--- title: Letter by Mark Twain Suggests He Once Contemplated Suicide description: Mark Twain, the celebrated author and humorist who brought us the classic novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, may have... canonical: https://time.com/3848227/mark-twain-suicide-tom-sawyer-huckleberry-finn/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-05-06T07:24:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T06:57:46.659Z article:section: History og:title: Letter by Mark Twain Suggests He Once Contemplated Suicide og:description: "He was in the middle of an identity crisis" og:url: https://time.com/3848227/mark-twain-suicide-tom-sawyer-huckleberry-finn/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2968f28cbceaea7b/6987ee8bcd6848305909de60/113488276.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Samuel Langhorne Clemens 1835 to 1910 known by pen name Mark Twain American humorist, satirist, writer, and lecturer From photograph taken in his old age og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Letter by Mark Twain Suggests He Once Contemplated Suicide twitter:description: "He was in the middle of an identity crisis" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2968f28cbceaea7b/6987ee8bcd6848305909de60/113488276.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Letter by Mark Twain Suggests He Once Contemplated Suicide > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. by [Tierney McAfee / People](https://time.com/author/people/) ## Tierney McAfee / People Contributor May 6, 2015 7:24 AM UTC  UNSPECIFIED - CIRCA 1800: Samuel Langhorne Clemens 1835 to 1910 known by pen name Mark Twain American humorist, satirist, writer, and lecturer From photograph taken in his old age (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images) UNSPECIFIED - CIRCA 1800: Samuel Langhorne Clemens 1835 to 1910 known by pen name Mark Twain American humorist, satirist, writer, and lecturer From photograph taken in his old age (Photo by Universal History Archive/Getty Images) Universal History Archive/Getty Images by [Tierney McAfee / People](https://time.com/author/people/) ## Tierney McAfee / People Contributor May 6, 2015 7:24 AM UTC Mark Twain, the celebrated author and humorist who brought us the classic novels _Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_ and _The Adventures of Tom Sawyer_, may have gone through a broke and suicidal phase, according to a rare, newly released letter. The letter is among many writings, most of which are 150 years old, that were recently uncovered, authenticated and released to the public by Twain scholars at the University of California at Berkeley, the [_Washington Post_](http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/05/05/suicidal-mark-twain-glimpsed-in-rare-150-year-old-stories/) reports. A little more than a decade before he wrote _The Adventures of Tom Sawyer_ in 1876 and went on to become known as America’s first modern celebrity, a 29-year-old Twain was a writer for the _Territorial Enterprise_ newspaper of Virginia City, Nevada. Apparently he wasn’t thrilled with the position, which required him to write a 2,000-word story every day, six days a week, and paid $100 per month, according to the [Associated Press](http://www.usnews.com/news/entertainment/articles/2015/05/04/berkeleys-mark-twain-project-reveals-cache-of-new-writing). In a little-known letter to his brother in 1865, Twain wrote, “If I do not get out of debt in three months – pistols or poison for one – exit me.” Although Twain was famously prone to exaggeration, Bob Hirst, editor of the Mark Twain Project at Berkeley, believes the letter should be taken literally. “He was in the middle of an identity crisis,” Hirst tells [SFGate](http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Trove-of-letters-from-San-Francisco-shed-light-on-6238429.php), the sister site of the _San Francisco Chronicle_, where Twain did some of his writing for the _Territorial Enterprise_. “He was facing debt and had not embraced his talent. He was tormented by it. He was drinking too much and didn’t know what to do with himself. He thought humor was literature of a low order.” The following year Twain moved to Hawaii, then known as the Sandwich Islands. His travelogues became the basis for his first lectures, and soon after he launched his career as a lecturer and novelist. Needless to say it all worked out for the white-suited literary superhero. [_This article originally appeared on PEOPLE.com_](http://www.people.com/article/mark-twain-suicidal-broke-letter) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3848227/mark-twain-suicide-tom-sawyer-huckleberry-finn/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3848227/mark-twain-suicide-tom-sawyer-huckleberry-finn/"},"headline":"Letter by Mark Twain Suggests He Once Contemplated Suicide","datePublished":"2015-05-06T07:24:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T06:57:46.659Z","description":"Mark Twain, the celebrated author and humorist who brought us the classic novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, may have...","url":"https://time.com/3848227/mark-twain-suicide-tom-sawyer-huckleberry-finn/","keywords":["Literature"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2968f28cbceaea7b/6987ee8bcd6848305909de60/113488276.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Tierney McAfee / People"}],"articleSection":"History","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2968f28cbceaea7b/6987ee8bcd6848305909de60/113488276.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Samuel Langhorne Clemens 1835 to 1910 known by pen name Mark Twain American humorist, satirist, writer, and lecturer From photograph taken in his old age","caption":"Samuel Langhorne Clemens 1835 to 1910 known by pen name Mark Twain American humorist, satirist, writer, and lecturer From photograph taken in his old age","creditText":"Universal History Archive/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/history/","name":"History"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3848227/mark-twain-suicide-tom-sawyer-huckleberry-finn/","name":"Letter by Mark Twain Suggests He Once Contemplated Suicide"}}]}] ```