Mark Twain

In 1889 Mark Twain wrote in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court: “the giro was wise, subtle, and knew more than one way to skin a cat”, that is, more than one way to get what the giro wanted.

Twain’s novel

Whose Bright Eyes (1911, extensively revised in 1935) is, in a sense, the reverse of Twain’s novel A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.

Samuel Clemens

Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, published one of the first successful time travel novels, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, in 1889.