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Mark Twain's Other Woman: The Hidden Story of His Final Years

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Mark Twain is one of my two favorite authors, the other being Robert Frost. With that said, I am a wee bit sensitive when I think someone is trying to belittle either of them. That was my initial fear when I saw the book "Mark Twain's Other Woman: The Hidden Story of His Final Years" by Laura Skandera Trombley. So many of our traditional cultural, historical, and literary icons have been sullied over recent years by both substantiated and unsubstantiated claims, that it's hard not to react negatively when a new expose is published.

Thankfully I picked the book up and looked at it and then did a little research on the Internet and discovered that while "Mark Twain's Other Woman" is not exactly complimentary to Mark Twain, it isn't a slash and burn attack on one of our larger than life and beloved literary figures.

Isabel Van Kleek Lyon was hired as a personal assistant (secretary) to Samuel Clemens in 1902. Lyon, it turns out, kept a detailed daily diary of Twain's final years: Who he saw, who he was mad at, what he did, and simply a register of his day to day activities. It is through this daily log, almost totally ignored by other Twain scholars, that Trombley develops her book.

Lyon joined the Clemens household in 1902, before Olivia, Clemens wife, died. It was very soon after that, however, that Clara Clemens, Mark Twain's eldest daughter, developed a dislike for Lyon. In the end Clara managed to convince her father that Lyon had stolen from him and the two launched an unstoppable campaign to smear Lyon's reputation.

Did Lyon's steal from the Mark Twain? Did she desire a physical relationship with the elder writer? Trombley does a good job of examining these and other issues. She does manage to fill in gaps and add to the Mark Twain story.

I'm not sure that I'm satisfied that Mark Twain's Other Woman is the complete story, however. Something happened that soured Twain on Lyons. Trombley does an excellent job at examining the known documents but is this the whole story? There is mystery here.

I highly recommend Mark Twain's Other Woman.

Peace to all.

A short time ago, I read a fine biography of Mark Twain by Ron Powers. One issue that intrigued me mightily was a very brief mention of two women in Twain's later life--Isabel Lyon and Laura Wright (later Dake). In both cases, Powers' discussion made me want to know more about each.

Well, this work discusses in much more depth the relationship between Lyon and Twain. And it is a pretty disturbing tale, of fight to the death nastiness among those in Twain's life. Isabel Lyon wrote well detailed notes on nearly a day-by-day basis in terms of her years with Twain. She served as a secretary, a colleague, the person who looked after his finances, running his household, and supervising his last home. A part of the picture was the fierce contention Lyon had with Twain's daughter Clara, with Twain's biographer, and so on. Sometimes the people could work together; at other times they fought fiercely.

Lyon was Twain's companion for much of the last 6 years of his life. At some point, he essentially kicked her out of his life and began vituperative attacks on her.

This book uses previously unused private papers of Lyon to outline the nature of the relationship with Twain--and other aspects of Twain's life. I am not an expert on Mark Twain, so I am not in a position to judge the validity of the author's findings. But this is powerful reading, and one wonders how someone who played such an important role in Twain's later life could be so effectively expunged from many works on Twain.

I was fascinated by this account of Twain's final years. Using archival records,contemporaneous newspapers, and Isabel Van Kleek Lyon's diaries, author Trombley weaves an engrossing tale which makes events from 100 years ago vividly come to life. If you enjoy well-documented and carefully planned biographies, you'll like this work. It was worth the sixteen years the author took to complete it. I came away with little respect for most of the Clemens family, but at the same time I could understand clearly their motivations for their behavior. As for the almost forgotten Miss Lyon, she really deserved this work. I really sympathized with her and the way she was mistreated by the Clemens clan. At last, the true story is available to us all.

During his lifetime, Mark Twain was arguably the most famous man in the world. As such, he was very conscious of the public image that guaranteed him a secure income stream on the lecture tour any time he needed to tap into it. And because Twain had a habit of losing money to unwise investment decisions, the money he earned from public appearances was crucial if he was to maintain the lifestyle to which he and his family had become so accustomed. Toward the end of his life, Mark Twain became increasingly concerned about how he would be remembered after his death, and he was determined that nothing would tarnish his image at that late date. He achieved that goal - until now.

Laura Skandera Trombley's "Mark Twain's Other Woman: The Hidden Story of His Final Years," a book some sixteen years in-the-making, gives a very different picture of Twain than the one with which fans of his writing are familiar. Twain's last decade, particularly after his wife's death, was not a happy time for him. He was lonely man concerned that the soon-to-expire copyrights on his earliest works would cause him great financial difficulty. One of his daughters, Jean, suffered so greatly with epilepsy that she spent months at a time living in medical facilities where she could be closely monitored and treated. His other surviving daughter, Clara, was a somewhat spoiled free spirit who often flaunted her disregard for the sexual mores of the times. Because in this period epilepsy was still considered to be a shameful and socially damaging condition to have in one's family tree, Twain was as concerned about the truth of Jean's problems becoming public knowledge as he was about Clara's behavior becoming commonly known.

Into this mix, came Isabel Van Kleek, a woman who first met Mark Twain as his whist partner but would eventually spend six years working for him as a personal secretary, manager, and confidant. Twain would, in fact, live for only one year after ending his relationship with Van Kleek. Trombley largely used Isabel Van Kleek's personal papers and letters to recreate the six years during which Van Kleek lived with the Twain family and became intimately involved in their affairs.

