Visible every 75 years

Halley and Twain astronomically twained

By Susan Williams

During the 1988-89 academic year, Bill Cagle acquired for the Lilly Library what he called "a remarkably rare publication." It was a copy of A Synopsis of the Astronomy of Comets by scientist Edmond Halley, printed first in the Royal Society's Philosophical Transactions in March 1705 and again as a separate publication later the same year. Halley's Comet, which is visible only every 75 years, was named for Edmond Halley and has its own connection to another dweller among the Lilly collections.

Among the original donation of books by Josiah Lilly were first editions of significant 19th-century writers -- including Mark Twain.

When Mark Twain was born on Nov. 30, 1835, Halley's Comet was visible in the sky over Florida, Mo. Aware throughout his life that he was born when the comet was visible, Twain predicted in 1909 that he would die when it returned.

"I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835," he wrote. "It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it...The Almighty has said, no doubt, 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.'"

He was right. When Mark Twain died on April 21, 1910, Halley's Comet was once again visible in the sky.