What was the name of Mark Twain's publishing company started in 1884?

Mark Twain’s publishing company, started in 1884, was Charles L. Webster and Company. Twain founded the New York subscription-publishing firm to gain more control over his books and to participate directly in their profits.

The company was named for Charles L. Webster, Twain’s niece’s husband and business associate. Webster became the firm’s business director and later its full partner. Twain had grown dissatisfied with earlier publishers, including Charles H. Webb, Elisha Bliss, and James R. Osgood, and wanted an enterprise that combined authorship with publishing.

The firm’s early successes included the American edition of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in 1885 and Ulysses S. Grant’s Personal Memoirs, also published in 1885. Grant’s memoirs became especially important because their sales provided financial support for Grant’s family during his final illness.

The company later suffered from financial problems, partly because profits were repeatedly reinvested in weaker titles and sales operations. Twain declared bankruptcy in 1894, and the firm closed. J. B. Lippincott, D. Appleton, and Harper & Brothers were other publishers, not the name of Twain’s own company.