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What if one man longs for the title another man cannot wait to escape?
Colonel Mulberry Sellers has a grand new dream: he believes he is the rightful heir to the English earldom of Rossmore. Cheerful, inventive and endlessly hopeful, he means to claim it. In Mark Twain's The American Claimant, his hunger for rank becomes the starting point for a sharp comedy about class and identity.
Lord Berkeley stands to inherit the very title Sellers wants. But he dislikes aristocratic privilege. In America, he calls himself Howard Tracy and tries to live as an ordinary man. As Sellers pursues distinction and Berkeley seeks escape, Twain asks what birth, money and a name really prove about anyone.
What you’ll discover
- A dreamer without limits Meet Sellers, whose schemes and inventions always promise to change the world.
- An heir without rank Follow Berkeley as he takes a plain name and tries to test his worth.
- A clear-eyed daughter Meet Sally Sellers, whose practical sense cuts through her father's grand dreams.
- Class under comic scrutiny Explore whether rank has substance or depends on what people choose to believe.
- Farce with a sharp edge Enjoy mistaken identity and absurd schemes as Twain mocks pretensions on both sides of the Atlantic.
Who will love it
You will enjoy this if you like comic novels full of big talkers and wild schemes, satire that pokes at snobbery, and warm love stories.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Berkeley gives up inherited privilege
- Sellers lives inside his hopes
- The family shares a borrowed title
- A fire gives Berkeley another identity
- Equality meets the boardinghouse test
- Tracy still wants to be admired
- Useful work brings Tracy new dignity
- The truth sounds like a lie
- Rank and hope depend on belief
Who’s who
- Colonel Mulberry SellersA warm, boundless dreamer in Washington who believes he is the rightful Earl of Rossmore and wants to buy Siberia for a republic.
- Viscount Berkeley (Howard Tracy)A gentle English heir who gives up his rank to live as an equal, and finds that equality is harder than he expected.
- Sally Sellers (Gwendolen)The colonel's clever, romantic daughter, who designs gowns by day and wants to be sure she is loved for herself.
- Polly Sellers (Lady Rossmore)Sellers's patient wife, who sees through every scheme, goes along with them out of love, and keeps the household afloat.
- Washington HawkinsThe Colonel's loyal, easily led friend from Cherokee Strip, who hopes his schemes will finally bring in money.
- The Earl of RossmoreThe proud English lord who knows the American claim is morally sound and wants only to protect his son.
- BarrowA quick-witted Washington chairmaker who befriends Tracy, finds him work and explains the strange ways of equality.
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The American Claimant
by Mark Twain · 1892
An English lord gives up his title to start over in Washington, where a dreamer plans to buy Siberia.
Medium level2–5 hours to read20 languages
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“There will be no weather in this book.”
In short
Would you give up a castle, a huge income and a title that reaches back to William the Conqueror, just to learn what you are worth on your own? That is the choice of young Viscount Berkeley in The American Claimant.
The American Claimant at a glance
- Reading time
- About 4 h 10 min3 h 15 min fast, 4 h 55 min slow
- Length
- 59,200 words
- Library level
- Medium longer sentences, everyday words
- First published
- 1892by Mark Twain
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A son gives up an earldom
The story opens at Cholmondeley Castle in Warwickshire. The Earl of Rossmore, seventy years old, stern and rich, paces his breakfast room while his son stands by the window. The son is Viscount Berkeley, a mild man of nearly thirty who looks like a lamb in armor.
For ten years an American named Simon Lathers has written letters claiming the earldom. The son has read his evidence and thinks the proof is complete. The old earl admits he has known the facts for forty years. Morally the American is the rightful earl, he says, though legally the man has no more right than his dog.
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Details
- First published
- 1892
- Language
- English
- Reading time
- 4 h 50 min
- Level
- Medium level
Cite this edition
Twain, Mark. The American Claimant. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-american-claimant.
Twain, M. (2026). The American claimant. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-american-claimant (Original work published 1892)
Twain, Mark. The American Claimant. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-american-claimant.
@book{twain2026american,
author = {Twain, Mark},
title = {The American Claimant},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/the-american-claimant},
note = {First published 1892}
}
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What is The American Claimant about?
It follows a young English viscount who gives up his title to live as an ordinary man in Washington. There he meets Colonel Sellers, an inventor and dreamer who claims the same earldom, and Sellers's daughter Sally.
Who is Colonel Mulberry Sellers?
Sellers is a hopeful, generous schemer who first appeared in The Gilded Age. In this book he lives in Washington, claims to be the rightful Earl of Rossmore, and dreams up inventions that range from cursing phonographs to buying Siberia.
When did Mark Twain write The American Claimant?
Twain published it in 1892, and it is a work of fiction. It grew out of the play based on Sellers, and it reuses that character in a new comic story about class and money.
The author
Mark Twain
1835–1910 · American humorist and novelist
Mark Twain was the pen name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, an American author born in Missouri in 1835. He lived in Hartford, Connecticut, from 1874 to 1891. He wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and The Prince and the Pauper (1881). He died in Redding, Connecticut, in 1910.
“There will be no weather in this book.”
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