definitions

Twain, Mark

The nom de plume of Samuel L. Clemens, an American author and humorist of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He is famous for his stories with settings along the Mississippi River; his books include The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Life on the Mississippi, and The Prince and the Pauper.

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Note

Twain, who was once a steamboat pilot, took his pen name from a term used in river navigation meaning “two fathoms deep.”
The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.