The body of work that Twain left behind is immense and varied — poetry, sketches, journalistic pieces, political essays, novels, and short stories — all a testament to the diverse talent and energy that used the folklore of frontier America to create authentic masterpieces of enduring value. Many of his novels, especially those written earlier in his career, continue to be reprinted, and none rivals the overwhelming success of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which continues to be one of the most read, discussed, and taught novels in American culture. In one of Twain’s letters to William Dean Howells, Twain captured his own view of his life and his works: “Ah, well, I am a great & sublime fool. But then I am God’s fool, & all His works must be contemplated with respect.”
Following is a publication history of Twain’s novels and important works:
1865 “Jim Smiley and His Jumping Frog”
1867 The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, and Other Sketches with the Burlesque Autobiography and First Romance
1868 “The Man Who Put up at Gadsby’s”
“The Facts Concerning the Recent Resignation”
1869 The Innocents Abroad, or The new Pilgrims' Progress; Being some Account of the Steamship Quaker City's Pleasure Excursion to Europe
“A Day at Niagra”
1870 “A Medieval Romance”
“A Curious Dream”
“A Ghost Story”
1871 Mark Twain’s (Burlesque) Autobiography
Roughing It
1873 The Gilded Age
1874 The Choice Humorous Works of Mark Twain
1875 “Old Times on the Mississippi” (serial)
Sketches, New and Old
“The Curious Republic of Gondour”
1876 The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
begins Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
1877 A True Story and the Recent Carnival of Crime
1878 Punch, Brothers Punch! and Other Sketches
1880 A Tramp Abroad
1881 The Prince and the Pauper
1882 The Stolen White Elephant
1883 Life on the Mississippi (Chapter 3, the “Raft Chapter” was originally in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The character, Jim, is introduced in this chapter.)
finishes Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
1884 Extracts of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn are published in Century Magazine
Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) (London, Canada)
1885 Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Tom Sawyer’s Comrade) (New York)
1888 Mark Twain’s Library of Humor
1889 A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
1892 Merry Tales
The American Claimant
1893 The L1,000,000 Bank-Note and Other Stories
1894 Tom Sawyer Abroad
Pudd’nhead Wilson
1895 “How to Tell a Story”
1896 Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc
Tom Sawyer Abroad/Tom Sawyer, Detective and Other Stories
1897 How to Tell a Story and Other Essays
Following the Equator
“The Chronicle of Young Satan”
“The Mysterious Stranger”
1900 The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Essays
English as She is Taught
1902 A Double-Barrelled Detective Story
1903 My Debut as a Literary Person with Others Essays and Stories
1904 A Dog’s Tale
1905 King Leopold’s Soliloquy
1906 The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories
What is Man?
1907 Christian Science
A Horse’s Tale
1909 Is Shakespeare Dead
Extract from Captain Stormfield’s Visit to Heaven
1910 “The Turning Point in My Life”
