Why did Clara finally allow Letters to be printed? The answer has far less to do with the Russians than with the demise of Isabel. Isabel, the last person remaining who knew the real reason why Twain had written about adultery and its connection to Clara, had died. With Isabel’s passing, Clara believed that the secret the manuscript contained would be safe forever, and the last manuscript her father ever wrote could finally be published.
Clara died two months after the publication of Letters from the Earth, at age eighty-eight. At the time of her death she was living with Samossoud at the Bahia Hotel in San Diego. Due to her husband’s constant gambling, Clara had been forced to sell her Hollywood home in 1951 and auction off most of its contents. The San Diego location was convenient for Samossoud, as it provided easy access to the racetrack at Del Mar.
When Clara was living at the Bahia, Hal Holbrook paid her a visit. He was performing Mark Twain Tonight in San Diego and phoned and asked Jacques if she was well enough for a visitor. Jacques was amenable, so Holbrook was ushered into her bedroom for a chat. According to Holbrook, Clara had “a shock of white hair that looks exactly like him. She’s got these two eyes staring out from under her eyebrows. All she lacked was a mustache. She looked exactly like Mark Twain.” While Holbrook expected that they would talk about her father, Clara appeared to be uninterested. Instead, she volunteered that she had a much better subject for him to play on the stage: “I’ve had an idea for you, Hal. I think you should do a show where you play Jesus Christ. … Yes, I think you could do a very good job of trying to make people understand.” Startled, Holbrook replied, “Well, I don’t know, I don’t know if it would book very well.” Clara continued, “I think you could do it. I wish you would. I want you to think seriously about that.”
By this time Clara and her daughter were no longer on speaking terms. After Nina spent time at Camarillo State Hospital, her psychiatrist wrote that her “hatred for her mother was well-established.” Clara disinherited Nina in her will, leaving everything to her husband. (Nina later successfully sued Samossoud and a settlement was reached.)
As for Nina, Mark Twain’s last direct descendent, her final years were excruciatingly lonely ones, as old friends no longer took her drunken late-night calls. When Holbrook was in California, he invited her to a performance of Mark Twain Tonight, and Nina accepted. However, she was so inebriated that she was unable to appreciate the show. Nina committed suicide in her apartment on January 16, 1966, at age fifty-five. It is said that her ghost still haunts the hallways of the Highland Towers, going from door to door begging to come inside. Nina was buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in Elmira, a short distance away from Clara. Even in death she would remain separated from her mother; Jacques Samossoud, who died five months after Nina, was buried next to Clara. His grave remains unmarked today, supposedly due to the hatred of the Langdon family.
Eight years after Clara’s death, a mysterious and forgotten Twain manuscript came to light. The New York Times headline announced, “Newly Found Mark Twain Letter Accuses Aide of Theft.” Forty-nine years after its composition, the “Ashcroft-Lyon Manuscript” was found in a shoebox. Clara had given the manuscript to Julia Langdon Loomis, her mother’s niece, to safeguard for her, and sometime over the years, Julia had passed it along to her husband’s business associate, Harold R. German. German’s daughter discovered Twain’s manuscript when she was going through her father’s papers. She contacted a dealer, who sold it to the Berg Collection of English and American Literature at the New York Public Library for $25,000, with the restriction that no portions of the manuscript could be quoted. The Times did, however, cite Twain’s exhortation to “the person who might one day find the manuscript to preserve it for the value of its contents.” By this time, all of the people originally concerned were dead, and no one remained who knew the real reason that Twain had written the account or who could question the manuscript’s veracity. Twain would have been pleased.
In view of his lifelong reliance upon women, it is unsurprising that Twain spent his final year passionately writing about them. For each of the three women featured in his writings there was a different, tragic ending: Clara was alienated from her father, unable to marry the man she loved, and estranged from her only child; Jean was dead, after years spent suffering with a terrible affliction and unrequited affection; and Isabel was condemned to be the subject of a blackmail document whose author was determined to destroy her name.
