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Sawyer creator may smear a couple (4,5)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

mark twain

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'sawyer creator' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I can't tell whether this works.

'smear a couple' is the wordplay.
'smear' becomes 'mark' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'a couple' becomes 'twain' (archaic term for 'two').
'mark'+'twain'='MARK TWAIN'

'may' acts as a link.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for mark twain that I've seen before include "American humorous writer, d. 1910" , "Tom had him writing about?" , "Writer of Huckleberry Finn" , "US writer" , ""The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" author" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.
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