Mark Twain

About Mark Twain

Mark Twain, born Samuel Clemens (1835–1910), remains a cornerstone of American literature, renowned for masterpieces like The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. His unique satirical voice and unflinching commentary on social issues secured his historical standing, earning him an HPI Rank of #543 among the most influential figures globally.

Despite this high historical importance, Twain's modern internet attention presents a notable discrepancy. In 2025, his Wikipedia pages garnered 2.3 million views. This level of traffic places him in a state of overattention relative to his importance, evidenced by an Attention Gap score of +6x when measured against his HPI rank. For context, this is significantly less engagement than contemporary figures like David Lynch (#774 importance) who achieved 6.8M views, suggesting a modern preference for more recent or pop-culture-adjacent content.

Interestingly, while his overall attention is high for his historical rank, his year-over-year growth of +20.3% indicates a resurgence in interest, though this was tempered by a recent -11% drop in momentum between the first and third quarters of 2025.