Mark Twain’s Grave

Mark Twain died on Thursday, April 21, 1910 at his home, Stromfield, in Redding, Connecticut. He was 74 years old. Beside him lay a copy of Carlyle’s The French Revolution: A History. Next to it, his glasses, pushed to the side a few hours earlier.

His Daughter Clara, her husband, and Twain Biographer Albert Bigelow Paine sat by his bed waiting for him to pass. Two days later, a simple service was held, and three to four thousand people paid their respects.

His coffin was then taken by rail to Elmira, New York, where he would be buried next to his beloved wife, Olivia Langdon Clemens, who had died about six years earlier.

Mark Twain is buried in the Langdon family plot in Woodlawn Cemetery. He and his wife spent many summers in Elmira, Olivia’s hometown.

I visited his gravesite on a rainy spring morning. The plot was not what you might expect for one of America’s most celebrated writers. His grave was somewhat nondescript. A memorial obelisk in the family plot bears the writer’s image.

I spent about 15 minutes at his grave. Next, I headed to The Mark Twain Study, which is on the campus of Elmira College. It was there that he wrote parts of his most famous works.