Hannibal to honor 150 years of 'Mark Twain'

HANNIBAL, Mo. (AP) -- It was a century-and-a-half ago that Samuel Clemens became Mark Twain. His hometown of Hannibal will mark the occasion with a special event Saturday.

Clemens was born in 1835 in the northeast Missouri town of Florida and moved to Hannibal as a young boy. The Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum in Hannibal says the author of "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer," "The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and other books adopted the pen name Mark Twain on Feb. 3, 1863.

Museum curator Henry Sweets will speak at the museum on Saturday about Twain's use of various pen names throughout the years, including "Thomas Jefferson Snodgrass" and "Rambler." Sweets will also discuss whether someone else might have used the name Mark Twain first.

The talk is free and open to the public.