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 containing a collection of sketches and essays by Twain that were unpublished (or rarely published) previously.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.

Update History: On March 16, 2024 the format of the bibliographical notes was updated. Also, the full article was placed on this website.

  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) ↩︎
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