger Charles Langdon, who showed him a picture of his sister [[Olivia Langdon Clemens|Olivia]]. Twain later claimed to have [[Love at first sight|fallen in love at first sight]].<ref>{{cite news|last1=Gunderman|first1=Richard|title=Mark Twain's adventures in love: How a rough-edged aspiring author courted a beautiful heiress|url=https://theconversation.com/mark-twains-adventures-in-love-how-a-rough-edged-aspiring-author-courted-a-beautiful-heiress-90739|access-date=February 12, 2018|work=[[The Conversation (website)|The Conversation]]|date=February 12, 2018|archive-date=February 12, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180212135805/http://theconversation.com/mark-twains-adventures-in-love-how-a-rough-edged-aspiring-author-courted-a-beautiful-heiress-90739|url-status=live}}</ref>

Upon returning to the United States, Twain was offered honorary membership in [[Yale University]]'s secret society [[Scroll and Key]] in 1868.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EWvU21-vV8EC&pg=PA281|title=Mark Twain's Letters: 1867–1868|author1=Mark Twain |author2=Edgar Marquess Branch |author3=Michael B. Frank |author4=Kenneth M. Sanderson |publisher=University of California Press |year=1990|isbn=978-0520906075}}</ref>

===Marriage and children===
[[File:Mark Twain 1871-02-07.jpg|thumb|right|(From l. to r.) American Civil War correspondent and author [[George Alfred Townsend]], Mark Twain and David Gray, editor of the rival ''[[Buffalo Courier-Express|Buffalo Courier]]''<ref name="MTP-Gray"/>]]
[[File:Mark Twain House and Museum 2007.jpg|thumb|right|[[Twain House]] in Hartford, Connecticut]]

Twain and [[Olivia Langdon]] corresponded throughout 1868. She rejected his first marriage proposal, but Twain continued to court her and managed to overcome her father's initial reluctance.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Concerning Mark Twain|journal=The Week: A Canadian Journal of Politics, Literature, Science and Arts|date=February 14, 1884|volume=1|issue=11|page=171|url=https://archive.org/stream/weekcanadianjour01toro#page/n86/mode/1up|access-date=April 26, 2013}}</ref> They were married in [[Elmira, New York]], in February 1870.<ref name="PBS"/> She came from a "wealthy but liberal family"; through her, Twain met [[Abolitionism in the United States|abolitionists]], "socialists, principled atheists and activists for [[women's rights]] and [[social equality]]", including [[Harriet Beecher Stowe]], [[Frederick Douglass]], and [[utopian socialism|utopian socialist]] writer [[William Dean Howells]],<ref name="helen-scott">{{Cite journal |last=Scott |first=Helen |title=The Mark Twain They Didn't Teach Us About in School |journal=International Socialist Review |volume=10 |date=Winter 2000 |pages=61–65 |url=http://www.marxists.de/culture/twain/noteach.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190616051030/http://www.marxists.de/culture/twain/noteach.htm|archive-date=June 16, 2019}}</ref> who became a long-time friend. The Clemenses lived in [[Buffalo, New York]], from 1869 to 1871. Twain owned a stake in the ''[[Buffalo Courier-Express|Buffalo Express]]'' newspaper and worked as an editor and writer.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Dlugosz |first1=Steve |title=Mark Twain's experience in Buffalo described as brief but memorable |url=http://ampoleagle.com/mark-twains-experience-in-buffalo-described-as-brief-but-memorable-p10010-1.htm |access-date=December 18, 2020 |work=The Am-Pol Eagle |date=May 27, 2020 |archive-date=May 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210527122731/http://ampoleagle.com/mark-twains-experience-in-buffalo-described-as-brief-but-memorable-p10010-1.htm |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="MTP-Gray">{{cite web |title=David Gray biography |url=https://www.marktwainproject.org/biographies/bio_gray_david.html |website=Mark Twain Project |access-date=December 18, 2020 |archive-date=February 1, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210201194301/https://www.marktwainproject.org/biographies/bio_gray_david.html |url-status=live }}</ref> While they were living in Buffalo, their son Langdon died of [[diphtheria]] in 1872 at the age of 19&nbsp;months. They had three daughters: [[Susy Clemens|Susy]] (1872–1896), [[Clara Clemens|Clara]] (1874–1962),<ref>{{cite news |title=Mrs. Jacques Samossoud Dies; Mark Twain's Last Living Child; Released 'Letters From Earth' |quote=San Diego, Nov. 20 (UPI) Mrs. Clara Langhorne Clemens Samossoud, the last living child of Mark Twain, died last night in Sharp Memorial Hospital. She was 88 years old. |newspaper=The New York Times |date=November 21, 1962}}</ref> and [[Jean Clemens|Jean]] (1880–1909). The Clemenses formed a friendship with David Gray, who worked as an editor of the rival ''[[Buffalo Courier-Express|Buffalo Courier]]'', and his wife Martha. Twain later wrote that the Grays were {{"'}}all the solace' he and Livy had during their 'sorrowful and pathetic brief sojourn in Buffalo{{'"}}, and that Gray's "delicate gift for poetry" was wasted working for a newspaper.<ref name="MTP-Gray"/>

