How tall was Mark Twain?

Mark Twain is commonly listed at 5 ft 8.5 in (174 cm).

A figure repeated without a date or a measurement. Where this height comes from

Mark Twain’s 5 ft 8.5 in (174 cm) is about average for a US man: about 44 in 100 US men are shorter.

Where your height falls Everyone about 5 ft 9 in

Mark Twain beside others

Mark Twain is in the middle of the 15 writers we have heights for: Peter Freuchen (6 ft 7 in) stands 10.5 in (27 cm) taller and Lorenz Hart (5 ft 0 in) is 8.5 in (22 cm) shorter.

More writers, most looked up first

Where this height comes from

5 ft 8.5 in (174 cm)

A commonly listed height: it appears across many profiles, but none says when or how it was measured, so shoes and rounding may be part of the number.

Photo: A.F. Bradley, New York, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, cropped.

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Cite this page

APA	Heightvs. (2026, November 3). How tall was Mark Twain? 5 ft 8.5 in (174 cm) vs you. https://heightvs.com/how-tall/mark-twain
MLA	“How Tall Was Mark Twain? 5 ft 8.5 in (174 cm) vs You.” Heightvs, 3 Nov. 2026, heightvs.com/how-tall/mark-twain.
Chicago	“How Tall Was Mark Twain? 5 ft 8.5 in (174 cm) vs You.” Heightvs. Last modified November 3, 2026. https://heightvs.com/how-tall/mark-twain.
Link	<a href="https://heightvs.com/how-tall/mark-twain">How tall was Mark Twain? 5 ft 8.5 in (174 cm) vs you (Heightvs)</a>

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Mark Twain, 5 ft 8.5 in (174 cm), drawn to scale beside the average US man, 5 ft 9 in (175 cm), and the average US woman, 5 ft 3.5 in (161 cm)