Mark Twain's Other Woman
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“Mr. Gabrilowitsch’s statement”: “Denies Daughter of Mark Twain Is Sued,” New York American, October 17, 1903, section II, p. 1.
“troubled for fear”: JC to Joseph Twichell, October 17, 1909, TC. 232 The next day a check for $1,000: Cancelled Checks 1886–1910, MTP.
“At this very day Ashcroft”: SLC, Notebook 49, 1910, MTP.
“phrasing. [Twain] had exhausted”: Paine, Biography, p. 1533.
“During twenty-three days”: Mark Twain, Letters from the Earth, ed. Bernard DeVoto (New York: Harper and Row, 1962), pp. 40–41.
On November 20, 1909: SLC to Helen Allen, October 30, 1909, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, YU.
The newlyweds spent their first weeks: Clemens, My Husband Gabrilowitsch, p. 52.
Twain and Paine had sailed: Paine, Biography p. 1541. Hill gives November 18 as the sailing date (Mark Twain: God’s Fool, p. 249); Twain, in a letter to Dorothy Quick on November 18, wrote that the sailing date would be November 20 (MTP).
“past 5 months”: SLC to Dorothy Quick, November 18, 1909, MTP.
“was not at all ill”: Paine, Biography, p. 1544.
At Twain’s specific request, no news: JC to Mr. Dunne, November 30, 1909, MTP.
“Don’t begin right off”: JC to Nancy Brush, July 29, 1909, MTP.
“real jealousy”: JC to Marguerite Schmitt, October 19, 1909 (collection of Hamlin Hill, copy at, MTP).
“The principle reason”: JC to Marguerite Schmitt, November 7, 1909 (collection of Hamlin Hill, copy at, MTP).
“I began to be absent-minded”: July 17, 1906; JC Diary April 30–July 21, 1906, 53348 HL.
On the morning of Christmas Eve: Taylor, “Our Neighbor Mark Twain.”
To her utter horror: Lawton, A Lifetime with Mark Twain, 321.
“She’s happy now”: Ibid., p. 322.
This initial diagnosis: The following day the Associated Press sent a release that was picked up by papers across the country. The Fresno Morning Republican carried the story, entitled “Mark Twain’s Daughter Dies.” An excerpt from the article provided the cause of death: JC “died not directly from drowning, as was first supposed, but more probably of strangulation due to an attack of epilepsy, or from heart failure. The body was found in the bath tub with the head only partly submerged and medical examination tonight showed that the lungs contained little water.” December 5, 1909.
Jean died seven months shy: In a 1989 American Neurological Association article, researchers reported that “sudden unexpected death without obvious cause accounts for a substantial portion of reported deaths among epileptics; however, this phenomenon is still not widely recognized nor appreciated.” A more recent article, entitled, “Sudden Death in Epilepsy,” published in the winter 1997 issue of The Medical Journal of Allina, states that epileptic patients who had never been able to achieve complete seizure control, who had suffered from epilepsy for years possibly from the result of a head injury, and who were between twenty and forty years of age and in excellent health except for epilepsy were viewed as at a high risk for sudden death. Jean fit those parameters.
“I am already rejoicing”: SLC to Mai H. Rogers Coe, December 27, 1909, MTM.
“She is out of it all”: SLC to HW, December 28, 1909, MTM.
“constitute my family henceforth”: SLC to Mary B. Rogers, December 29, 1909 (Columbia University, New York).
“If a word would do it”: For the online text of “The Death of Jean,” see http://www.online-literature.com/twain/1316/.
Her epilepsy had never been cured: Clara Clemens, My Father Mark Twain (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1931), p. 283.
“Who loves to steal a while away”: SLC to Albert Bigelow Paine, January 14, 1910, SC.
“Who feeds on bromide and on Scotch”: Hill, Mark Twain: God’s Fool, p. 268.
“A year later—No more association”: January 21, 1909; yellow printed date book, 1908–09 Box, VC.
“In your guess of a year ago”: SLC to CC, March 6, 1910, MTP.
Clara later professed: Clemens, My Father Mark Twain, pp. 288–89; Hill, Mark Twain: God’s Fool, p. 257.
EPILOGUE
“Clemens was sole”: William Dean Howells, My Mark Twain (New York: Harper & Brothers: 1910).
“We have called him the greatest”: Obituary, New York Times, April 22, 1910.
Afterward, for two hours: Associated Press story, April 24, 1910; Hill, Mark Twain: God’s Fool, pp. 266–67.
“1909—The humorist and his daughter”: “Events in Mark Twain’s Life,” Sheboygan Daily Press, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, April 29, 1910.
“going about everywhere”: CC to HW, June 25, 1910, MTM.
“About ‘Miss Lyon’ I can so well understand”: CC to HW, August 5, 1910, MTM.
Actually, the lawyer had been sent: Hill, Mark Twain: God’s Fool, p. 267.
“I had hoped it would be a boy”: Lawton, A Lifetime with Mark Twain, pp. 334–35.
“sad that [Nina] inherited”: McLauchlin, O.G. the Incomparable.
“very fine”: CC to HW, April 7, 1913, MTM.
