Mark Twain's literary works cover the writing of novels, essays, letters, speeches, plays, poems and short stories. The first work by Mark Twain that made him a recognizable name in literature was Innocents Abroad, published in 1869. The book was not well received, a fact that discouraged him from pursuing the literary career that he really wanted. During the ensuing years, Twain wrote for various publications and went on lecture tours around the world. He married, fathered a son and quickly amassed heavy debt. But, Innocents Abroad caught on, selling over 67,000 copies in one year, which prompted the American Publishing Company to commission another of Mark Twain's works. Thus followed Roughing It, published in 1872; it was another travel book based mostly on his own experiences with the post-Gold Rush mining activity. This work, though, was not as successful as Innocents Abroad, and Twain fell deeper into debt.

After touring Europe on a lecture junket, Twain's life turned around. His newest work, The Gilded Age, which he collaborated upon with Charles Dudley Warner, was published in 1873, and marked him as a true author. Twain would no longer be considered just a journalist. Following the success of this book, Twain's literary works appeared regularly. The life and works of Mark Twain covered seventy-four years of time, and afterward with the publication of his own autobiography published one-hundred years after his death in 1910. In 2010, Volume One of his three-part personal account of his life went on sale to honor his wish that it would never be published before that date.

A complete list of Marks Twain's works follows:

Novels/Fiction

• The Gilded Age
• 1601 humorous work
• Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The
• Adventures of Tom Sawyer, The
• American Claimant, The
• Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court, A A novel
• Gilded Age, The A novel written by Charles Dudley Warner and Mark Twain
• Horse's Tale, A A short novel
• Innocents Abroad, The A novel
• Mysterious Stranger, The A novella
• Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc A historical novel
• Prince and The Pauper, The A novel
• Roughing It
• Some Rambling Notes Of An Idle Excursion
• Those Extraordinary Twins A novel/comedy
• Tom Sawyer Abroad A novel
• Tom Sawyer, Detective
• Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson, The A novel, satire
• Tramp Abroad, A novel (traveling)

Non-Fiction

• Chapters from My Autobiography
• Christian Science
• Curious Republic Of Gondour And Other Whimsical Sketches
• Following the Equator
• Goldsmiths Friend Abroad Again
• Letters of Mark Twain (complete), The
• Life on the Mississippi

Plays

• Encounter With An Interviewer, An one-act short play

Poems

• Those Annual Bills

Essays

• As Concerns Interpreting
• At the Shrine of St. Wagner
• Bee, The
• Concerning Tobacco
• Death of Jean, The
• Essays on Paul Bourget
• Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offences
• How to Make History Dates Stick
• In Defense of Harriet Shelley
• Is Shakespeare Dead?
• Memorable Assassination, The
• On the Decay of the Art of Lying
• Scrap of Curious History, A
• Simplified Alphabet, A
• Taming the Bicycle
• Turning-Point of My Life, The
• What Is Man?
• William Dean Howells

Short Stories

• "After" Jenkins
• "Party Cries" In Ireland
• $30,000 Bequest, The
• About Barbers
• About Magnanimous-Incident Literature
• About Play-Acting
• Advice to Little Girls
• After-Dinner Speech
• Amended Obituaries
• Answers To Correspondents
• At The Appetite-Cure
• Aurelia's Unfortunate Young Man
• Boons of Life
• Burlesque Biography, A
• Californian's Tale, The
• Cannibalism In The Cars
• Canvasser's Tale, The
• Capitoline Venus, The
• Captain Stormfield
• Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven
• Captain's Story, The
• Carnival of Crime in Connecticut, The A humorous American short story
• Case Of George Fisher, The
• Christian Science and the book of Mrs. Eddy
• Concerning Chambermaids
• Concerning The American Language
• Concerning The Jews
• Cure for the Blues, A
• Curing A Cold
• Curious Dream, The
• Curious Pleasure Excursion, A
• Danger of Lying in Bed, The
• Diplomatic Pay and clothes
• Disgraceful Persecution Of A Boy
• Does the Race of Man Love a Lord?
• Dog's Tale, A
• Double Barrelled Detective Story
• Edward Mills and George Benton: A Tale, by Mark Twain.
• Enemy Conquered; or, Love Triumphant, The
• English as She is Taught
• Entertaining Article, An
• Esquimaux Maiden's Romance, The
• Eve's Diary
• Fable, A
• Facts Concerning The Recent Resignation, The
• Facts In The Case Of The Great Beef Contract, The
• Fashion Item, A
• Fine Old Man, A
• First Interview With Artemus Ward
• First Writing-machines, The
• From The 'London Times' of 1904
• General Washington's Negro Body-Servant
• Ghost Story, A
• Great Revolution In Pitcairn, The
• Helpless Situation, A
• History Repeats Itself
• Honored As A Curiosity
• How I Edited An Agricultural Paper, The
• How The Author Was Sold In Newark
• How To Tell A Story
• Humane Word from Satan, A
• Hunting The Deceitful Turkey
• In Memoriam - Olivia Susan Clemens
• Information Wanted
• Introduction to "The New Guide of the Conversation in Portuguese and English"
• Is He living or is He dead?
• Italian with Grammar
• Italian without a Master
• John Chinaman In New York
• Johnny Greer
• Journalism In Tennessee
• Judge's "Spirited Woman", The
• Jumping Frog, The
• Killing of Julius Caesar "Localized", The
• Late Benjamin Franklin, The
• Legend Of Sagenfeld, In Germany
• Letter to the Secretary of the Treasury, A
• Lionizing Murderers
• Loves Of Alonzo Fitz Clarence And Rosannah Ethelton,
• The Luck
• The McWilliamses And The Burglar Alarm, The Medieval Romance, A
• Monument to Adam
• Experience Of The McWilliamses With Membranous Croup
• Extracts from Adam's Diary
• Mr. Bloke's Item
• My Bloody Massacre
• My Boyhood Dreams
• My Debut as a Literary Person
• My First Lie, and how
• My First Literary Venture
• My Late Senatorial Secretaryship
• My Watch
• Mysterious Visit, A
• New Crime, A
• Niagara
• Office Bore, The
• Paris Notes
• Petition Concerning Copyright
• Petrified Man, The
• Political Economy
• Portrait of King William III
• Post-mortem Poetry
• Punch, Brothers, Punch
• Riley-Newspaper Correspondent
• Rogers
• Running For Governor
• Science vs Luck, The
• Scriptural Panoramist, The
• Siamese Twins, The
• Some Learned Fables, For Good Old Boys And Girls
• Speech At The Scottish Banquet In London
• Speech On Accident Insurance
• Speech On The Babies
• Speech On The Weather
• Stolen White Elephant, The
• Story Of The Bad Little Boy, The
• Story Of The Good Little Boy
• Switzerland, the Cradle of Liberty
• Telephonic Conversation, A
• To Raise Poultry
• To the Above Old People
• Travelling with a Reformer
• True Story, The
• Undertaker's Chat, The
• Was It Heaven? Or Hell?
• Widow's Protest, The
• Wit Inspirations Of The "Two-Year-Olds"