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Mark Twain
Contributed by: Guy
  • 1. What is Mark Twain's real name?
A) Thomas Jefferson
B) John Adams
C) William Shakespeare
D) Samuel Clemens
  • 2. In which state was Mark Twain born?
A) California
B) New York
C) Missouri
D) Texas
  • 3. Which of the following books did Mark Twain write?
A) The Great Gatsby
B) Moby Dick
C) Pride and Prejudice
D) The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
  • 4. What is the title of Mark Twain's first successful novel?
A) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
B) A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
C) The Innocents Abroad
D) Life on the Mississippi
  • 5. In what year was 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer' first published?
A) 1885
B) 1850
C) 1876
D) 1900
  • 6. What is the name of the famous satirical short story by Mark Twain about two boys who switch places?
A) A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
B) The Prince and the Pauper
C) Huckleberry Finn
D) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
  • 7. Which quote is often attributed to Mark Twain?
A) The reports of my death are greatly exaggerated.
B) To be or not to be, that is the question.
C) I have a dream.
D) All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.
  • 8. What profession did Mark Twain have before becoming a writer?
A) Lawyer
B) Riverboat Pilot
C) Doctor
D) Farmer
  • 9. What was the name of Mark Twain's wife?
A) Emily Dickinson
B) Harriet Beecher Stowe
C) Louisa May Alcott
D) Olivia Langdon
  • 10. What is the name of Mark Twain's childhood friend who inspired the character of Tom Sawyer?
A) Ben Rogers
B) Huck Finn
C) Joe Harper
D) Tom Blankenship
  • 11. What year did Mark Twain die?
A) 1930
B) 1910
C) 1900
D) 1920
  • 12. In which city did Mark Twain spend a significant portion of his adult life?
A) Hartford, Connecticut
B) Chicago, Illinois
C) New York City, New York
D) Los Angeles, California
  • 13. In which year was 'The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County' published?
A) 1884
B) 1876
C) 1865
D) 1894
  • 14. What mechanical device did Mark Twain invest in that ultimately failed?
A) Typewriter
B) Steamboat engine
C) Paige Compositor
D) Printing press
  • 15. Who helped Mark Twain manage his finances and copyrights after financial setbacks?
A) Orion Clemens
B) Charles Dudley Warner
C) Henry Huttleston Rogers
D) Grant Marsh
  • 16. What was the name of Mark Twain's brother who became Secretary of the Nevada Territory?
A) Benjamin Clemens
B) Henry Clemens
C) Orion Clemens
D) Pleasant Hannibal Clemens
  • 17. What is the title of Mark Twain's satirical pamphlet about Belgian atrocities?
A) Pudd'nhead Wilson
B) King Leopold's Soliloquy
C) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
D) A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
  • 18. Which war caused Mark Twain to leave river piloting?
A) The Spanish-American War
B) World War I
C) The Civil War
D) The Revolutionary War
  • 19. What was the name of the steamboat on which Mark Twain's brother Henry died?
A) Nevada Belle
B) Hannibal Clipper
C) A. B. Chambers
D) Mississippi Queen
  • 20. Which organization did Mark Twain join as a member to explore parapsychology?
A) American Anti-Imperialist League
B) International Typographical Union
C) Society for Psychical Research
D) Virginia City Territorial Enterprise
  • 21. What was the cause of Mark Twain's death?
A) Heart attack
B) Explosion
C) Colonialism
D) Pneumonia
  • 22. In which year did Mark Twain join his brother Orion as secretary to Nevada Territory governor James W. Nye?
A) 1867
B) 1861
C) 1864
D) 1870
  • 23. Which community did Twain and his brother visit during their stagecoach journey across the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains?
A) San Francisco
B) New York
C) The Mormon community in Salt Lake City
D) A mining town in Virginia
  • 24. What was Twain's first job upon arriving in Virginia City, Nevada?
A) Miner on the Comstock Lode
B) Teacher
C) Journalist at Territorial Enterprise
D) Stagecoach driver
  • 25. Under what pen name did Twain first write for the Virginia City newspaper?