“After 21 years”: IL, 1936 File, VC.
“The building of the new home”: Paine, Biography, p. 1446.
“As soon as this is begun”: Hill, Mark Twain: God’s Fool, p. 268.
“with total neglect of all duties”: Divorce decree of Isabel V. Lyon and Ralph Ashcroft (copy, author’s personal collection).
“very unsatisfactory”: Webster Interview, January 5, 1950, typed transcript, VC.
Isabel went back to New York City: DW to Betty (Hall) Mack (Mrs. Clifford G. Mack), July 29, 1959, MTM.
Ashcroft married a second time: Hill, Mark Twain: God’s Fool, p. 268.
At the time of his death: New York Times, January 9, 1947, p. 24; “Ashcroft-Lyon Manuscript,” Box 48, MTP.
Clara insisted upon: McLauchlin, O.G. the Incomparable. 250 Wife and daughter did not attend: Caroline Thomas Harnsberger, Mark Twain’s Clara, or What Became of the Clemens Family (Evanston, Ill.: The Press of Ward Schori, 1982).
A model of the memorial: I discovered the model of Twain and Olivia in the storage room of the Elmira Historical Society when I was doing research for my biography Mark Twain in the Company of Women (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1994).
DeVoto had to seek her permission: Rasmussen, Mark Twain A–Z, p. 111.
This bickering led to the resignation: Ibid., p. 304.
Wecter and Clara enjoyed: Personal correspondence to the author from Robert Hirst, October 9, 2000.
Anderson passed away suddenly: Rasmussen, Mark Twain A–Z, p. 433.
In August 1940, Clara asked her lawyer: Charles Tressler Lark was the assistant of John B. Stanchfield, Twain’s Elmira-based attorney. He continued to work for Clara into the 1940s (Hill, Mark Twain: God’s Fool, p. 238).
“were jealous of [Isabel’s] entirely friendly relation”: Letter from Charles Tressler Lark, counselor at law, to Bernard DeVoto, Subject File, MTP It is curious that DeVoto, who published his biography Mark Twain at Work (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1942) two years after receiving this letter, never mentioned it. DeVoto instead argued that the pronounced pessimism of Twain’s later years did not require any explanation—that his bitterness was in agreement with the literature of reality. DeVoto went on to claim that Twain’s fictive powers did not wane toward the end, and that he was also unaffected by the travails and deaths of the women in his life. In retrospect, it seems incredible that DeVoto could have made this claim with this letter in his possession unless he felt a particular allegiance to Clara (or felt pressured to leave such unpleasant matters unmentioned in his work).
“pawned her off on nannies”: Author’s interview with Alice Henderson, July 29, 2006.
His losses were so great: Harnsberger, Mark Twain’s Clara, p. 176.
DeVoto specifically suspected: Personal correspondence to the author from Robert Hirst, August 27, 2000.
Treasured memorabilia: Webster Intervi
ew, March 5, 1948, IL Miscellaneous Mark Twain Notes, MTP; Webster Interview, 1953, VC.
Among her friends and family: Charles Tressler Lark, counselor at law, to Bernard DeVoto, Subject File, MTP.
“You are certainly a tough human being”: William Howe to IL, October 26, 1933, MC.
A lover of hats and colorful dresses: Charles Tressler Lark to Bernard DeVoto, Subject File, MTP.
Stubbornly independent: “Dear Mrs Bunce: Your interesting letter asking about the disposition of the furnishings in the New York house, came at an unfortunate time for me, & I owe you an explanation for my apparent discourtesy in not answering. I was slowly recovering from a recurrent heart attack which stops all activities, mental or physical until energy returns.” IL to Eleanor Bunce (Mrs. John Lee), March 14, 1956, MTM; DW to Henry Nash Smith, December 5, 1958, Subject File, MTP.
“inside a voluminous dress”: DW, undated handwritten document, IL Miscellaneous Mark Twain Notes, MTP.
“Oh, but he is lovable”: Webster Manuscript, MTP.
Isabel informed Smith: October 18, 1954, MTP.
The Websters accepted the collection:
Dear Mr. Smith:
When you were East about two years ago, and came in to see me, you expressed the hope that any notes I might have, would Some day find their way into the right hands; Therefore you will be glad to know that in November, 1955, I turned over To Mr Samuel C. Webster & wife, all notes, diaries, & photographs covering my 6½ years with Mr. Clemens. And with them my written wish that Some day they would be Transferred by Mr. Webster & wife, To The Mark Twain section of the University of California.
Sincerely Yours
Isabel V. Lyon
IL to Henry Nash Smith, March 5, 1958, MTP.
“in a locked room”: August 8, 1960, MTP.
“because of the unfortunate ending of the association”: November 1, 1954, Subject File, MTP.
Isabel may have reasoned: Isabel also offered to have her name “effaced from the record, at first insisting that her name be omitted from the title page, but of course that is impossible for a book of this sort.” Such was the power of the “Ashcroft-Lyon Manuscript.” DW and SW to Henry Nash Smith, July 30, 1960, MTP.