Starting in 1873, Twain moved his family to [[Hartford, Connecticut]], where he arranged the building of [[Mark Twain House|a home]] next door to Stowe. In the 1870s and 1880s, the family summered at [[Quarry Farm]] in Elmira, the home of Olivia's sister, Susan Crane.<ref name=Elmira>{{cite web |url=http://www.elmira.edu/academics/programs/Center_Twain/Quarry_Farm.html |title=Twain's Home in Elmira |publisher=[[Elmira College]] Center for Mark Twain Studies |access-date=May 1, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140729000450/http://www.elmira.edu/academics/programs/Center_Twain/Quarry_Farm.html |archive-date=July 29, 2014 }}</ref><ref name=Cresset>{{cite web |url=http://www.valpo.edu/cresset/2010/Advent/Bush_A10.html |title=A Week at Quarry Farm |author=Hal Bush |publisher=The Cresset, A review of literature, the arts, and public affairs, [[Valparaiso University]] |date=Christmas 2010 |access-date=May 1, 2011}}</ref> In 1874,<ref name=Elmira/> Susan had a study built, an octagonal gazebo set apart from the main house, as a surprise to Twain so that he would have a quiet place in which to write and enjoy his cigars.<ref>{{Cite web |title=An Interview with Mark Twain |url=https://storyoftheweek.loa.org/2019/04/an-interview-with-mark-twain.html |access-date=2024-06-04 |website=Library of America |archive-date=June 4, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240604110913/https://storyoftheweek.loa.org/2019/04/an-interview-with-mark-twain.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=Lowe |first=Hilary Iris |title=Mark Twain Sites |date=2020 |work=Mark Twain in Context |pages=354–362 |editor-last=Bird |editor-first=John |url=https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/mark-twain-in-context/mark-twain-sites/CF6BA4928D0CBAAB339BA3D12D0C4826 |access-date=2024-06-04 |series=Literature in Context |place=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-47260-9}}</ref>

Twain wrote many of his classic novels during his 17 years in Hartford (1874–1891) and over 20 summers at Quarry Farm. They include ''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' (1876), ''[[The Prince and the Pauper]]'' (1881), ''Life on the Mississippi'' (1883), ''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' (1884), and ''A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court'' (1889).<ref>{{Cite news |last=Mitgang |first=Herbert |date=1985-04-28 |title=1985: A very good year to celebrate Mark Twain |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1985/04/28/books/1985-a-very-good-year-to-celebrate-mark-twain.html |access-date=2024-06-04 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=June 4, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240604111620/https://www.nytimes.com/1985/04/28/books/1985-a-very-good-year-to-celebrate-mark-twain.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Murray |first=Jeff |date=2024-05-15 |title=Quarry Farm, Mark Twain's Elmira summer home, nets major grant. How money will be used. |url=https://www.stargazette.com/story/news/local/2024/05/15/mark-twains-elmira-summer-home-gets-grant-for-fire-suppression-system/73698402007/ |access-date=2024-06-04 |website=Star-Gazette |language=en-US |archive-date=June 4, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240604111614/https://www.stargazette.com/story/news/local/2024/05/15/mark-twains-elmira-summer-home-gets-grant-for-fire-suppression-system/73698402007/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

The couple's marriage lasted 34 years until Olivia's death in 1904.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1904-06-24 |title=Headline announces the death of Olivia Langdon, wife of Mark Twain |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-mitchell-capital-headline-announces/26227663/ |access-date=2024-06-04 |work=The Mitchell Capital |pages=12 |archive-date=June 4, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240604103406/https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-mitchell-capital-headline-announces/26227663/ |url-status=live }}</ref> All of the Clemens family are buried in Elmira's [[Woodlawn Cemetery (Elmira, New York)|Woodlawn Cemetery]].<ref>{{Cite web |last=Jamieson |first=Bob |date=2015-09-15 |title=Mark Twain gets his plaque back in Elmira cemetery |url=https://www.stargazette.com/story/news/2015/09/14/mark-twain-plaque-woodlawn-elmira-restored/72261012/ |access-date=2024-06-04 |website=Star-Gazette |language=en-US |archive-date=June 4, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240604103409/https://www.stargazette.com/story/news/2015/09/14/mark-twain-plaque-woodlawn-elmira-restored/72261012/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Selby |first=P.O. |date=1977 |title=The Langdon-Clemens Grave Plot |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41641056 |journal=Mark Twain Journal |volume=18 |issue=4 |pages=19–20 |jstor=41641056 |issn=0025-3499 |access-date=June 4, 2024 |archive-date=June 4, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240604103407/https://www.jstor.org/stable/41641056 |url-status=live }}</ref>

===Love of science and technology===
[[File:Twain in Tesla's Lab.jpg|thumb|Twain in the laboratory of [[Nikola Tesla]], early 1894]]
[[File:Mark Twain at Stormfield (1909).webm|thumb|right|thumbtime=0:50|[[:File:Mark Twain at Stormfield (1909).webm|''Mark Twain at Stormfield'']] (1909)]]

