Some celebrities aren't just pretty faces. A few of them are also touched with that Yankee prowess for tinkering and invention. In this weekly series, we introduce you to the Patents of the Rich and Famous. And maybe you learn a little bit about how patent literature works along the way.
Inventor: Mark Twain aka Samuel L. Clemens
Known For: When The Atlantic commemorated its 153rd birthday earlier this week, we recognized some pieces from our past, such as Ralph Waldo Emerson's poetry and these 12 useful editing rules.
Twain didn't invent anything for The Atlantic, but before he wrote his classroom favorite -- The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn -- he penned works for our publication. In an 1874 letter to then editor-in-chief William Dean Howells, Twain discusses the special Atlantic-Twain bond: "The Atlantic audience is the only audience that I sit down before with perfect serenity (for the simple reason that it don't require a 'humorist' to paint himself stripèd and stand on his head every fifteen minutes)."
Not only did our alum write some of the most enduring prose of his time, but he also found time to scrapbook. And invent scrapbook improvements.
So, here's to you Mark Twain, Atlantic contributor, great American Author, and scrapbook assembler.