Mark Twain at Age 31 (circa 1866) At 31, Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known by his pen name Mark Twain, was on the brink of becoming one of America’s greatest literary voices. In 1866, he was working as a journalist and lecturer, known for his sharp wit, adventurous spirit, and growing reputation as a humorist. This was the period when Twain had recently returned from his time in the American West, where he mined, wandered, and wrote about the rough-and-tumble life of frontier towns. His exp