Following the Equator

Mark Twain enjoyed immense public popularity during his lifetime, and was already one of the best-known authors in America when, in 1895, he set out on a worldwide lecture tour, undertaken to help him recover from bankruptcy following the failure of his publishing company. Starting in Paris, he journeyed across America to Vancouver, and thence, via Hawaii and Fiji, to Australia and New Zealand, in both of which countries he travelled widely. At the end of the year, he sailed from Sydney to Colombo, and became captivated by the Indian sub-continent, its people and their customs. Arriving in South Africa four months after the Jameson Raid, he had ample opportunity to employ his acerbic wit on the deteriorating relationship between the British and the Afrikaaners.

Mark Twain

Mark Twain is the author of many great American classics including Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Pudd'nhead Wilson. In 1867, Twain set sail for a five month tour of Europe and the Middle East, and the letters which he wrote while on this trip form the basis for "The Innocents Abroad".