Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens), age 71, three years before his death in 1910.
Twain, age 35, photographed by Matthew Brady.
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What a giant he was. And the rare example of a man of letters who became more radical as he aged, rather than more conservative.
I saw Hal Holbrook do his wonderful Twain impression several months ago.
Hal Holbrook has done Mark Twain longer than Sam Clemens did.
So what was he looking at for 36 years?
Yup – “a pen warmed up in Hell.”
http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/twain/exhibition/hell/index.html
For Twain newbies, there’s a nice compilation of some of his political writings under that title. A biggie in my pantheon.