When Isabel began her collaboration with Doris and Samuel Webster she was in her late eighties. Money was not the motivating factor that drew her to the past. Twenty-eight years after leaving Twain’s side she wrote, “No penalty attaches itself to perfect living—No penalties ever attach themselves to joy.” After all those years, what Isabel could not bear was the awareness that her existence had been successfully and systematically erased: first by Twain, then by Clara, and finally by Paine. She desperately wanted people to know that she mattered—that she had been needed and valued by Twain.
While still married to Ashcroft and living in Montreal in the 1920s, Isabel jotted down an insightful and particularly bleak observation:
Sitting alone in a little room in an old house in Montreal, I am thrown back through the years—by a single packet of written matter, which proves to be the “forms” dictated by Mr. Clemens to me as his private secy. For answer to letters, invitations, the gifts of books—His private secretary—so private that the very mention of me is with held from the world by the turn of fate—Private—
Insert card issued by the Mogul Egyptian Cigarettes Company, summer 1909–fall 1910. It reads, “A woman is only a woman, but a good cigar’s a smoke!”
Acknowledgments
This book took too long to complete, sixteen years, and I am deeply grateful to the librarians, scholarly colleagues, archivists, students, collectors, friends, and family who supported me throughout the undertaking. I began the initial research in 1993 while an associate professor of English at the State University of New York at Potsdam, and since then my family moved first to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, where I was dean of the faculty at Coe College for five years, and then to Claremont, California, where I have served as president of Pitzer College for the past eight years. All the while, through many life changes, including the birth of my son in 1996, I kept returning to this project.
I would like to thank the National Endowment for the Humanities for its 1994 summer stipend, which allowed me to do invaluable archival research at the Mark Twain Papers & Project at the University of California at Berkeley; Vassar College; the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Connecticut; and Trinity College. And to SUNY Potsdam for awarding me its 1993–94 Research and Creative Endeavors Grant, which allowed me to work with two wonderful research fellows: Russell Swanker III and Donna Williamson. Special appreciation goes to the reference librarians who assisted me in locating materials in those pre-digitization days: Keith Compeau at SUNY Potsdam, Betty Rogers and Susan Wagner-Hecht at Coe College, and Mark Woodhouse at Elmira College. Quite simply, my work could not have been done without Bob Hirst, the director of the Mark Twain Papers at the University of California, Berkeley, and the support of his scholar-editors Kenneth Sanderson and Victor Fisher. I am indebted to my office staff, Doris Gitzy, Jennifer Berkley, and Natalie Wilson, for their help in preparing materials and providing a listening ear. Special appreciation goes to Andrea Olson at Pitzer College for her superb research skills, Stuart McConnell for his wealth of information about the Gilded Age, and Lee Monroe for his meticulous manuscript editing. Thank you Tom Curley, Alan Finder, and Liliana Trevizan for your assistance in locating primary source materials.
It has been my good fortune to count among my colleagues the Mark Twain scholars Michael Kiskis, Gary Scharnhorst, Ann Ryan, David Smith, Victor Doyno, and the late Hamlin Hill. Their feedback over the years has made this journey infinitely more interesting. I also want to thank the collectors Bob Slotta and Kevin Mac Donnell for their generosity in sharing unpublished Mark Twain materia
ls. To Geoff Ward: I am most grateful for your warm regard and encouragement. To my academic mentor Jay Martin: Your unwavering faith in my abilities for the past twenty-five years has meant more to me than you will ever know. And to Bill Flanagan, my dearest friend: How fortunate I am that you are part of my life.
I am indebted to Bob Bookman for his assistance in bringing this project to its completion; to Melanie Jackson, my agent, whose enthusiasm and support meant the world to me; to Vicky Wilson, my editor at Knopf, for her keen and insightful critical eye; and to Carmen Johnson, who has been so helpful in preparing the manuscript for publication.
One of the rewards of writing biography is the opportunity to meet the descendents and friends of the subjects. Therefore, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to Isabel Van Kleek Lyon’s family, David and June Moore and Tracy Worthington, for sharing their memories and precious collection of letters and photographs, and to Alice Henderson, one of Nina Gabrilowitsch’s closest friends, for her stories and photographs. Thank you to Hal Holbrook, who has “done” Mark Twain longer than Samuel Clemens did, for his memories of his time spent talking with Isabel Van Kleek Lyon.
