Mark Twain undertook his world lecture tour to repay his debts in the 1890s. He began the year-long journey in July 1895 after financial troubles and bankruptcy proceedings connected to failed investments and publishing ventures.
Twain was not legally required to repay every creditor, but he chose to do so. Working with his agent Robert Sparrow Smythe, he accepted a demanding schedule of paid lectures around the world. The tour took him through North America, the Pacific, Australia, New Zealand, Asia, Africa, and other destinations.
The journey was physically exhausting, and Twain was ill for much of it. A planned lecture in Honolulu was canceled because of a cholera epidemic. By the end of the tour, his earnings enabled him to pay his creditors in full. The common mix-up is placing the tour in the 1880s, when Twain was already a prominent speaker but had not yet undertaken this debt-repayment journey.