According to Michael Shelden, Mark Twain became obsessed with William Shakespeare near the end of his life. He joined the unending chorus of people who have wondered if Shakespeare wrote Shakespeare. That debate continues to this day. Twain was apparently dubious that one man could have written all of Shakespeare's works.
It seems that Twain was trying to put himself on the same level as the Bard. Shakespeare is generally considered the greatest writer in the English language. I get the impression from Shelden's book that Twain thought he deserved equal billing.
Twain pointed out that we know very little about Shakespeare's life whereas Twain's life was a open book and his best writing mostly derived from the experiences of his life. Twain's literature flowed from his life.
As Shelden writes: "Though he didn't have a Hamlet or a Macbeth to his credit, the story of his life was second to none, and the literature that had flowed from it was pretty good, too."
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