Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens, 1835–1910), often called the father of American literature, was the greatest humorist of his age and a writer who brought distinctive American themes and language to readers for more than three decades. Twain was a master of colloquial speech and, with inimitable genius, produced countless works, from essays on America’s unacceptable social realities to such classics as The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Twain was born during a visit by Halley’s Comet and went out with it as well, dying the day after the comet’s return.

Photograph by A. F. Bradley.

Curing a Cold

A Story

by Mark Twain

It is a good thing, perhaps, to write for the amusement of the public, but it is a far higher and nobler thing to write for their instruction, their profit, their actual and tangible benefit. The latter is the sole object of this article. If it prove the means of restoring to health one solitary sufferer among my race, of lighting up once more the fire of hope and joy in his faded eyes, of bringing back to his dead heart again the quick, generous impulses of other days, I shall be amply rewarded for my labor; my soul will be permeated with the sacred delight a Christian feels when he has done a good, unselfish deed.

Having led a pure and blameless life, I am justified in believing that no man who knows me will reject the suggestions I am about to make, out of fear that I am trying to deceive him. Let the public do itself the honor to read my experience in doctoring a cold, as herein set forth, and then follow in my footsteps.

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