“We are certain that there was no scandal”: DW and SW to Henry Nash Smith, July 1, 1960, MTP.
“It is only by the luckiest stroke”: Hal Holbrook to Robert D. Wallace, June 10, 1958, Subject File, MTP.
That afternoon the apartment building janitor: MC, December 26, 1958.
She was found in a coma: A second version exists of Isabel’s death. “She had fallen in her apartment, and was not able to get up and it was quite a while before anyone knew it. Some of her friends feel that the great mistake was to take her to the hospital—something she always dreaded. She had a heart attack as they were lifting her into the ambulance. It was her new neighbor in the front apartment who started things by sending for the police, although Mrs. Lyon had called her doctor, she had said all she needed was to sit quietly in her chair.” DW to Henry Nash Smith, December 5, 1958, MTP.
The next day, at 4:53 p.m.: Certificate of Death, City of New York, #156–58–125638.
“She was a lovely, genuine person”: January 11, 1959, MC.
“I wish so much”: January 21, 1959, MC.
“a very serious minded man”: Personal correspondence to the author from Hal Holbrook, July 5, 2001.
“left behind some unpublished things”: Hal Holbrook to Robert D. Wallace, February 10, 1959, Subject File, MTP.
“I believe it will make a book”: Henry Nash Smith to DW and SW, July 28, 1960, MTP.
“wanted to ‘clear Isabel’s name’”: DW and SW to Henry Nash Smith, July 30, 1960, MTP.
Some of Isabel’s original materials: “Isabel gave [the Websters] the diaries etc., as a block, which only got split in two when the husband of Sam’s older sister Alice Jane Webster showed up one day during Doris’s dotage or near dotage and took possession of all the letters and stuff she had. That’s the cache of stuff that ended up at Vassar College, even though Doris fully intended to give it to the Mark Twain Papers.” Personal correspondence to the author from Robert Hirst, August 27, 2000.
“It is very difficult to take”: Isabel Van Kleek Lyon Journals Research; Frederick Anderson note card and editorial comments, MTP.
Doris Webster left a large bequest: Personal correspondence to the author from Robert Hirst, August 27, 2000.
“Yes I’m sure that much”: John Seelye to Frederick Anderson, March 18, 1977, MTP.
“A series of highly inflammatory anti-religious essays”: “Anti-Religious Work by Twain, Long Withheld, to Be Published: Author’s Daughter, Who Barred Release of Venomous ‘Letters from the Earth’ in Thirties, Now Agrees to Printing,” New York Times, August 24, 1962.
When Clara was living at the Bahia: Hal Holbrook, informal talk at the Center for Mark Twain Studies, Elmira, New York, August 8, 2009.
After Nina spent time: Harnsberger, Mark Twain’s Clara, p. 222.
When Holbrook was in California: Hal Holbrook, informal talk at the Center for Mark Twain Studies, Elmira, New York, August 8, 2009.
“Newly Found Mark Twain Letter”: New York Times, June 25, 1970.
“No penalty attaches itself: January 15, 1905, 1905 Daily Reminder #2, MTP.
“Sitting alone in a little room”: Personal correspondence to the author from Tracy S. Worthington, April 6, 2002. Undated quotation.
Permissions Acknowledgments
The previously unpublished writings of Mark Twain, Olivia Louise Langdon Clemens, Clara Clemens, and Jean Clemens are copyright © 2009 by Richard A. Watson and JPMorgan Chase Bank as Trustees of the Mark Twain Foundation, which reserves all reproduction or dramatization rights in every medium.
Quotation and photograph reproduction is made with the permission of the University of California Press and Robert H. Hirst, general editor, Mark Twain Papers & Project at Berkeley.
Quotation is made with the permission of the Mark Twain House & Museum, Hartford, Connecticut.
Quotation is made with the permission of Vassar College Libraries.
Reproduction of photographs is made with the permission of Robert Slotta.
Reproduction of photographs is made with the permission of Kevin Mac Donnell.
Jean Clemens’s diaries are reproduced by permission of the Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Isabel Van Kleek Lyon’s daily reminders, notebooks, and journal are reproduced by permission of the Isabel Lyon Heirs.
The source for the letter from Samuel L. Clemens to Helen Allen, October 30, 1909, is the Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
The source for the letter from Samuel L. Clemens to Charlotte Teller Johnson, April 13, 1906, is the Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection of English and American Literature at the New York Public Library; Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations.
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Published by Alfred A. Knopf
Copyright © 2010 by Laura Skandera Trombley
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Trombley, Laura Skandera.
Mark Twain’s other woman : the hidden story of his final years /
Laura Skandera Trombley. — 1st ed.
p. cm.
eISBN: 978-0-307-59325-2
1. Twain, Mark, 1835–1910—Last years.
2. Twain, Mark, 1835–1910—Relations with private secretaries.
3. Twain, Mark, 1835–1910—Relations with women.
4. Authors, American—19th century—Biography.
5. Authors, American —20th century—Biography.
6. Lyon, Isabel, 1863–1958.
7. Private secretaries—United States—Biography. I. Title.
PS1332.S53 2010
818′.409—dc22
{B} 2009048367
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