To my parents, John and Mary Skandera, thank you for encouraging my love of reading as a child and for raising me to appreciate the importance of humor. To Nelson Trombley, your interest, support, and pride in my scholarly efforts has sustained me through the years. Finally, to my beloved son, Sparkey, who was born to a mother who writes and who shares my love of reading, this is your book.
Laura E. Skandera Trombley
November 1, 2009
Notes
ABBREVIATIONS
For frequently cited names, the following abbreviations are used:
CC Clara Clemens
JC Jean Clemens
SLC Samuel Langhorne Clemens
FD Frederick Duneka
WDH William Dean Howells
IL Isabel Van Kleek Lyon
KM Kevin Mac Donnell
DW Doris Webster
SW Samuel Webster
HW Harriet Whitmore
For frequently cited libraries and manuscript depositories, the following abbreviations are used:
HL Huntington Library, San Marino, California
MC Moore Collection, David Moore, IL’s grandnephew
MTM Mark Twain Memorial, Hartford, Connecticut
MTP Mark Twain Papers & Project, University of California, Berkeley
NYPL New York Public Library
SC Robert Slotta Collection
TC Trinity College
VC Vassar College
YU Yale University
The Isabel Lyon Collection at the Mark Twain Papers & Project includes:
“Ashcroft-Lyon Manuscript,” Box 48
Annotated copy of Mark Twain’s Autobiography (1924) File
Annotated copy of Mark Twain: A Biography (1912) File
1903 Daily Reminder: January 3–4, 1903
1905 Daily Reminder #1 (This is a xeroxed copy; the original is in the Antenne-Dorrance Collection, University of Wisconsin.)
1905 Daily Reminder #2
1906 Daily Reminder #1
1906 Daily Reminder #2 (This is a xeroxed copy; the original is in the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin. This daily reminder is an edited copy of 1906 Daily Reminder #1.)
1907 Daily Reminder
1908 Daily Reminder
1903–06 Journal
IL Miscellaneous Mark Twain Notes
Notebook #1: January 31, 1906, to September 8, 1906
Notebook #2: October 23, 1906, to May 31, 1907
Notebook #3: December 17, 1906, to January 17, 1908
Notebook #4: October 5, 1907, to February 17, 1908
Notebook #5: February 2, 1906, to April 1, 1908
Annotated copy of Albert Bigelow Paine, Mark Twain’s Autobiography, vol. 1 (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1944), (1924) File Subject File, Lyon, IL Webster [Doris and Samuel] Manuscript
PREFACE
“Sitting alone in a little room”: Personal correspondence to the author from Tracy S. Worthington, April 6, 2002. Undated quotation.
“I am not an American”: Twain wrote this line in his 1897 notebook in a passage with references to Frank Fuller. There is a debate as to whether Twain is referring to himself or is quoting Fuller. MTP.
“a slovenly writer”: IL Journals Research; Frederick Anderson note card, and editorial comments, MTP.
Also, her daily reminders: I spent many years laboriously transcribing IL’s writings. Happily, her handwriting is quite legible. The primary difficulty I had was in recovering entries that she had tried to cross out. In most cases, I was able to retrieve the information. I tried to be as accurate as possible, despite her idiosyncratic punctuation, and even if it meant occasionally sacrificing proper grammar and correct spelling.
In addition, Isabel made: The unabridged 1906 daily reminder is archived at the Mark Twain Papers & Project, and the abridged (xeroxed) copy is archived at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, at the University of Texas at Austin.
“a liar, a forger”: SLC to CC, March 6, 1910, MTP.
ONE: “TOO PERFECT FOR LIFE”
“Today has been very full”: January 15, 1905; 1905 Daily Reminder #2, MTP.
“contained a hundred people”: Albert Bigelow Paine, ed., Mark Twain’s Autobiography (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1924).
“I came in with Halley’s Comet”: Albert Bigelow Paine, Mark Twain: A Biography (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1912).
