Twain, Mark

Twain, Mark (1835-1910), American author.

Mark Twain's real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens.

As a young man he had many jobs and for a time was a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River.

He took his pen-name from the cry 'Mark twain'. This was called out by the man measuring the depth of the water under the boat and means 'Two fathoms deep'.

Later, Mark Twain became a newspaper editor, and articles and stories he wrote for newspapers and magazines made him well known.

Much of what he wrote was funny and so was his first book, The Innocents Abroad (1869).

His most well known books were two stories for children, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). Today these books are still popular in many parts of the world and both have been made into movies.

Some people have said that Huckleberry Finn is one of the greatest of all American books.

Mark Twain also wrote The Prince and the Pauper (1882) and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889).