- Sam did a lecture and enjoyed it so much, he gave the lecture more than a dozen more times in the West.
- In May 1867, his first book, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County and Other Sketches, was published.
- The newspaper, Alta California, hired Twain to go to Europe and the Holy Land to be a traveling correspondent.
- While on board the cruise, Samuel found two people he developed friendships with .
- One of them was a journalist by the name of Mary Fairbanks who was willing to teach him social manners and graces.
- The other person was Charley Langdon who was sent abroad by his parents to broaden his education. Upon showing Twain a picture of his older sister, Olivia, Twain fell hopelessly in love.
- Sam's letters on the Quaker City cruise were published in the Alta California and two other New York newspapers.
- Elisha Bliss read them and told him to try printing his letters in book form. They struck up an agreement and met at Hartford.
- Twain also met Joseph Twichell at Hartford and the two became friends.
- In August, Sam began courting Olivia Langdon.
- The Langdons sent letters to Twain's friends asking about him but the letters sent back pointed out all Twain's faults. Olivia's father surprised him and said Livy could marry him.
- As a gift, Sam's to-be-father-in-law sent money to Sam for him to buy an interest in The Buffalo Express.
- On February 2, 1870, Olivia and Sam were married.
- Twain wrote The Innocents abroad as a best-selling author.
- Unfortunately, Olivia's father, Jervis Langdon, was diagnosed with cancer and died in August.
- Then Sam and Olivia's troubles began to multiply. A friend of Livy fell ill and died.
- Then Livy almost miscarried but gave birth to a son whom the Clemens named Langdon, who clung to life just like his father.
- In 1871, the Clemens moved to live with Olivia's sister Susan on Quarry Farm.
- From there they moved to Hartford where they would be among friends and family.
- Twain wrote a book about his frontier experiences, Roughing It.
- In the spring of 1872, Olivia Susan or Susy was born.
- Three months later, Langdon died.
- After being gone for three months in Europe, Twain wrote The Gilded Age.
- In early 1873, Sam and Livy bought a building lot and hired an architecture to build their new home.
- The Clemens went on a six month trip to Europe and by the time they came back, the house was nearly finished.
- In June 1874, Clara was born as the third child of Sam and Olivia.
- In his study, Twain began writing his next book and his memories from Hannibal were his sources.
- In 1874, William Dean Howells, a friend of Sam, asked him to write a series of articles for a magazine and Twain agreed.
- Finally in June 1876, Twain published his newest book, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, and decided to write a sequel to the book about Huckleberry Finn, a friend of Tom.
- In April 1878, the Clemens again went to Europe but this time for a sixteen month stay.
- Twain wrote another travel book, A Tramp Abroad, and based the characters off of himself and his friend Joseph Twichell.
- In July 1880, Jean Clemens was the fourth child for the Clemens.
- Another addition was Katy Leary who was nanny, seamstress, nurse, traveling companion and personal maid to Olivia.
- In 1880, Twain began working on a novel about a prince and a poor boy who trade places called The Prince and The Pauper.
- Sam was getting stressed because he needed money to pay for his bills so he invested in the Kaolotype which was supposed to set letter blocks.
- In 1882, he went to Hannibal to get more inspiration for his novels.
- Twain wrote Life on the Mississippi and finished The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in 1885.
- Samuel and George Washington Cable went on a lecture tour called "The Twins of Genius" and they gave 104 performances.
- In 1889, Twain wrote a novel called A Yankee in King Arthur's Court.
- That same year, Jean who was nine began having epileptic seizures.
- In 1890, Susy left home to go to college in Pennsylvania.
- That autumn Sam's mother and Olivia's mother died and at about the same time, Livy was diagnosed with heart disease.
- In July 1891, the Clemens had to close their beloved house and live in Europe for a while because they had reached a crisis with their spending.
- The family then went to Italy and Twain began a novel about Joan of Arc whom he based off of his daughter Susy.
- The next two years was filled with Sam going between the US to take care of his business affairs but he was saved by the financier Henry H. Rogers.
- In 1893, the stock market crashed which ruined Samuel and in 1894, Rogers advised Twain to declare bankruptcy.
- Sam, Livy and Clara set out on an around-the-world lecture tour to pay off their dept.
- At the age of twenty-four, Susy died in the Hartford house. It took two years for Sam and Livy to get over her death.
- Twain wrote Following the Equator which was about his around-the-world lecture tour.
- In March 1898, his dept was finally paid off.
- In October 1900, the Clemens returned to America and they settled in New York.
- Livy's health became so poor that the Clemens returned to Italy's mild climate.
- Sadly, Olivia died in Florence in 1904 and Jean began having seizures and Clara had a nervous breakdown.
- In 1907, Sam was given a doctor of letters degree by Oxford University in England.
- Twain began wearing white suits and he wore his Oxford robe on any pretext including on Clara's wedding in 1909.
- He built a new mansion for himself in Redding, Connecticut and named it Stormfield.
- Sam began writing darker novels like The Diaries of Adam and Eve, What is Man? and Extracts from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven.
- His health began to fail due to a heart condition but Twain continued his smoking and social life.
- Sam wanted to spend Christmas with Jean in 1909 but on Christmas morning Jean was discovered dead by Katy Leary because of a heart attack during a seizure.
- Jean was buried next to Livy, Susy and Langdon.
- On April 21, 1910, Samuel Langhorne Clemens better known as Mark Twain died as Halley's Comet passed.