Samuel Clemens' pen name comes from his time training to be a riverboat pilot. The pilots (?) would call out "mark twain!" which meant the water was two fathoms deep - safe for boats to pass. People would have recognized the pun at the time. So that's basically like naming yourself Ice Cube or Polly Styrene. That's gangsta. It's also fucking punk rock a century before punk rock even happened.
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I had never thought about Clemens' pen name being in the same vein as say, Q-Tip but I dig it.
So, there's also a more recent theory that "Mark Twain" might also refer to a term that was being used in Nevada, in reference to marking up two drinks on your tab. Which is still gangsta.
I think that's even more gangsta. In fact I think I'm going to choose to believe that theory is right.
I just read that Mark Twain wrote a 5,000 page autobiography that he gave instructions to not be published for 100 years after his death. Which is now. Curious to see what he wrote.