As part of the ongoing discussion of the origin of the name, Mark Twain, I
wrote:
>
> Regardless, the bar-room version of facts, first printed in Western
> papers in 1866, appears correct.
>
> Horst H. Kruse, in the _Mark Twain Journal_ (Spring, 1992), "Mark Twain's
> _Nom de Plume_: Some Mysteries Resolved", offers a thorough,
> well-documented, discussion of the pen name ...
 
Upon rereading the Kruse article, I have realized that although Kruse
discovers significant problems with the details Clemens offers, Kruse does
not state that Captain Sellers never used the name, Mark Twain.
 
Kruse also offers circumstantial evidence supporting the idea that Sellers
had used the name.  Two rivertown newspapers, in 1933 and in 1882, have
claimed Sellers did use the name Mark Twain.  And Kruse states that "if
the supposed rules of parody apply, the very signature that Clemens used
when he mocked the Captain's style--'Sergeant Fathom'--would seem to
presuppose the prior use of just such a signature as 'Mark Twain.'" (p.21)
 
My theory, at the moment, is that all the stories concerning the pseudonym
may simultaneously be true.  After all, Sellers could have, at some point,
been called Mark Twain; and Clemens, while drinking doubles, could have
thought of Sellers and asked the bartender to "mark twain."
 
thanks,
larry marshburne         ([log in to unmask])