Mark Twain

About Mark Twain

Mark Twain, born Samuel Clemens (1835–1910), is fundamentally recognized as America's foremost humorist, novelist, and social critic. His historical importance, reflected in his HPI Rank of #543, stems from iconic works like *The Adventures of Tom Sawyer* and *Adventures of Huckleberry Finn*, which profoundly shaped American literature and the vernacular. Twain's sharp wit was often directed at societal ills, cementing his legacy as a powerful voice of his era.

The data indicates that this literary giant maintains significant but relatively modest online attention in 2025, garnering 2.4 million Wikipedia views. When contrasted with contemporaries, this level of attention appears low relative to his historical standing; for example, the far less historically important Robin Williams (#966 importance) captured 5.4M views. Indeed, Twain’s 2.4M views result in an Attention Gap score of +6x, suggesting he receives six times the attention one might expect based on his historical rank, though this overattention is not as pronounced as some other figures.

Despite this overall positive attention quotient, the momentum data reveals a notable surge in contemporary interest: a +14% increase in attention from Q1 to Q3 in 2025, coupled with a strong +22.1% year-over-year increase, suggesting a contemporary cultural re-engagement with his classic works.