The pen name Mark Twain came from_____

No author in American literature is better .known or more loved than Samuel Langhorne Clemens. Born in Missouri in 1853, he grew on the bank of the Mississippi River and later adopted the pen name of Mark Twain from the call of the boatmen on the Mississippi as they measured the depth of the river. The river environment inspired the two novels which brought him his greatest fame. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Another book, Life on the Mississippi, told of his adventures on the river boats of that period.
     It was during the Civil War that Mark Twain’s life as a writer started. At that time he was working as a newspaperman in Nevada and California. His short story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, was an immediate success and his new career began.
     In 1870, Mark Twain married Olivia Langdon. He had fallen in love with her picture even before he met her. According to his own story, his wife had a real influence on Twain’s later books.
     Mark Twain was also a very successful lecturer. His travels around the country giving talks on a variety of subjects helped make him famous and increased the sale of his books.