Which university awarded Mark Twain an honorary LL.D. in 1902?

The University of Missouri awarded Mark Twain an honorary LL.D. in 1902.

The degree was presented during Twain’s visit to Columbia, Missouri, connecting the celebrated author with the state where he was born and spent part of his youth. Twain’s legal name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens, but by then he was internationally famous under his pen name.

The award was one of several honorary degrees Twain received late in life. Yale University awarded him an honorary Doctor of Letters in 1901, while Oxford University granted him an honorary Doctor of Civil Law in 1907. These honors recognized his extraordinary influence as a novelist, humorist, lecturer, and public intellectual.

A common mix-up is confusing the 1902 Missouri honor with Twain’s other degrees. Yale came first, and Oxford came later; the University of Missouri is the institution specifically associated with the honorary Doctor of Laws in 1902. LL.D. traditionally stands for Legum Doctor, commonly rendered as Doctor of Laws.