Nothing in his life became him like the leaving of it.

-- "Macbeth"

Early in the morning of April 21, 1910, astronomers at Harvard University in Boston sighted Halley's comet making its return to Earth's skies after nearly 75 years. Across New England in Redding, Conn., at his estate, Stormfield, Mark Twain faced the last day of his life.

He died later that day around sunset, seven months before his 75th birthday. The writer was born Nov. 30, 1835, the same month the comet was seen above his Missouri home.

"It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's comet," Twain said. "The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.' "

The comet did not disappoint the writer, but in his final years, his family and associates did. Suffering from painful angina and high blood pressure, the widower was buffeted by family scandal, slipshod financial dealings and the drowning of his daughter Jean, who had epilepsy, in a bathtub on Christmas Eve 1909.

Hailed for his humor and generous spirit in those classics "Tom Sawyer," "Huckleberry Finn," "The Prince and the Pauper" and his short stories, Twain's writing had become bitter, sacrilegious and despairing in his old age.

Such works as "The Mysterious Stranger" branded life "a swindle" and "Letters From the Earth," not published until 1962 because of its sexual nature, was full of anger and bitterness.

The press reported his troubles, as it reported every bit of news it could find about America's greatest celebrity, but at his death, the obituaries were glowing in their praise: "His fame is imperishable," said The New York Times.

With his cottony white mop of hair, drooping mustache and white suit and shoes, Twain was the most well-known figure in the nation when he died, a man beloved for his infectious humor and puckish personality.

His image was widely recognized from his many product endorsements, his opinion was sought eagerly around the world and his books were read by millions.

He was "known to everyone and liked by all," boasted the label on boxes of Mark Twain Cigars.

One-hundred years later, biographers are divided on how the writer's little-remembered troubles affected his work or perhaps hastened his death.

"Mark Twain was the highest paid writer in the United States when he died," said Laura Skandera Trombley, author of "Mark Twain's Other Woman: The Hidden Story of His Final Years" (Knopf, $27.95), "but his quality had dropped. The most interesting stuff wouldn't see the light of day until after he was dead."

Instead of devoting his time to writing, Twain plunged into a frantic round of appearances and travels following the death of his wife, Olivia, in 1904.

"He lost his anchor in Olivia," said Dr. Trombley, president of Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif. "There was nobody to keep him in check. He threw himself into a constant whirlwind of outings, trying to distract himself, not only from his wife's death, but the demands of his adult daughters."

Twain was really having a good time, believes Michael Shelden, author of "Mark Twain: Man in White. The Grand Adventures of his Final Years" (Random House, $30).

"After his wife died, he became a boy again. He moved to New York and became a public figure," said Mr. Shelden, who teaches English at Indiana State University. "I got the feeling he was trying to be Tom or Huck, going where he wanted, doing what he wanted, and the press never stopped following him around."

Rather than distancing himself from his grief and responsibilities, Twain "was just being himself," Mr. Shelden said. "Despite the awful things that happened, he never lost his sense of humor."

Twain, however, found nothing to laugh about when he learned that his longtime assistant, Isabel Lyons, and his business partner, Ralph Ashcroft, managed to acquire complete control of his finances in 1907. A vindictive Clara convinced her father to fire Lyons and Ashcroft and take control of his bank accounts.

The legal haggling was widely reported in New York City newspapers, humiliating Twain, who was already facing another scandal -- disclosure that Clara was involved with a married man.

Dr. Trombley believes that her subsequent marriage to another man, classical musician and conductor Ossip Gabrilowitsch, was hastily arranged to squelch the rumors.

"Clara's affair was a very ugly thing at the time (1909), and it appalled the traditional side of Twain," she said. "He knew if it became widely known, the affair would affect his ability to make money, so a hasty wedding was arranged."

Dr. Trombley believes that the worries were seriously affecting Twain's already precarious health.

There's another aspect to Twain's later years that raises eyebrows today -- his fondness for little girls. He collected a group of them, ages 12 to early teens, calling them his "Angelfish." Twain entertained them on his frequent trips to Bermuda and invited them with a parent to his Connecticut estate.

"There was never a hint of bad behavior," said Mr. Shelden, who called the Angelfish "surrogate granddaughters."

"Because he was so famous, any rumor of impropriety would have been reported, and many of them wrote about their relationships when they were adults without anything negative said about him. He just wanted that freshness of youth around him."

Dr. Trombley said she "never found anything that was improper" with the Angelfish, "but nowadays, people would find that behavior questionable. I think Twain desperately wanted grandchildren, and also, these girls reminded him of his daughters when they were young during the happiest time of his life."

Twain would never know his only granddaughter, Nina Gabrilowitsch, born to Clara and Ossip Gabrilowitsch in August 1910. That might be a good thing. Nina died of an overdose of drugs and liquor in 1966 after a failed career as an actress in Hollywood.

Her mother's life was little better. Clara's second husband, Jacques Samossoud, gambled away most of her inheritance and even cut Nina out of her mother's will. Mark Twain's daughter was reduced to living in a San Diego motel when she died in 1962.

"Get your facts first and then you can distort them as much as you please," Twain wrote in 1899. While the newest biographies of the writer's life are disclosing the unpleasant facts of his life in this centennial of his death, these facts cannot diminish Mark Twain's remarkable accomplishments as a writer.

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