You Can't Make This Stuff Up

Mark Twain was born in 1835, the same year Haley’s comet appeared in the sky.

Twain loved pointing out this coincidence, and he even joked that he would “go out with it” when it returned 75 years later. True to his word, that’s exactly what happened: Mark Twain died in 1910, the same year Halley’s comet reappeared in the sky above our planet.

Roughly 76 years later (the period varies a little each time), I got to see a tiny little blur in the sky with my young naked eye. I was not impressed, having been spoiled by everyday wonder all around me. I did not come in with Halley’s comet, nor do I have any intention of “going out” with it when it returns in mid-2061, but it’s interesting and noteworthy that Mark Twain did this.

If you were crafting the perfect biography of Sam Clemens (Twain’s name to those who knew him personally), it would be tough to imagine a more poetic set of birth and death years, wouldn’t it?

In that period between the time Halley’s comet escorted Twain off the pla…