Never Mark Twain Shall Tweet Trivia Quiz

Answer: Samuel Langhorne Clemens

Of course, this question is an inversion of the most common trivia question asked about Mark Twain: "What is his real name?" As a pseudonym is a "false name", Samuel Clemens is the only name which isn't false!

The Isiah Sellers story was likely a joke at someone's expense, as Twain was fond of telling different explanations for his pen name. Studies of the logs aboard the ships in Twain's early working days led to no conclusion that Captain Sellers had used this fake name before Clemens.

Answer: U.S. Civil War

Twain often had to defend his involvement as a Confederate soldier in the U.S. Civil War, which he mostly dismissed as an idiotic youthful indiscretion. He was in no battles, lacked any kind of official support from the Confederate army, and basically just rode around with a bunch of like-minded youth looking for some fun.

When the real war came knocking on their front steps, Twain disbanded the unit and left for the West, uninterested in the wartime storm that was about to be unleashed on America.

Answer: Territorial Enterprise

The "Territorial Enterprise" was Twain's first journalism job, which he asked his brother to secure for him. It is believed that since Twain's brother was a politician working in Nevada, the newspaper writers hired Twain as a possible good source to the political scene. Twain's writing had impressed them, so it was considered a good hire.

After Twain's escapades working as a miner and quartz mill worker, he found journalism to be a much better fit for his skills.

Answer: Harriet Beecher Stowe

After Twain moved to Connecticut, it was clear that his Confederate leanings in his early life were a thing of the past. He was now an open advocate of the abolition of slavery. His next-door neighbor was none other than Harriet Beecher Stowe, with whom he was friendly, but whose health deteriorated as she grew older.

He said that in her old age she was fond of surprising people deep in thought, giving them a small scare.

Answer: board game

Twain's board game was meant to help people remember specific dates, but for some reason it never caught on. It was terribly complex and the topic was rather dull for families looking to entertain themselves. One critic was said to have negatively described the game as "a cross between an income tax form and a table of logarithms".

Answer: He paid back his creditors, even though he had no legal obligation to do so.

Some say that Twain's repayment of his creditors was a testament to his moral fiber, while others believe that it was just one tent pole in the edifice of the character that Twain had carefully constructed. Even so, he was not legally obligated to pay any of the debts he owed his creditors but every cent was paid.

Answer: his illness

One of Twain's cousins was sick and many people conflated his cousin's health with his own. Many Americans believed that the beloved author had become gravely ill, but it wasn't true. In his autobiography, he would state the line (which is often misquoted and "death" added to the equation).

Answer: Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc

The topic of Joan of Arc wasn't popularized until after Twain's fascination, so it is more understandable that he wanted to discover and write about something lesser known. He was also an avid historian. Yet it seemed strange that Twain (who wrote under yet another pen name during the writing of this work) was so focused on making this specific work his legacy.

Answer: The appearance of Halley's Comet

It is certainly a strange coincidence, but perhaps Twain found some solace in his death coinciding with this event. He perished in a very American way, by heart attack.

Answer: a condemnation of war

Twain had travelled the world and saw the injustices of mankind that had been inflicted upon each other. He denounced imperialism, which he had previously supported. However, his mind changed, and he began to criticize European powers as well as the U.S. for their imperialistic ambitions.

The Spanish-American War and the Philippine-American War were too much for him and he wrote "The War Prayer" as a satirical work to counter the mood of the nation.