A) Samuel Clemens
B) Mark Twain
C) Charles Langdon
D) Dan DeQuille
  • 26. What was the title of Twain's first humorous travel account published on February 3, 1863?
A) "The Innocents Abroad"
B) "Roughing It"
C) "Letter From Carson – re: Joe Goodman; party at Gov. Johnson's; music"
D) "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"
  • 27. Which book was inspired by Twain's experiences in the American West?
A) The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
B) A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
C) Roughing It
D) Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
  • 28. What inspired Twain to write "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"?
A) His experiences in Angels Camp, California
B) A trip to Hawaii
C) A Mediterranean cruise
D) His journey across the Great Plains
  • 29. Which newspaper first published Twain's "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"?
A) New-York Tribune
B) The Saturday Press
C) Sacramento Union
D) Territorial Enterprise
  • 30. What was Twain's role on the Sacramento Union trip to the Sandwich Islands?
A) Editor
B) Reporter
C) Photographer
D) Travel agent
  • 31. Where did Mark Twain marry Olivia Langdon?
A) Hartford, Connecticut
B) New York City
C) Buffalo, New York
D) Elmira, New York
  • 32. Who was one of the abolitionists Twain met through Olivia Langdon?
A) Harriet Tubman
B) Sojourner Truth
C) W.E.B. Du Bois
D) Frederick Douglass
  • 33. Which invention did Twain patent that was commercially successful?
A) Self-pasting scrapbook
B) Improvement in Adjustable and Detachable Straps for Garments
C) History trivia game
D) Paige typesetting machine
  • 34. Who was the inventor with whom Twain developed a close friendship?
A) Nikola Tesla
B) George Westinghouse
C) Thomas Edison
D) Alexander Graham Bell
  • 35. Which city did Twain visit due to a cholera epidemic, canceling his lecture?
A) Fiji
B) Australia
C) New Zealand
D) Honolulu, Hawaii
  • 36. What book resulted from Twain's three months in India during his world tour?
A) The Innocents Abroad
B) A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
C) Life on the Mississippi
D) Following the Equator
  • 37. Which friend did Twain help by selling autographed portraits after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake?
A) Henry Rogers
B) Ina Coolbrith
C) George Washington Cable
D) Dorothy Quick
  • 38. Which massacre prompted Twain to write 'The Incident in the Philippines'?
A) Moro Crater Massacre
B) Bataan Death March
C) Siege of Baler
D) Battle of Manila Bay
  • 39. Who co-owned Charles L. Webster and Company with Mark Twain?
A) Henry Huttleston Rogers
B) Charles L. Webster
C) Thomas Lounsbury
D) Ulysses S. Grant
  • 40. Which movement did Twain support through his 'Votes for Women' speech?
A) Women's suffrage.
B) Prohibition.
C) Labor rights.
D) Abolition of slavery.
  • 41. What was the value of Twain's estate estimated by officials?
A) $300,000
B) $471,000
C) $600,000
D) $750,000
  • 42. Where can one find the Mark Twain Room that houses related materials?
A) St. Louis Mercantile Library
B) Tulane University
C) Newberry Library
D) Buffalo & Erie County Public Library
  • 43. What was the name of Twain's daughter who wished to study piano in Vienna?
A) Susy
B) Livy
C) Jean
D) Clara
  • 44. Which magazine rejected 'The War Prayer' for publication?
A) The Atlantic Monthly
B) Harper's Bazaar
C) Scribner's Magazine
D) Collier's Weekly
  • 45. Which publishing company in Hartford, Connecticut, published the first edition of several of Twain's books?
A) Harper & Brothers
B) The American Publishing Company
C) The Ash Ranch Press
D) Charles L. Webster and Company
  • 46. What did Mark Twain say about his use of Captain Isaiah Sellers' pen name?
A) 'He gave me permission to use it.'
B) 'I created it independently without any influence.'
C) 'It was a gift from Captain Sellers himself.'
D) 'I confiscated the ancient mariner's discarded one.'
  • 47. Which political figure did Mark Twain associate with his later identification as a Sansculotte?
