Bermuda: Mark Twain - Hamilton, Bermuda

Mark Twain

Hamilton, Bermuda

N 32° 17.532 W 064° 47.263

Short Description: 

A life-size bronze statue of author and frequent Bermuda visitor Mark Twain is located outside the XL office building on Bermudiana Road in Hamilton, Bermuda.

Long Description:

Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens who was born in Florida, MO on November 30, 1835. Early in life his family moved to Hannibal, MO on the Mississippi River. His experiences with the people of the river inspired his most famous characters and novels - Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. When he was 38 years old he moved to Connecticut and built a home in Hartford, CT. While a Hartford resident he wrote many of his most famous novels, including: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), The Prince and the Pauper (1881), Life on the Mississippi (1883), Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885) and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889).

“You go to heaven if you want to, I’d rather stay right here in Bermuda” - Mark Twain

Between 1867 and his death in 1910, Twain visited Bermuda numerous times. He referred the the climate, land, and the people as "that happy little paradise.” For the last three years of his life Bermuda was his second home. He stayed at the Princess Hotel and the private residence “Bay House” just off Pitts Bay Road. Today the site of of his home off Pitts Bay Road is now a huge office complex built by XL, the global insurance company.

Outside the Bermudiana Road entrance to the XL building on is a life-size bronze statue of Mark Twain. The bushy haired, mustached Twain is dressed in characteristic clothing. He is wearing a suit, vest and bow tie. He is sitting on a wooden bench with his legs crossed, right over left. His right arm is resting on the back of the bench while he holds his ever present pipe in his left hand.