Samuel Langhorne Clemens

Samuel Langhorne Clemens
– Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910)

Missouri-born Samuel Clemens is best known by his pen name Mark Twain. The author, lecturer, humorist, and sometime inventor moved to Hartford in 1871, shortly after marrying Olivia Langdon. There, in the Nook Farm area inhabited by literary talents, social reformers, and other accomplished individuals, the couple built a home that is today the Mark Twain House & Museum. While living in Hartford from 1874 to 1891, Twain wrote such works as Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court. From 1891 on, Twain traveled abroad, wrote, struggled with his own and family illnesses, and lived in New York City. He died at Stormfield, his new home in Redding, Connecticut.

More on Mark Twain from the CT Digital Archive

Browse more interactive content on the CT Digital Archive website.

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Mark Twain with his friend, John Lewis

A Life Lived in a Rapidly Changing World: Samuel L. Clemens

Samuel Clemens experienced America’s rapid change—from westward expansion to industrialization‚ the end of slavery‚ advancements in technology‚ and foreign wars. …[more]

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Websites

California Digital Library. “Mark Twain Project,” 2012. Link.
PBS. “Mark Twain’s Interactive Scrapbook,” 2011. Link.
“Mark Twain’s Neighborhood: Nook Farm,” 2014. Link.
New York Times. “Twain’s Bookshelf,” 2010. Link.

Places

“Mark Twain House & Museum,” 2017. Link.
“Mark Twain Library,” 2017. Link.

Documents

Yale University. “Guide to the Samuel Clemens Collection,” 2016. Link.
Connecticut Digital Archive. “Mark Twain Collection,” n.d. Link.
Clemens, Samuel L. Patent Number 140,245 - Improvement in Scrap-Books. 140,245. Hartford,  CT, issued 1873. Link.
University of California, Bancroft Library. “The Mark Twain Papers and Project,” 2016. Link.

Books

Wagenknecht, Edward. Mark Twain; the Man and His Work. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, 1971.
Paine, Albert B. Mark Twain: A Biography. the Personal and Literary Life of Samuel Langhorne Clemens. with Letters, Comments, and Incidental Writings Hitherto Unpubl.: Also New Episodes, Anecdotes, Etc. Vol. 1. New York: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1912. Link.
Shelden, Michael. Mark Twain: Man in White: The Grand Adventure of His Final Years. New York: Random House, 2010.
Kaplan, Justin, and Roy J. Friedman Mark Twain Collection (Library of Congress). Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain: A Biography. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1966.
Andrews, Kenneth R, and Roy J. Friedman Mark Twain Collection (Library of Congress). Nook Farm: Mark Twain’s Hartford Circle. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1950.
Budd, Louis J. Our Mark Twain: The Making of His Public Personality. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983.