A) Danton
B) Louis XVI
C) Marat
D) Robespierre
  • 48. Which pen name did Mark Twain use before deciding on 'Mark Twain'?
A) 'Sieur Louis de Conte'
B) 'Josh'
C) 'John Snook'
D) 'Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass'
  • 49. What newspaper did Mark Twain write for when he met Tom Fitch?
A) The San Francisco Alta California
B) The New York Saturday Press
C) The Territorial Enterprise
D) The Virginia Daily Union
  • 50. Which religious denomination was Mark Twain originally a part of?
A) Catholic
B) Methodist
C) Baptist
D) Presbyterian
  • 51. In which year did Mark Twain publicly break with the Republican Party to support Grover Cleveland?
A) 1916
B) 1895
C) 1884
D) 1907
  • 52. How many versions of 'The Mysterious Stranger' did Twain write?
A) Four
B) One
C) Two
D) Three
  • 53. Which magazine first published 'The Private History of a Campaign That Failed'?
A) Harper's Magazine
B) The Century Magazine
C) Scribner's Magazine
D) Atlantic Monthly
  • 54. Which work by Thomas Carlyle influenced Mark Twain's political views?
A) French Revolution
B) On Heroes, Hero-Worship and the Heroic in History
C) The Life of John Sterling
D) Sartor Resartus
  • 55. What is the subject of Twain's political satire 'King Leopold's Soliloquy'?
A) India
B) Egypt
C) South Africa
D) the Congo Free State
  • 56. What was the title of Twain's speech in German that amused the audience?
A) "Der Zauber des Englischen"
B) "Die Schrecken der Deutschen Sprache"
C) "Die Freude der Italienischen Sprache"
D) "Das Wunder der Französischen Sprache"
  • 57. Which political party did Mark Twain support most of his life?
A) Democratic
B) Libertarian
C) Republican
D) Independent
  • 58. What was Mark Twain's initial career focus?
A) Creating scientific literature
B) Writing light, humorous verse
C) Writing political essays
D) Chronicling historical events
  • 59. In which year did Mark Twain form the Angel Fish and Aquarium Club?
A) 1908
B) 1910
C) 1904
D) 1906
  • 60. What did Twain testify in favor of before a Congressional joint committee in 1906?
A) Creating public domain status for older works
B) Extending copyright protection to the author's lifetime plus 50 years.
C) Reducing taxes on authors' incomes
D) Implementing stricter plagiarism laws
  • 61. Which author did Twain criticize in his article 'Literary Offenses'?
A) George Eliot
B) James Fenimore Cooper
C) Jane Austen
D) Robert Louis Stevenson
  • 62. What political stance did Mark Twain identify with after reading Carlyle's 'French Revolution'?
A) Sansculotte
B) Jacobin
C) Girondin
D) Bourbon
  • 63. What economic principle did Mark Twain strongly believe in?
A) Laissez faire
B) Socialism
C) Protectionism
D) Keynesian economics
  • 64. Which clubs did Mark Twain perform solo humorous talks for?
A) Poets' Circle, Humorists' Haven
B) Authors' Club, Beefsteak Club, Vagabonds
C) Shakespeare Society, Literary Lions
D) Dramatists Guild, Comedy Enthusiasts
  • 65. What aspect of Twain's writing style is he particularly known for?
A) Focusing solely on abstract themes
B) Using complex, archaic language
C) Writing in a formal, academic tone
D) Rendering colloquial speech
  • 66. Which newspaper commissioned Twain to write letters about his travel experiences after the popularity of 'The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County'?
A) New York Saturday Press
B) San Francisco Alta California
C) Virginia Daily Union
D) Sacramento Union
  • 67. What role did Twain hold in the American Anti-Imperialist League?
A) treasurer
B) president
C) secretary
D) vice-president
  • 68. Which pen name did Mark Twain use for humorous letters?
A) 'Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass'
B) 'Josh'
C) 'John Snook'
D) 'Sieur Louis de Conte'
  • 69. Which university awarded Twain a Doctorate of Law in 1907?
A) Cambridge University
B) University of London
C) Oxford University
D) Imperial College London
  • 70. What was the name of the steamer on which Twain rode to Hawaii for his first commissioned travel letters?
