Twain

Twain is an archaic English noun meaning two, and it is also the pen name of American writer Samuel Langhorne Clemens. The term appears in historical and literary contexts to denote a pair.

The name Mark Twain originated from Clemens’s Mississippi River pilot days, where "mark twain" was a sounding-line reading indicating a depth of two fathoms, signaling safe passage. He began using the pseudonym in the 1860s for his published writings.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens was born November 30, 1835, in Florida, Missouri, and grew up in Hannibal. He apprenticed as a printer and later became a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi. After the Civil War disrupted river traffic, he began publishing humorous articles and stories. His best-known works include The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County (1865), The Innocents Abroad (1869), The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884). He also wrote travel books, essays, and satire; his writing is valued for its use of regional dialect and social critique. He died on April 21, 1910, in Redding, Connecticut.

Twain is regarded as one of the most influential figures in American literature. His works helped shape the American voice in fiction, and his humor and critique influenced later writers. The pseudonym Mark Twain remains inseparably linked with Samuel Clemens; the surname Twain also appears in other historical or literary contexts.