Twain was fascinated with science and scientific inquiry. He developed a close and lasting friendship with [[Nikola Tesla]], and the two spent much time together in Tesla's laboratory.<ref>{{cite web |title=Unexpected Futurist: Mark Twain, Tesla, and a Vision of a Worldwide Visual Telephone System The 2030 Team |url=https://medium.com/@paul_75346/unexpected-futurist-mark-twain-tesla-and-a-vision-of-a-worldwide-visual-telephone-system-46dff6759789 |website=Medium |date=April 22, 2020 |access-date=July 7, 2023 |archive-date=July 10, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230710081234/https://medium.com/@paul_75346/unexpected-futurist-mark-twain-tesla-and-a-vision-of-a-worldwide-visual-telephone-system-46dff6759789 |url-status=live }}</ref>
Twain patented three inventions, including an "Improvement in Adjustable and Detachable Straps for Garments" (to replace [[suspenders]]) and a history trivia game.<ref name=USPTO>{{cite web |url=https://www.uspto.gov/about-us/news-updates/mark-twain-granted-his-first-patent-december-19-1871|title=Mark Twain Granted His First Patent on December 19, 1871 |publisher=[[United States Patent and Trademark Office]]|date=December 18, 2001|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201016162108/https://www.uspto.gov/about-us/news-updates/mark-twain-granted-his-first-patent-december-19-1871|archive-date=October 16, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book | last=Niemann | first=Paul J. | title=Invention Mysteries (Invention Mysteries Series) | date= 2004| publisher=Horsefeathers Publishing Company | isbn=0-9748041-0-X | pages=53–54 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TFjBk0tn9A4C&pg=PA52}}</ref> Most commercially successful was a self-pasting scrapbook; a dried adhesive on the pages needed only to be moistened before use.<ref name=USPTO/> More than 25,000 were sold.<ref name=USPTO/>

Twain made fun of the map making process in his "Map of Paris" from 1870.<ref>{{Cite web |date=1870 |title=Mark Twain's Map of Paris [explanation] |url=https://digital.library.cornell.edu/catalog/ss:19343172 |access-date=2025-03-26 |website=digital.library.cornell.edu |language=en}}</ref>

Twain was an early proponent of [[fingerprint]]ing as a forensic technique, featuring it in a [[tall tale]] in ''[[Life on the Mississippi]]'' (1883) and as a central plot element in the novel ''[[Pudd'nhead Wilson]]'' (1894).<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rutten |first=Tim |date=2008-10-18 |title=The LAPD flunks fingerprinting |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-oct-18-oe-rutten18-story.html |access-date=2024-06-05 |website=Los Angeles Times |language=en-US |archive-date=June 5, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240605040345/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-oct-18-oe-rutten18-story.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Preschel |first=Dr Lewis |date=2011-06-06 |title=Fingerprints 103: Mark Twain's Prescience and Crime's Penmen |url=https://www.criminalelement.com/fingerprints-103-mark-twains-prescience-and-crimes-penmen/ |access-date=2024-06-05 |website=Criminal Element |language=en-US |archive-date=June 5, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240605040349/https://www.criminalelement.com/fingerprints-103-mark-twains-prescience-and-crimes-penmen/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Twain's novel ''[[A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court]]'' (1889) features a [[time travel]]er from the contemporary U.S., using his knowledge of science to introduce modern technology to [[King Arthur|Arthurian]] England. This type of historical manipulation became a trope of speculative fiction as [[alternate history|alternate histories]].<ref>{{Citation |last=Carver |first=Ben |title=Earliness and Lateness: Alternate History in American Literature |date=2017 |work=Alternate Histories and Nineteenth-Century Literature: Untimely Meditations in Britain, France, and America |pages=207–259 |editor-last=Carver |editor-first=Ben |url=https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-57334-6_6 |access-date=2024-06-05 |place=London |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK |language=en |doi=10.1057/978-1-137-57334-6_6 |isbn=978-1-137-57334-6}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Collins |first=William J. |date=1986 |title=Hank Morgan in the Garden of Forking Paths: "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" as Alternative History |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26281854 |journal=Modern Fiction Studies |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=109–114 |jstor=26281854 |issn=0026-7724 |access-date=June 5, 2024 |archive-date=June 5, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240605040827/https://www.jstor.org/stable/26281854 |url-status=live }}</ref>

