Mark time, and succeed holding area (5)
I believe the answer is:
twain
'mark' is the definition.
(Mark Twain)
'time and succeed holding area' is the wordplay.
'time' becomes 't'.
'and' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'succeed' becomes 'win' (I've seen this before).
'holding' indicates putting letters inside.
'area' becomes 'a' (maths abbreviation).
'win' going around 'a' is 'wain'.
't'+'wain'='TWAIN'
(Other definitions for twain that I've seen before include "Mark ___ , American writer" , "US author Mark, attributed with the quote "golf is a good walk spoiled"" , "Archaic term for two" , "Two - Mark!" , "that was a low number" .)