Editing Mark Twain (section)

==Pen names==
Twain used different pen names before deciding on "Mark Twain". He signed humorous and imaginative sketches as "Josh" until 1863. Additionally, Twain used the pen name "Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass" for a series of humorous letters.<ref>''Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass'', (Charles Honce, James Bennet, ed.), Pascal Covici, Chicago, 1928</ref>

Twain maintained that his primary pen name came from his years working on Mississippi riverboats, where two fathoms, a depth indicating water safe for the passage of boat, was a measure on the [[sounding line]]. Twain is an [[archaism|archaic]] term for "two", as in "The veil of the temple was rent in twain."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://bible.cc/matthew/27-51.htm |title=Matthew 27:51 at that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook, the rocks split |publisher=Bible.cc |access-date=December 7, 2013 |archive-date=May 9, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130509020052/http://bible.cc/matthew/27-51.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> The riverboatman's cry was "mark twain" or, more fully, "by the mark twain", meaning "according to the mark [on the line], [the depth is] two [fathoms]"; that is, "The water is {{convert|12|ft|m}} deep and it is safe to pass."

Twain said that his famous pen name was not entirely his invention. In ''Life on the Mississippi'', Twain wrote:
<blockquote>[[Isaiah Sellers|Captain Isaiah Sellers]] was not of literary turn or capacity, but he used to jot down brief paragraphs of plain practical information about the river, and sign them "MARK TWAIN", and give them to the ''[[Times-Picayune|New Orleans Picayune]]''. They related to the stage and condition of the river, and were accurate and valuable;&nbsp;... At the time that the telegraph brought the news of his death, I was on the Pacific coast. I was a fresh new journalist, and needed a [[Pseudonym#Noms de guerre|nom de guerre]]; so I confiscated the ancient mariner's discarded one, and have done my best to make it remain what it was in his hands&nbsp;– a sign and symbol and warrant that whatever is found in its company may be gambled on as being the petrified truth; how I have succeeded, it would not be modest in me to say.<ref>''Life on the Mississippi'', chapter 50</ref></blockquote>

Twain's story about his pen name has been questioned by some,<ref>{{cite book |last = Williams, III |first = George |title = Mark Twain and the Jumping Frog of Calaveras County: How Mark Twain's humorous frog story launched his legendary career |year = 1999 |publisher = Tree by the River Publishing |isbn = 0-935174-45-1 |chapter = Mark Twain Leaves Virginia City for San Francisco}} Cited in {{cite web |url=http://www.autographed-books.com/whoisgeorgewilliamsiii.html |title=Excerpt: ''The Singular Mark Twain'' |access-date=June 26, 2007 |archive-date=May 6, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070506192020/http://www.autographed-books.com/whoisgeorgewilliamsiii.html |url-status=live }}</ref> with the suggestion that "mark twain" refers to a running bar tab that Twain would regularly incur while drinking at John Piper's saloon in [[Virginia City, Nevada]]. Samuel Clemens himself responded to this suggestion by saying, "Mark Twain was the nom de plume of one Captain Isaiah Sellers, who used to write river news over it for the ''New Orleans Picayune''. He died in 1863 and as he could no longer need that signature, I laid violent hands upon it without asking permission of the proprietor's remains. That is the history of the nom de plume I bear."<ref>Fatout, Paul. "Mark Twain's Nom de Plume." ''American Literature'', v 34, n 1 (March 1962), pp.&nbsp;1–7. {{doi|10.2307/2922241}}. {{JSTOR|2922241}}.</ref>

In his autobiography, Twain writes further of Captain Sellers's use of "Mark Twain": <blockquote>I was a cub pilot on the Mississippi River then, and one day I wrote a rude and crude satire which was leveled at Captain Isaiah Sellers, the oldest steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River, and the most respected, esteemed, and revered. For many years he had occasionally written brief paragraphs concerning the river and the changes which it had undergone under his observation during fifty years, and had signed these paragraphs "Mark Twain" and published them in the St. Louis and New Orleans journals. In my satire I made rude game of his reminiscences. It was a shabby poor performance, but I didn't know it, and the pilots didn't know it. The pilots thought it was brilliant. They were jealous of Sellers, because when the gray-heads among them pleased their vanity by detailing in the hearing of the younger craftsmen marvels which they had seen in the long ago on the river, Sellers was always likely to step in at the psychological moment and snuff them out with wonders of his own which made their small marvels look pale and sick. However, I have told all about this in "Old Times on the Mississippi." The pilots handed my extravagant satire to a river reporter, and it was published in the New Orleans True Delta. That poor old Captain Sellers was deeply wounded. He had never been held up to ridicule before; he was sensitive, and he never got over the hurt which I had wantonly and stupidly inflicted upon his dignity. I was proud of my performance for a while, and considered it quite wonderful, but I have changed my opinion of it long ago. Sellers never published another paragraph nor ever used his nom de guerre again.<ref>"[http://www.marktwainproject.org/xtf/view?docId=works/MTDP10363.xml;style=work;brand=mtp;chunk.id=dv0050#pa001690 Autobiography of Mark Twain] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151016211319/http://www.marktwainproject.org/xtf/view?docId=works%2FMTDP10363.xml%3Bstyle%3Dwork%3Bbrand%3Dmtp%3Bchunk.id%3Ddv0050#pa001690 |date=October 16, 2015 }}." ''Volume 2; 10 September 1906'', (2013, 2008), Para. 4.</ref> </blockquote>