Mark and Livy: The Love Story of Mark Twain and the Woman Who Almost Tamed Him [Paperback]

Resa Willis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 24, 2003 | ISBN-10: 041594774X | ISBN-13: 978-0415947749 | Edition: 1

Olivia Langdon Clemens was not only the love of Mark Twain's life and the mother of his children, she was also his editor, muse, critic and trusted advisor. She read his letters and speeches. He relied on her judgment on his writing, and readily admitted that she not only edited his work, but also edited his public persona. Until now, little has been known about Livy's crucial place in Twain's life. In Resa Willis's affecting and fascinating biography, we meet a dignified, optimistic woman who married young, raised three sons and a daughter, endured myriad health problems and money woes and who faithfully traipsed all over the world with Twain - Africa, Europe, Asia-while battling his moodiness and her frailty. Twain adored her. A hard-drinking dreamer with an insatiable wanderlust, he needed someone to tame him. It was Livy who encouraged him to finish his autobiography even through the last stages of her illness. When she died in 1904, Twain's zest for life and writing was gone. He died six years later. A triumph of the biographer's art, Mark and Livy presents the fullest picture yet of one of the most influential women in American letters.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Olivia Langston (1845-1904) married Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) in 1870 and remained his wife for 34 years. In line with the conventions of the times, she saw herself as a wife, mother and "tamer" of iconoclastic Twain. However as Willis, literature professor at Drury College in Missouri, points out in this carefully researched, readable biography, Langston was also his valued critic and editor. In humorous anecdotes Twain portrayed "Livy" as a shrew--but the relationship between the mild-mannered, self-effacing woman and the cantankerous literary genius was apparently one of deep commitment and love. Their affection for one another, claims Willis, saw them through the rise and fall of their financial fortunes, the death of their daughter and Livy's many illnesses. The author's access to letters and journals gives insight into both husband and wife, as well as providing a portrait of American domestic life in the late 1800s.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Twain's domestic years (1870-1904) were not what he considered his best. But in spite of illness and financial stress, they were the years when he wrote the novels and stories he is remembered for--works that, according to Willis (Literature/Drury College) in this slight and sentimental story, were edited and inspired by Olivia ``Livy'' Langdon, Twain's wife, whom he called ``angel'' and ``gravity.'' Recovering from ``neurasthenia,'' a form of weakness that afflicted upper-class, intellectually repressed Victorian women, Livy entered a ``classic'' marriage as the ``civilizing'' influence on a hard-drinking, smoking, swearing, sociable dreamer who liked to travel. She decorated his homes, entertained his friends, toured Europe and the world with him as he lectured and wrote, and provided the fortune that allowed them to live so well on an editor's salary--a fortune he lost on the ill-fated Paige typesetting machine. Livy also bore four children: a son who died in infancy and three emotionally crippled daughters, also tamed in odd ways--at age four, the oldest was ``whipped'' daily in the bathroom with a ``hairbrush or papercutter.'' Although Livy's dark side--her elitist, tyrannical, and repressive nature--is obvious, the love story Willis claims to offer is not. Rather, there is a record of holidays (not very festive), expenses, travels, domestic chores, visits, visitors, griefs, and all possible illnesses--from pinkeye to epilepsy--and the medical foolishness with which many of them were treated. The best story, only implicit here, is not the taming of Mark but the liberation of Livy, the adventure of being Mrs. Clemens, especially the lecture tour around the world with all the bizarre escapades in Fiji, Tasmania, Africa, and India, lovingly related in Following the Equator, a Twain work that does not even appear in Willis's bibliography, with the voyage itself squeezed between Twain's carbuncles and daughter Susy's death. (Two eight-page photo inserts--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (October 24, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 041594774X
• ISBN-13: 978-0415947749
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,131,961 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mark Twain and the editor who just happened to be his wife, June 2, 2000

By 

Dr. Randall Fuller (Springfield, MO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mark & Livy (Paperback)

It's not simply that Willis provides readers with a new way of understanding Twain's life and work--it's that she does so with such an eloquent prose style. If on the surface Olivia Langdon Clemens appears to be the quintessential Victorian lady--frail, neuresthenic, domestic--her inner strength and unflappable judgement are skillfully uncovered by Willis, who in this work produces that rarest of things: a literary biography that is both literary and biographical.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A lively account and "must" reading for all Mark Twain fans., May 8, 2000

By 

Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Mark & Livy (Paperback)

Mark and Livy represents the only full-length survey of the woman behind Mark Twain - wife Olivia Clemens, or Livy. Chapters consider her entire role in his life, from her position as wife and mother to her involvement in his writings and career. A lively account which will appeal to Twain fans and readers of biography alike.