“The Almighty has said”: Ibid.
“He always seemed to me”: Ibid. In vol. 1, chap. 3, Paine prefaces this remark with the words “long afterward, one of those who knew him best said.”
“COCA, a vegetable product”: Mark Twain, “The Turning Point of My Life,” Harper’s Bazaar, February 1910.
“I made the great discovery”: Milton Meltzer, Mark Twain Himself (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2002), p. 150.
“High and fine literature”: SLC to WDH, February 15, 1887, MTP.
“one living writer”: Professor Richard Burton declared in 1904 that SLC was the “one living writer of indisputable genius” in the United States.
“has taken a leading place”: Louis Budd, Our Mark Twain (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1983), p. 83.
“I am frightened”: Ibid., p. 95.
“himself high”: Ibid., p. 87.
One afternoon in the late 1880s: DW interview with IL, undated, handwritten document, IL Miscellaneous Mark Twain Notes, MTP.
the Whitmores’ six children: Franklin, Jr., Harriet (nicknamed “Hattie”), Ruth, Frederick, William, and Harold. Franklin Whitmore File, MTM.
Isabel was let into: IL to DW, September 18, 1956, MTM.
“if I can play”: DW interview with IL, undated, handwritten document, IL Miscellaneous Mark Twain Notes, MTP.
Born on December 15, 1863: IL’s siblings were Louise and Charles.
Charles was a published writer: “Considerations in favour of Classical Studies” (New York: W. G. Boggs, 1839); “The Power of Intellectual Culture; A Lecture Delivered Before the Tarrytown Lyceum” (New York: Dean and Trevett, 1841); “Oration Delivered in a Grove, Near the Ground on Which Major André Was Taken, at Tarrytown, on the Fourth of July, 1839” (New York: Bryant and Boggs, 1839).
Individual lots: Description of Irving Park, Tarrytown, the property of Charles H. Lyon (New York: Wynkoop, Hallenbeck and Thomas, 1859).
Making matters worse: William T. Lyon was a longtime headmaster at the prestigious Irving Institute, a preparatory school for boys, located in Tarrytown.
The house was located: Miss Porter’s mission was to produce women who would lead useful lives, fully grounded in the tenets of professionalism, marriage, motherhood, and household management. To all appearances, IL was in full agreement with the school’s goals.
Her first known job: Unknown author, “143 Main Street” (unpublished
manuscript, July 7, 1972), MC.
“Surrounded by French speech”: IL to HW, December 3, 1890, MTM.
“I cannot tell you”: IL to HW, December 3, 1890, MTM.
A possible explanation: July 10, 1906, JC Diary April 30–July 21, 1906, HL.
“had so much trouble”: IL to HW, December 3, 1890, MTM.
“$500 a year”: IL to HW, December 3, 1890, MTM.
“Up go the trolley cars”: Quoted in Laura E. Skandera Trombley, Mark Twain in the Company of Women (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994), p. 14.
“could manage to have an opinion”: Budd, Our Mark Twain, p. 148.
“was almost a living statue”: Ibid., p. 216.
In a manuscript: “143 Main Street” (author’s personal collection).
Years later, Isabel confided: July 10, 1906, JC Diary April 30–July 21, 1906, HL.
This was an era: Nils Retterstøl, “Suicide in a Cultural History Perspective, Part 2,” Suicidologi 3 (2000).
“My dear Friend”: Olivia Clemens to HW, June 30, 1902, MTM.
“But I said”: DW interview with IL, undated, handwritten document, IL Miscellaneous Mark Twain Notes, MTP.
“I want to tell you”: CC to HW, December 10, 1902, MTM.
“so personal”: DW interview with IL, undated, handwritten document, IL Miscellaneous Mark Twain Notes, MTP.
“Alone I watched”: January 1, 1903, 1903 Daily Reminder, VC.
“His private humor”: Undated, loose page, 1903–05 Box VC.
“enchanting”: January 6, 1903, 1903 Daily Reminder, VC.
“This morning as I sat”: January 3, 1903, 1903 Daily Reminder, MTP.
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