A) Territorial Enterprise
B) Quaker City
C) Ajax
D) Alta California
  • 71. Which lodge did Mark Twain belong to as a Freemason?
A) Polar Star Lodge No. 79 A.F.&A.M.
B) Missouri Lodge No. 100
C) St. Louis Lodge No. 50
D) Nevada Lodge No. 75
  • 72. Which company was based in New York City and published some of Twain's works?
A) Pennyroyal Press
B) Harper & Brothers
C) Charles L. Webster and Company
D) The American Publishing Company
  • 73. How did Twain describe India in 'Following the Equator'?
A) As a land of peace and prosperity.
B) As a place devoid of any cultural significance.
C) As a paradise untouched by human corruption.
D) As an extraordinary country visited by the sun, where only man is vile.
  • 74. What was the name of Twain's home in Redding, Connecticut?
A) Hartford House
B) Elmira Manor
C) Stormfield
D) Buffalo Estate
  • 75. Which group of the French Revolution did Twain initially sympathize with?
A) Girondins
B) Sansculottes
C) Royalists
D) Jacobins
  • 76. Which university invited Twain to speak in 1901?
A) Yale University
B) Princeton University
C) Harvard University
D) Oxford University
  • 77. What was Mark Twain's opinion of organized religion as expressed in his later life?
A) Supportive
B) Enthusiastic
C) Indifferent
D) Critical
  • 78. Which school did Twain become a writer of during his early career?
A) Silver-tongued Orators
B) Virginia City Writers
C) New York Press Society
D) Sagebrush School
  • 79. What group did Mark Twain join when he supported Grover Cleveland over James G. Blaine?
A) Democrats
B) Republicans
C) Mugwumps
D) Independents
  • 80. According to Guy A. Cardwell, how would Mark Twain's political views be classified by present standards?
A) More conservative than liberal
B) Socialist
C) Primarily liberal
D) Centrist
  • 81. Who originally used the pen name 'Mark Twain' for river news?
A) A fictional character created by Mark Twain
B) An anonymous journalist from New Orleans
C) Samuel Clemens himself before adopting it
D) Captain Isaiah Sellers
  • 82. What is a common theme in 'The Prince and the Pauper'?
A) Friendship and loyalty
B) Adventure and exploration
C) Travel and discovery
D) Social commentary through role reversal
  • 83. In what year was the first volume of Twain's autobiography published by the University of California?
A) 1980
B) 2010
C) 2000
D) 1990
  • 84. What did Mark Twain believe was a driver of progress?
A) Religious reform
B) Military conquest
C) Technology
D) Agriculture
  • 85. In which publication were the sketches that became 'Life on the Mississippi' originally published?
A) New York Saturday Press
B) The Atlantic Monthly
C) Virginia Daily Union
D) San Francisco Alta California
  • 86. Where can one find works by Mark Twain in eBook form?
A) Project Gutenberg
B) Standard Ebooks
C) Faded Page (Canada)
D) LibriVox
  • 87. What was a challenge in preserving Twain's speeches and lectures?
A) They were all destroyed by critics
B) Many were lost or not recorded
C) They were written in an unknown language
D) They were never spoken publicly
  • 88. What did Mark Twain raise money to build in Nevada in 1864?
A) A library
B) A hospital
C) A school
D) A Presbyterian Church
  • 89. What is the title of Twain's work depicting visits of Satan to earth?
A) Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
B) The Mysterious Stranger
C) A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court
D) Pudd'nhead Wilson
  • 90. Which rights did Mark Twain consider secondary to property rights?
A) Freedom of speech
B) Personal political rights
C) Economic freedoms
D) Civil liberties
  • 91. What did Ernest Hemingway say all modern American literature comes from?
A) 'Tom Sawyer'
B) 'Life on the Mississippi'
C) 'The Prince and the Pauper'
D) 'Huckleberry Finn'
  • 92. Where did Twain and his family spend the summer after consulting with Dr. Jonas Henrik Kellgren?
A) Belgravia, London
B) Vienna, Austria
C) London, England
D) Sanna, Sweden
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