In 1909, [[Thomas Edison]] visited Twain at [[Stormfield]], his home in [[Redding, Connecticut]], and filmed him. Part of the footage was used in ''The Prince and the Pauper'' (1909), a two-reel short film. It is the only known existing film footage of Twain.<ref>{{Citation|title=The Only Footage of Mark Twain in Existence|publisher=Smithsonian.com|url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-only-footage-of-mark-twain-in-existence-13605003/access-date=April 13, 2024|archive-date=January 16, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170116152007/http://www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/category/arts-culture/the-only-footage-of-mark-twain-in-existence/|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Financial troubles===
Twain made a substantial amount of money through his writing, but he lost a great deal through investments. Twain invested mostly in new inventions and technology, particularly the [[Paige Compositor|Paige typesetting machine]]. It was considered a mechanical marvel that amazed viewers when it worked, but it was prone to breakdowns. Twain spent $300,000 ({{Inflation|US|300000|1880|fmt=eq|r=0}}) on it between 1880 and 1894,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.marktwainhouse.org/themuseum/archivist.shtml |title=Mark Twain House website – Paige Compositor page |publisher=Marktwainhouse.org |access-date=December 30, 2010 |archive-date=September 19, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080919131459/http://www.marktwainhouse.org/themuseum/archivist.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref> but before it could be perfected it was rendered obsolete by the [[Linotype machine|Linotype]]. He lost the bulk of his book profits, as well as a substantial portion of his wife's inheritance.<ref name="c-a-kirk">{{Cite book |last=Kirk |first=Connie Ann |author-link = Connie Ann Kirk |title=Mark Twain&nbsp;– A Biography |location=Connecticut |publisher=Greenwood Printing |year=2004 |isbn=0-313-33025-5 }}</ref>

Twain also lost money through his publishing house, [[Charles L. Webster and Company]], which enjoyed initial success selling the [[Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant|memoirs]] of [[Ulysses S. Grant]] but failed soon afterward, losing money on a biography of [[Pope Leo XIII]]. Fewer than 200 copies were sold.<ref name="c-a-kirk" />

Twain and his family closed down their expensive Hartford home in response to the dwindling income and moved to Europe in June 1891. [[William M. Laffan]] of ''[[The Sun (New York)|The New York Sun]]'' and the [[McClure Newspaper Syndicate]] offered him the publication of a series of six European letters. Twain, Olivia, and their daughter Susy were all faced with health problems, and they believed that it would be of benefit to visit European baths.<ref name="paine">{{cite web |url=http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/t/twain/mark/paine/complete.html |title=Mark Twain, A Biography |author=Albert Bigelow Paine |date=December 17, 2014 |website=eBooks@Adelaide  |access-date=November 25, 2014 |archive-date=March 19, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190319130842/https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/t/twain/mark/paine/complete.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>{{Rp|175}} The family stayed mainly in France, Germany, and Italy until May 1895, with longer spells at [[Berlin]] (winter 1891–92), [[Florence]] (fall and winter 1892–93), and Paris (winters and springs 1893–94 and 1894–95). During that period, Twain returned to New York four times due to his enduring business troubles. Twain rented "a cheap room" in September 1893 at $1.50 per day ({{Inflation|US|1.5|1893|fmt=eq|r=0}}) at [[The Players (New York City)|The Players Club]], which he had to keep until March 1894; meanwhile, Twain became "the Belle of New York", in the words of biographer [[Albert Bigelow Paine]].<ref name="paine" />{{Rp|176–190}}

Twain's writings and lectures enabled him to recover financially, combined with the help of his friend [[Henry Huttleston Rogers]].<ref>Lauber, John. ''The Inventions of Mark Twain: a Biography''. New York: Hill and Wang, 1990.</ref> In 1893, Twain began a friendship with the financier, a principal of [[Standard Oil]], that lasted the remainder of his life. Rogers first made Twain file for bankruptcy in April 1894, then had him transfer the copyrights on his written works to his wife to prevent creditors from gaining possession of them. Finally, Rogers took absolute charge of Twain's money until all his creditors were paid.<ref name="paine" />{{Rp|188}}

Twain accepted an offer from [[Robert Sparrow Smythe]]<ref name=adb>
{{Australian Dictionary of Biography
 |first=M. |last=Shillingsburg
 |title=Smythe, Robert Sparrow (1833–1917)
 |id2=smythe-robert-sparrow-8568
 |access-date=August 30, 2013}}</ref> and embarked on a year-long around-the-world lecture tour in July 1895<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.twainquotes.com/SpeechIndex.html |title=Chronology of Known Mark Twain Speeches, Public Readings, and Lectures |author=Barbara Schmidt |publisher=marktwainquotes.com |access-date=February 7, 2010 |archive-date=August 9, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230809042844/http://www.twainquotes.com/SpeechIndex.html |url-status=live }}</ref> to pay off his creditors in full, although Twain was no longer under any legal obligation to do so.<ref>Cox, James M. ''Mark Twain: The Fate of Humor''. Princeton University Press, 1966.</ref> It was a long, arduous journey, and he was sick much of the time, mostly from a cold and a [[carbuncle]]. The first part of the itinerary took Twain across northern America to [[British Columbia]], Canada, until the second half of August. For the second part, he sailed across the Pacific Ocean. Twain's scheduled lecture in [[Honolulu]], Hawaii, had to be canceled due to a cholera epidemic.<ref name="paine" />{{Rp|188}}<ref>{{cite book
|title=Critical Companion to Mark Twain: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work
|last=Rasmussen
|first=R. Kent
|year=2007
|publisher=Facts on File
|location=New York
|isbn=978-0-8160-6225-6
|page =723}}</ref> Twain went on to [[Fiji]], Australia, New Zealand, [[Sri Lanka]], India, [[Mauritius]], and South Africa. His three months in India became the centerpiece of his 712-page book ''[[Following the Equator]]''. In the second half of July 1896, Twain sailed back to England, completing his circumnavigation of the world begun 14 months before.<ref name="paine" />{{Rp|188}}

