Samuel Langhorne Clemens
(November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910)
Samuel Clemens, later known as Mark Twain, was born in Florida, Missouri,
on November 30, 1835.
Clemens was apprenticed to a printer at age 13 and later worked
for his older brother, who established the Hannibal Journal. In
1857, the Keokuk Daily Post commissioned him to write a series
of comic travel letters, but after writing five he decided to become
a steamboat captain instead. He signed on as a pilot’s apprentice
in 1857 and received his pilot’s license in 1859, when he was 23.
Clemens piloted boats for two years, until the Civil War halted
steamboat traffic. During his time as a pilot, he picked up the
term “Mark Twain,” a boatman’s call noting that the river was
only two fathoms deep, the minimum depth for safe navigation.
When Clemens returned to writing in 1861, working for the Virginia
City Territorial Enterprise, he wrote a humorous travel letter signed
by “Mark Twain” and continued to use the pseudonym for nearly
50 years.
