On the Mississippi with Mark Twain

Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born on 30 November 1835. When he died on 21 April 1910, he was the world-famous Mark Twain. This year marks the 100th anniversary of his death, the 125th anniversary of the publication of his greatest work, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and the 175th anniversary of his birth. To celebrate all these events, we'll be looking at Mark Twain's travels here in the coming weeks.

Before we get to the Mississippi, the 3,730 km-long river that played such an important role in the writer's life, here is a short, silent film made in 1909 by Thomas Edison in Connecticut, at Twain's home. We see the author walking around the house and playing cards with his daughters Clara and Jean. This is the only known footage of Mark Twain.