"Period of gross materialism and blatant political corruption in the United States during the 1870s; gave rise to important novels of social and political criticism; takes its name from the earliest of these novels, The Gilded Age (1873), written by Mark Twain in collaboration with Charles Dudley Warner."

"Gilded Age." Britannica School, Encyclopædia Britannica, 19 Sep. 2016. school.eb.com.ursus-proxy-11.ursus.maine.edu/levels/middle/article/324601.

Writer and humorist, Mark Twain, wrote the novel The Gilded Age ridiculing Washington D.C. and many of the leading figures of the day.

Credit: Keppler, Joseph Ferdinand, artist.'"Mark Twain," America's best humorist.' Keppler & Schwarzmann, 1885. Prints and Photographs Division, Library of Congress.