One of the many legends about Mark Twain (1835 – 1910) is that he was born on the day that Halley’s comet appeared and died on the day of its return, seventy-five years later. Twain (who said that both he and the comet were "two unaccountable frauds") shifted from job to job when he was young, making and squandering fortunes. He was a great humorist who had a prickly disposition, a natural actor who lived a series of poses and disguise and believed in all of them. He believed, along with his Connecticut Yankee, Hank Morgan, that "you can’t throw too much style into a miracle".

Mark Twain was born Samuel Clemens in Florida, Missouri. He moved with his family to Hannibal, on the banks of the Mississippi when he was four years old. (He later began to sign newspaper reports with the boatman’s call "Mark Twain" which means, "mark two fathoms [12 feet]", a safe depth for boats). Twain seemed to have inherited the wit and vivacity of his beautiful mother and the extravagant temperament of his father. When Twain was eleven, his father died almost bankrupt.  Three of Twain’s six brothers and sisters died in infancy, and a fourth, Henry was killed in a steamboat accident at the age of twenty.

In 1869, Twain bought an interest in a Boston Newspaper, believing that journalism would be his career. But almost immediately his fictionalized account of his European adventures, Innocents Abroad, was published and became a best seller.

In 1870, he married the elegant and delicate Olivia Langdon of Elmira, New York.  Olivia would inherit a quarter of a million dollars from her father. Twain sold his interest in the newspaper (at a loss) and moved to Hartford, Connecticut, where his first daughter Suzy, was born. The publication of Roughing it confirmed Twain’s success as a writer, and he and his beloved "Livy" built a house that was a monument to domesticity.

In 1876 Twain wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and in 1884 he wrote The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which is considered a masterpiece of American fiction.

Twain’s last years were marked by a series of embittered misfortunes. Between 1902 and 1909 his wife and two of his daughters died: Suzy died of spinal meningitis, and Jean died during an epileptic seizure. Twain developed heart disease, making his writing career decrease significantly.