Mark Twain passage of boat, was a measure on the sounding line. Twain is an archaic term for "two", as in "The veil of the temple was rent in twain." The riverboatman's cry was "mark twain" or, more fully, "by the mark twain", meaning "according to the mark [on the line], [the depth is] two [fathoms]", that is, "The water is deep and it is safe to pass." Twain said that his famous pen name was not entirely his invention. In "Life on the Mississippi", he wrote: Captain Isaiah Sellers was not of literary turn or capacity, but he used to jot
Old English Newsletter State University of New York's Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies. It is currently (2011) published at the Department of English, University of Tennessee. Old English Newsletter The Old English Newsletter is a peer-reviewed academic journal established in 1967. It covers Anglo-Saxon studies and is published by the University of Tennessee's Department of English for the Old English Division of the Modern Language Association of America. Its current editor is Roy Liuzza, of the University of Tennessee. The journal publishes an annual "Bibliography" and "Year's Work", which are widely relied upon. Many issues include obituaries of relevant scholars. The online