Twain and his family spent four more years in Europe, mainly in England and Austria (October 1897 to May 1899), with longer spells in London and [[Vienna]]. Clara had wished to study the piano under [[Theodor Leschetizky]] in Vienna.<ref name="paine" />{{Rp|192–211}}
However, Jean's health did not benefit from consulting with specialists in Vienna, the "City of Doctors".<ref>{{Cite book|title=Mark Twain and Medicine: "Any Mummery Will Cure"|url=https://archive.org/details/marktwainmedicin00ober|url-access=limited|last=Ober|first=Patrick|publisher=University of Missouri Press|year=2003|location=Columbia|page=[https://archive.org/details/marktwainmedicin00ober/page/n179 157]|isbn=9780826215024}}</ref> The family moved to London in spring 1899, following a lead by [[Poultney Bigelow]], who had a good experience being treated by Dr. Jonas Henrik Kellgren, a Swedish [[Osteopathy|osteopathic]] practitioner in [[Belgravia]]. They were persuaded to spend the summer at Kellgren's [[sanatorium]] by the lake in the [[Sweden|Swedish]] village of Sanna. Coming back in fall, they continued the treatment in London, until Twain was convinced by lengthy inquiries in America that similar osteopathic expertise was available there.<ref>{{cite book
|title=Mark Twain and Medicine: Any Mummery Will Cure
|url=https://archive.org/details/marktwainmedicin00ober
|url-access=limited
|last=Ober
|first=K. Patrick
|year=2003
|publisher=[[University of Missouri Press]]
|location=Columbia
|isbn=0-8262-1502-5
|pages = [https://archive.org/details/marktwainmedicin00ober/page/n175 153]–161}}</ref>

In mid-1900, Twain was the guest of newspaper proprietor [[Hugh Gilzean-Reid]] at [[Dollis Hill House]], located on the north side of London. Twain wrote that he had "never seen any place that was so satisfactorily situated, with its noble trees and stretch of country, and everything that went to make life delightful, and all within a biscuit's throw of the metropolis of the world."<ref name=dollishill>{{cite news |url=http://www.dollishillhouse.org.uk/history.htm |title=History of Dollis Hill House |publisher=Dollis Hill House Trust |year=2006 |access-date=July 3, 2007 |archive-date=May 11, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080511142223/http://www.dollishillhouse.org.uk/history.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> Twain then returned to America in October 1900, having earned enough to pay off his debts. In winter 1900/01, Twain became his country's most prominent [[#Imperialism|opponent of imperialism]], raising the issue in his speeches, interviews, and writings. In January 1901, Twain began serving as vice-president of the [[American Anti-Imperialist League|Anti-Imperialist League]] of New York.<ref>{{cite book
|title=A Historical Guide to Mark Twain
|url=https://archive.org/details/historicalguidet00fish
|url-access=limited
|last=Zwick
|first=Jim
|editor=Shelley Fisher Fishkin
|editor1-link=Shelley Fisher Fishkin
|year=2002
|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]
|location=New York
|isbn=-0-19-513293-9
|chapter=Mark Twain and Imperialism
|pages = [https://archive.org/details/historicalguidet00fish/page/n248 240]–241}}</ref><ref name=":2" />

===Speaking engagements===
[[File:Sydney writers walk mark twain.jpg|thumb|Plaque on [[Sydney Writers Walk]] commemorating the visit of Twain in 1895]]
Twain was in great demand as a featured speaker, performing solo humorous talks similar to modern stand-up comedy.<ref>Judith Yaross Lee, "Mark Twain as a Stand-up Comedian", ''The Mark Twain Annual'' (2006) No. 4 pp.&nbsp;3–23. {{doi|10.1111/j.1756-2597.2006.tb00038.x}}</ref> He gave paid talks to many men's clubs, including the [[Authors' Club]], [[Beefsteak Club]], Vagabonds, [[White Friars]], and Monday Evening Club of Hartford.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Popova |first=Maria |date=2013-05-17 |title=Mark Twain and Rudyard Kipling Critique the Media |url=https://www.themarginalian.org/2013/05/17/mark-twain-and-rudyard-kipling-critique-the-press/ |access-date=2024-06-05 |website=The Marginalian |language=en-US |archive-date=June 5, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240605041953/https://www.themarginalian.org/2013/05/17/mark-twain-and-rudyard-kipling-critique-the-press/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Davies |first=David Stuart |date=2020-08-28 |title=David Stuart Davies takes a look at Mark Twain |url=https://wordsworth-editions.com/mark-twain/ |access-date=2024-06-05 |website=Wordsworth Editions |language=en-GB |archive-date=June 5, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240605041954/https://wordsworth-editions.com/mark-twain/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title= Mark Twain, a Biography| volume =II Part 2 1886-1900|page =108 |url=https://mark-twain.classic-literature.co.uk/mark-twain-a-biography-volume-ii-part-2-1886-1900/ebook-page-108.asp |access-date=2024-06-05 |website=mark-twain.classic-literature.co.uk |archive-date=June 5, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240605041953/https://mark-twain.classic-literature.co.uk/mark-twain-a-biography-volume-ii-part-2-1886-1900/ebook-page-108.asp |url-status=live }}</ref>

