The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today

Mark Twain and Charles Dudley Warner coauthored The Gilded Age. Both men drew inspiration from their own lives in writing what many consider the first major American work of fiction to satirize the politics of Washington, DC, and the epidemic of speculation schemes following the Civil War.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910), better known as Mark Twain, was born and raised in Missouri. His home state would become the main setting of several of his novels, including The Gilded Age. Twain was an early pioneer of literature’s Realism movement. His focus on middle- and lower-class characters in his writing was innovative for his time, helping to create an American style of literature distinct from the high culture of English novels.

Before returning to Missouri in 1857, Twain spent time working in New York and Philadelphia, two cities that play an important role as settings in The Gilded Age. Upon his return to St. Louis, he became a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River. His pseudonym comes from the term for sounding river depths to ensure they’re safe for passage, to “mark twain,” or twelve feet. Chapter 4 of The Gilded Age draws on Twain’s expert knowledge of the river pilot’s craft. Even the fictional explosion of the Amaranth is influenced by Twain’s life, as his brother died in an explosion on the steamboat Pennsylvania.

On multiple occasions Twain earned fortunes from his success as a writer, then lost them on failed investments. The Gilded Age’s portrayal of economic schemes and speculations, and their destructive hold on the country’s imagination, reflects Twain’s own financial ups and downs.

Charles Dudley Warner (1828-1900) was an essayist, novelist, and editor. His work with a surveying party in Missouri parallels the fictional experiences of Philip Sterling and Harry Brierly in The Gilded Age. A paragraph about Philip’s background and foray into the study and practice of law is followed by this narrative aside: “[Note: these few paragraphs are nearly an autobiography of the life of Charles Dudley Warner whose contributions to the story start here with Chapter XII. D.W.]” (60). Warner, like Philip, studied law, which he practiced for several years after graduating from the University of Pennsylvania.

Twain and Warner were neighbors and close friends in Hartford, Connecticut. Twain’s biographer, Albert Bigelow Paine, asserts that The Gilded Age arose from the men’s wives challenging them to write a better novel than the women were used to reading. Twain and Warner wrote the book between February and April 1873. The first 11 chapters are attributed to Twain, the next 12 chapters to Warner, and the remaining chapters are said to mostly be written by one or the other. The concluding chapters, however, are attributed to shared authorship. At the time of publication, critics felt the collaboration fell short of success, saying the two men’s independently written storylines didn’t mesh well. Nevertheless, the book was impactful enough to bestow its name on an entire era of American History.