What was Mark Twain's actual name?
Samuel Langhorne Clemens was known the pen name Mark Twain, a nom de plume he coined to reflect his time as a river boat pilot.  On the Mississippi in the 1800's it was common to measure river depth in terms of 6 foot increments demarcated on a rope by knots.  Thus, when the river was of depth 12 feet, or two fathoms, the boatmen would call out, "Mark Twain" indicating the second of two knots was submerged.
<START_INST>What was Mark Twain's actual name?<END_INST><START_CTX><END_CTX><START_A>Samuel Langhorne Clemens was known the pen name Mark Twain, a nom de plume he coined to reflect his time as a river boat pilot.  On the Mississippi in the 1800's it was common to measure river depth in terms of 6 foot increments demarcated on a rope by knots.  Thus, when the river was of depth 12 feet, or two fathoms, the boatmen would call out, "Mark Twain" indicating the second of two knots was submerged.<END_A>