In the late 1890s, Twain spoke to the [[Savage Club]] in London and was elected an honorary member. He was told that only three men had been so honored, including the [[Edward VII of the United Kingdom|Prince of Wales]], and Twain replied: "Well, it must make the Prince feel mighty fine."<ref name="paine"/>{{Rp|197}} He visited [[Melbourne]] and [[Sydney]] in 1895 as part of a world lecture tour. In 1897, Twain spoke to the Concordia Press Club in Vienna as a special guest, following the diplomat [[Charlemagne Tower, Jr.]] He delivered the speech "''[[The Awful German Language|Die Schrecken der Deutschen Sprache]]''" ("The Horrors of the German Language")—in German—to the great amusement of the audience.<ref name="lemaster"/>{{Rp|50}} In 1901, Twain was invited to speak at [[Princeton University]]'s [[American Whig-Cliosophic Society|Cliosophic Literary Society]], where he was made an honorary member.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.twainquotes.com/19010510.html |title=Mark Twain at Princeton |publisher=Twainquotes.com |access-date=December 7, 2013 |archive-date=May 23, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130523063020/http://www.twainquotes.com/19010510.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In 1906, he testified in front of a [[United States Congress|Congressional]] [[Joint committee (legislative)|joint committee]] in favor of a bill that would extend the [[History of copyright law of the United States#Failed bill of rights provision|length of protection for a copyright]] to lifetime of the author plus 50 years, stating "I think that will satisfy any reasonable author, because it will take care of his children. Let the grandchildren take care of themselves."<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Madsen |first=Annelise |date=March 2009 |title=Dressing the Part: Mark Twain's White Suit, Copyright Reform, and the Camera |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/200598627 |journal=The Journal of American Culture |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=53–71 |doi=10.1111/j.1542-734X.2009.00693.x |id={{ProQuest|200598627 }} }}</ref>

====Canadian visits====
In 1881, Twain was honored at a banquet in [[Montreal]], Canada where he made reference to securing a [[copyright]].<ref>{{cite web|title=Mark Twain in Montreal|url=http://www.twainquotes.com/18811210.html|website=twainquotes.com|publisher=The New York Times|access-date=January 2, 2017|ref=tq|archive-date=May 9, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080509081234/http://www.twainquotes.com/18811210.html|url-status=live}}</ref> In 1883, Twain paid a brief visit to [[Ottawa]],<ref name="mtj"/> and he visited [[Toronto]] twice in 1884 and 1885 on a reading tour with [[George Washington Cable]], known as the "Twins of Genius" tour.<ref name="mtj">{{cite journal|last1=Roberts|first1=Taylor|title=Mark Twain in Toronto, Ontario, 1884–1885|jstor=41641453|journal=Mark Twain Journal|volume=36|issue=2|pages=18–25|year=1998}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=The Genial Mark|url=http://twain.lib.virginia.edu/huckfinn/twintur11.html|website=University of Virginia Library|publisher=Toronto Globe|access-date=January 2, 2017|ref=uva|archive-date=January 19, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170119152244/http://twain.lib.virginia.edu/huckfinn/twintur11.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="trl">{{cite web|title=Mark Twain in Toronto|url=http://torontopubliclibrary.typepad.com/trl/2015/09/mark-twain-in-toronto.html|website=Toronto Reference Library Blog|access-date=January 2, 2017|archive-date=January 2, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170102172134/http://torontopubliclibrary.typepad.com/trl/2015/09/mark-twain-in-toronto.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

The reason for the Toronto visits was to secure Canadian and British copyrights for Twain's upcoming book ''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'',<ref name="mtj"/><ref name=trl/> to which he had alluded in his Montreal visit. The reason for the Ottawa visit had been to secure Canadian and British copyrights for ''Life on the Mississippi''.<ref name="mtj"/> Publishers in Toronto had printed unauthorized editions of Twain's books at the time, before an international copyright agreement was established in 1891.<ref name="mtj"/> These were sold in the United States as well as in Canada, depriving him of royalties. Twain estimated that [[Charles Belford|Belford Brothers']] edition of ''The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'' alone had cost him $10,000 ({{Inflation|US|10000|1884|fmt=eq|r=-4}}).<ref name="mtj"/> He had unsuccessfully attempted to secure the rights for ''The Prince and the Pauper'' in 1881, in conjunction with his Montreal trip.<ref name="mtj"/> Eventually, Twain received legal advice to register a copyright in Canada (for both Canada and Britain) prior to publishing in the United States, which would restrain the Canadian publishers from printing a version when the American edition was published.<ref name="mtj"/><ref name=trl/> There was a requirement that a copyright be registered to a Canadian resident; Twain addressed this by his short visits to the country.<ref name="mtj"/><ref name=trl/>

