Q. How did Mark Twain get his name?
View Comments
A. Samuel Langhorne Clemens is the real name of the author of "Tom Sawyer" and "Huckleberry Finn." He was born in 1835, grew up in Missouri along the Mississippi River, and began writing humor in his late teens. He used some funny pen names, or pseudonyms, including Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass, W. Epaminados Adrastus Blab, Sergeant Fathom, and Josh. (He did like to josh.) In 1863, he began using Mark Twain, which is a phrase river people used to mean "two fathoms deep."