15. Mark Twain
When one imagines Mark Twain, born Samuel Langhorne Clemens in 1835, one doubtlessly pictures the mustachioed, bow-tie-clad elderly gentleman. Twain was often photographed in his later years, and the images of him in a white suit with heavy mustache are icons of American literary history. Twain grew up in Hannibal, Missouri which would inspire the setting of his most famous novels, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the latter of which is often referred to as “The Great American Novel.” Twain himself is often seen as the father of American literature.
Despite growing up in a conservative home in a state with legal slavery, Twain became close to numerous abolitionists and liberals, including Frederick Douglass and Harriet Beecher Stowe, through his wife, Olivia Langdon. Twain was also profoundly interested in science and had a lifelong close friendship with Nikola Tesla, often spending time in his laboratory.
Twain, along with his friends Nikola Tesla and Frederick Douglass, who also appear on this list, was a rather handsome young man. Without the bushy mustache of his older years, Twain cut a rather rogueish figure with his clean-shaven face and slicked back high dark hair. One can imagine he was a hit with young women as he worked the steamboats along the Missouri River.