===Later life and death===
{{Quote frame|align=right|The report of my death was an exaggeration. 1897|author=Twain<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/562400/reports-mark-twains-quote-about-mark-twains-death-are-greatly-exaggerated|title=Reports of Mark Twain's Quote About His Own Death Are Greatly Exaggerated|last=Petsko|first=Emily|date=November 2, 2018|access-date=20 July 2021|archive-date=July 15, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210715163816/https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/562400/reports-mark-twains-quote-about-mark-twains-death-are-greatly-exaggerated|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>"Chapters from My Autobiography", ''North American Review'', September 21, 1906, p. 160. Mark Twain</ref>}}
In his later years, Twain lived at 14 West 10th Street in [[Manhattan]].<ref>{{Cite web |last= |first= |date=April 14, 2017 |title=Find out if New York's greatest writers lived next door |url=https://nypost.com/2017/04/14/find-out-if-new-yorks-greatest-writers-lived-next-door/ |access-date=June 13, 2023 |language=en-US |archive-date=January 20, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180120070757/https://nypost.com/2017/04/14/find-out-if-new-yorks-greatest-writers-lived-next-door/ |url-status=live }}</ref> He passed through a period of deep depression which began in 1896 when his daughter Susy died of [[meningitis]]. Olivia's death in 1904 and Jean's on December 24, 1909, deepened Twain's gloom.<ref name="housebio" /> On May 20, 1909, his close friend Henry Rogers died suddenly.<ref name=obit>{{cite news |title=Apoplexy Carries Off the Financier Famous in Standard Oil, Railways, Gas, and Copper. |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B02E3D8153EE733A25753C2A9639C946897D6CF |quote=Henry Huttleston Rogers, one of the foremost of the country's captains of industry, and a notable figure for many years in financial and corporation development in this country, died suddenly at his home, 3 East Seventy-eighth Street, at 7:20 o'clock yesterday morning, following a stroke of [[apoplexy]], the second one he had suffered. |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=July 1, 2022 |date=May 20, 1909 |archive-date=May 4, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160504184136/http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9B02E3D8153EE733A25753C2A9639C946897D6CF |url-status=live }}</ref>

In April 1906, Twain heard that his friend Ina Coolbrith had lost nearly all that she owned in the [[1906 San Francisco earthquake]], and he volunteered a few autographed portrait photographs to be sold for her benefit. To further aid Coolbrith, [[George Wharton James]] visited Twain in New York and arranged for a new portrait session. Twain was resistant initially, but he eventually admitted that four of the resulting images were the finest ones ever taken of him.<ref>TwainQuotes.com [http://www.twainquotes.com/Bradley/bradley.html ''The Story Behind the A. F. Bradley Photos''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080724224241/http://www.twainquotes.com/Bradley/bradley.html |date=July 24, 2008 }}, Retrieved on July 10, 2009.</ref> In September, Twain started publishing [[Chapters from My Autobiography|chapters from his autobiography]] in the ''[[North American Review]]''.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Mark Twain's own autobiography: the chapters from the North American review|last=Twain|first=Mark|date=2010|publisher=University of Wisconsin Press|editor-last=Kiskis|editor-first=Michael J.|isbn=9780299234737|edition= 2nd|location=Madison|oclc=608692466}}</ref> The same year, [[Charlotte Teller]], a writer living with her grandmother at 3 Fifth Avenue, began an acquaintanceship with him which "lasted several years and may have included romantic intentions" on his part.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kaser|first=James A.|title=The Chicago of Fiction: A Resource Guide|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WqlgaZqW67EC|year=2011|page=501|publisher=The Scarecrow Press|isbn=9780810877245}}</ref>

[[File:Autochrome of Mark Twain.jpg|left|thumb|Twain photographed in 1908 via the [[Autochrome Lumiere]] process]]
In 1906, Twain formed the Angel Fish and Aquarium Club, for girls whom he viewed as surrogate granddaughters. Its dozen or so members ranged in age from 10 to 16. Twain exchanged letters with his "Angel Fish" girls and invited them to concerts and the theatre and to play games. Twain wrote in 1908 that the club was his "life's chief delight".<ref name="lemaster"/>{{Rp|28}} In 1907, he met [[Dorothy Quick]] (then age 11) on a transatlantic crossing, beginning "a friendship that was to last until the very day of his death".<ref>''[[The New York Times]]'', March 16, 1962, [http://www.twainquotes.com/19620316.html DOROTHY QUICK, POET AND AUTHOR: Mystery Writer Dies – Was Friend of Mark Twain] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140923142851/http://www.twainquotes.com/19620316.html |date=September 23, 2014}}</ref>

