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.