Quote Origin: When a Man Loves Cats, I Am His Friend and Comrade
Mark Twain? Robert H. Hirst? Susy Clemens? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: Several books about cats contain a quotation credited to humorist Mark Twain stating that Twain was a friend and comrade to people who love cats. I am skeptical of this attribution, and I haven’t seen a citation. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: In 2009 Robert H. Hirst who is the general editor of the scholarly Mark Twain Project edited a book titled “Who is Mark Twain?” containing a collection of sketches and essays by Twain that were unpublished (or rarely published) previously.
A vignette dated September 1887 and titled “An Incident” described a meeting between Twain and a young man who was carrying a gun. Twain initially feared the youth was a “lunatic out gunning for men”. Next, he worried that a group of “four sorry-looking cats” were the target. But Twain learned that the youth was hoping to provide a meal for the cats. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹
Aha! — so far from being a madman, he was saner, you see, than the average of our race; for he had a warm spot in him for cats. When a man loves cats, I am his friend and comrade, without further introduction.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In 2013 “Cat Sense: How the New Feline Science Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet” by John Bradshaw began with the following epigraph:²
When a man loves cats, I am his friend and comrade, without further introduction.
— Mark Twain
In 2016 “Mark Twain for Cat Lovers: True and Imaginary Adventures with Feline Friends” edited by Mark Dawidziak discussed Twain’s positive feelings towards cats:³
Yet the animal most integral to his life — the one rejoiced in and celebrated to the greatest degree — was the cat. Susy Clemens summed it up in the biography of her famous father that she started at the age of thirteen: “The difference between papa and mama is, that mama loves morals and papa loves cats.”
The book also contrasted Twain’s occasional misanthropy with his viewpoint on cats:⁴
“Such is the human race,” he wrote near the end of his life. “Often it does seem such a pity that Noah and his party did not miss the boat.”
Yet there was one way a human being (“The Lowest Animal”) could earn the benefit of the doubt with him: “When a man loves cats, I am his friend and comrade, without further introduction.”
In conclusion, Mark Twain deserves credit for the quotation under examination. He penned it in a short piece from 1887. It achieved circulation when it was printed in the 2009 book “Who is Mark Twain?”
Image Notes: Public domain image of painting titled “Wild Cat” by Rosa Bonheur who died in 1899.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Karen__Rico whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.
[1] 2010, Who is Mark Twain? by Mark Twain, Edited by Robert H. Hirst (General Editor of Mark Twain Project), Title of manuscript: An Incident, Editor’s date of manuscript: September 1887, Start Page 165, Quote Page 166, HarperStudio: Imprint of HarperCollins, New York. (Verified with scans of paperback edition; hardcover was published in 2009)
[2] 2013, Cat Sense: How the New Feline Science Can Make You a Better Friend to Your Pet by John Bradshaw, Epigraph on unnumbered Page, Basic Books: A Member of the Perseus Books Group, New York. (Verified with scans)
[3] 2016, Mark Twain for Cat Lovers: True and Imaginary Adventures with Feline Friends, Edited by Mark Dawidziak, Introduction: Mark Twain in the Company of Cats, Quote Page ix, Lyons Press, Guilford, Connecticut. (Verified with scans)
[4] 2016, Mark Twain for Cat Lovers: True and Imaginary Adventures with Feline Friends, Edited by Mark Dawidziak, Introduction: Mark Twain in the Company of Cats, Quote Page ix, Lyons Press, Guilford, Connecticut. (Verified with scans)