[[File:Mark Twain DLitt.jpg|thumb|upright|Twain in academic regalia for acceptance of the [[D.Litt.]] degree awarded to him by [[Oxford University]] in 1907]]
Twain was awarded an honorary [[Doctor of Letters]] (D.Litt.) by [[Yale University]] in 1901 and a [[Doctor of Law]] by the [[University of Missouri]] in 1902. [[Oxford University]] awarded him a Doctorate of Law in 1907.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41582169|access-date=July 1, 2022|date=2003|title=In His Own Time: The Early Academic Reception of Mark Twain – The Mark Twain Annual No. 1|journal=The Mark Twain Annual|author=Terry Oggel|pages=45–60 [52, 58]|publisher=[[Penn State University Press]]|jstor=41582169|archive-date=July 1, 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220701190457/https://www.jstor.org/stable/41582169|url-status=live}}</ref>

Twain was born two weeks after [[Halley's Comet]]'s closest approach in 1835; he said in 1909:<ref name="paine" />
{{blockquote|I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: "Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together". }}

Twain's prediction was eerily accurate; he died of a heart attack on April 21, 1910, in [[Stormfield]], one day after the comet was at its closest to the Sun and a month before the comet passed the Earth.<ref name="greatcomets">{{Cite web |title=Great Comets in History |first=Donald Keith |last=Yeomans |publisher=Jet Propulsion Laboratory |url=http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/?great_comets |date=1998 |access-date=July 1, 2022 |archive-date=February 4, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120204054558/http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/?great_comets |url-status=dead }}</ref>

[[File:Graves of Olivia Langdon Clemens and Mark Twain.jpg|thumb|left|Twain and his wife are buried side by side in Elmira's [[Woodlawn Cemetery (Elmira, New York)|Woodlawn Cemetery]]]]
Upon hearing of Twain's death, President [[William Howard Taft]] said:<ref>{{cite web |url=http://classiclit.about.com/cs/profileswriters/p/aa_marktwain.htm |title=Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) |access-date=November 1, 2006 |author=Esther Lombardi, [[about.com]] |archive-date=September 5, 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060905202410/http://classiclit.about.com/cs/profileswriters/p/aa_marktwain.htm |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title=Mark Twain is Dead at 74. End Comes Peacefully at His New England Home After a Long Illness. |quote=[[Danbury, Connecticut]], April 21, 1910. Samuel Langhorne Clemens, "Mark Twain", died at 22 minutes after 6 to-night. Beside him on the bed lay a beloved book&nbsp;– it was Carlyle's ''French Revolution''&nbsp;– and near the book his glasses, pushed away with a weary sigh a few hours before. Too weak to speak clearly, he had written, "Give me my glasses", on a piece of paper. |work=The New York Times |date=April 22, 1910}}</ref>

{{blockquote|Mark Twain gave pleasure – real intellectual enjoyment – to millions, and his works will continue to give such pleasure to millions yet to come ... His humor was American, but he was nearly as much appreciated by Englishmen and people of other countries as by his own countrymen. He has made an enduring part of [[American literature]].}}

Twain's funeral was at the [[Brick Presbyterian Church (New York City)|Brick Presbyterian Church]] on Fifth Avenue, New York.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Mark Twain: Man in White: The Grand Adventure of His Final Years|first=Michael|last=Shelden|date=2010|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-0679448006|edition=1st|location=New York|oclc=320952684|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/marktwainmaninwh0000shel}}</ref> He is buried in his wife's family plot at [[Woodlawn Cemetery (Elmira, New York)|Woodlawn Cemetery]] in [[Elmira, New York]]. The Langdon family plot is marked by a {{Convert|12|ft|m|adj=mid}} monument (two fathoms, or "mark twain") placed there by Twain's surviving daughter Clara.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.go-new-york.com/Elmira |title=Elmira Travel Information |publisher=Go-new-york.com |access-date=December 30, 2010 |archive-date=May 22, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110522094645/http://www.go-new-york.com/Elmira/ |url-status=live }}</ref> There is also a smaller headstone. He expressed a preference for cremation (for example, in ''Life on the Mississippi''), but he acknowledged that his surviving family would have the last word.

Officials in Connecticut and New York estimated the value of Twain's estate at $471,000 (${{Inflation|US-GDP|471,000|1910|r=-6|fmt=c}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}).<ref>{{cite news |title=Mark Twain Estate About Half Million; Largely in Stocks and Estimated Worth of the Mark Twain Company. |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1911/07/15/archives/mark-twain-estate-about-half-million-largely-in-stocks-and.html |access-date=March 26, 2022 |date=July 15, 1911 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220102124939/https://www.nytimes.com/1911/07/15/archives/mark-twain-estate-about-half-million-largely-in-stocks-and.html |archive-date=January 2, 2022 |quote=Deputy State Controller Julius Harburger filed with the Surrogates' Court yesterday the tax appraisal of the estate of Samuel L. Clements, (Mark Twain.) Mr. Clemens died at his home in Connecticut on April 21, 1910. He left in this State and Connecticut an estate aggregating $471,136.}}</ref>