Isabel Van Kleek was an ambitious woman and she always believed that she deserved more status in life than she had been granted. There is little doubt that she attached herself to Mark Twain with the initial intent of bettering her place in life. She sincerely loved the man and would have gladly become his wife if Twain had been so inclined. She was, however, not above taking advantage of her relationship with him to secure some future revenue for herself after his death - having even been granted, at one point, full power of attorney on his behalf plus a royalty percentage in a book of Twain's letters she was to edit and have published after he died. Twain depended on Van Kleek to set his schedule, screen his visitors, decide his menus, purchase his clothing, arrange his travel, and to do everything else involved with his day-to-day world.

Van Kleek, though, managed to make a mortal enemy of Clara Clemens and that would be her downfall because Mark Twain, wanting to avoid public scandal at all costs, sided with his daughter in a campaign to intimidate Van Kleek into keeping silent about her relationship with Twain and his family. Twain, ever the master of fiction, even concocted well developed lies with which to ruin the woman's reputation. The relationship between Clara and Van Kleek was so poisonous that Clara could not let go of it even after Isabel Van Kleek died in 1959, continuing to disparage Isabel's reputation right up to the time of her own death in 1962.

"Mark Twain's Other Woman" is a remarkably revealing book about one of the most fascinating writers and characters the world has ever seen. Realistically, the self-serving cover-up perpetuated by Mark Twain and his daughter taints his image far more than the truth of the situation could have ever done in the long term. Twain, however, was a man of his times and he did not believe the public was ready to hear the truth about a relationship that seems, in retrospect, so tame today. This is a "must read" for Mark Twain fans.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) is the embodiment of American humor. He has been dubbed "The Lincoln of our Literature" by Twain's good friend William Dean Howells. Yet Twain was a much more complex man that most Americans realize. The famed author of such classics as "Hucklelberry Finn"; "Tom Sawyer"; "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur'Court"; "The Innocents Abroad"" "Life on the Mississippi" and many others had a complicated family life. He lived most of his married life in Elmira New York, Hartford Connecticut and Redding Connecticut at "Stormfield" his vast estate. Twain was obsessed by fame and fortune. Though he satirized the Gilded Age in his fiction he was also a product of the times.
Twain's complexity is manifest in Dr. Laura Skandera Trombley's book "Mark Twain's Other Woman" The woman in question is
Isabel Van Kleek Lyon. (1863-1958), Lyon served as Twain's secretary and companion from 1905 until she was fired six years later. Gossip had it that Lyon sought to be the second Mrs Twain. Isabel was attractive, a musician, poet and warm hearted person with whom Twain spent many happy hours. The two often cruised to Bermuda. It is unknown whether or not they had a sexual relationship. It is evident that Lyon had a crush on the much older author.
Lyon wed Englishman Ralph W. Ashcroft in 1909. Ashcroft was Twain's business manager. The Ashcrofts divorced after 18 years of marriage. Twain and his daughter Clara accused them of stealing the author's private correspondence and love letters to his wife Olivia. Olivia died in Italy in 1905 where the Twain family had traveled to aid her health. Isabel was hated by Clara the Twain' daughter. Clara was a classical singer who had an affair with a married man Charles E. Wark. She eventually married Russian born Ossip Gabrilowitsch. Gabrilowitsch became the conuctor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra dying in 1936. Clara survived into old age. Clara and Ossip had one child Nina Clemens Garilowitsch. Clara was a difficult person. She was beautiful, hot tempered and vindictive in her hatred of Isabel. Clara was eccentric, spoiled and egotistical.
Twain's daughter Jean died of a heart attack a few months before his own death. Jean suffered 16 years from epilepsy. She never married. Jean was athletic and loved animals. Though much plainer than Clara she had a more appealing personality.
Trombley has written a scholarly book on the hatred and jealousies existing in the Twain home. Twain resembles King Lear in his disappointmet at the lives of the two surviving Twain children. An elderly author and three emotional woman: daughters Clara, Jean and secretary Isabel Lyon could not have been easy to live with! Twain could be profane, critical and sulky. He was often depressed and railed against God.
The book presents a depressing coda to the life of a great author Mark Twain. This work will become an esssntial for Twain scholars. It is well illustrated with period photos and quotes extensively from the writings of the personages involved in the Twain orbit.

This book starts out holding your interest and after the middle point it captures you entirely. I was up till 2 am to see how it ended.

When Olivia Clemens became unable to handle all her husband's affairs, Isabel Van Klerk Lyon was brought in as a private secretary. As Olivia's health waned, Isabel took on more and more responsibility. Upon Olivia's death, Isabel was the virtual head of household in addition to her secretarial duties.

In being a de facto helpmate and mother, Isabel knew the family secrets. Clara, Clemens' self absorbed daughter, made a lifelong crusade of keeping the secrets secret. To do this she felt the need to eliminate, intimidate and tarnish the one who might reveal them. Author Laura Trombley fleshes out the amazing and previously unknown story of Olivia Lyon and the Clemens family

Earlier in the month I read Sophia Tolstoy: A Biography and could not help but compare these two women whose labor was contemporaneous for about 7 years. Both were devoted to great authors a generation older than they were. At the heart of their dedication was their reverence for their writer. Both Clemens and Tolstoy washed their hands of day to day household logistics, leaving their key helpmate vulnerable to the whims of implacable children and hangers on. Both authors had moralistic views about sex which served to undermine the position of their most valuable devotee. Both Sophia and Isabel suffered physical ailments from all the stress. Sophia served Tolstoy all her adult life, while Isabel's work was limited to Clemens' final years. Sophia was a virtual slave, with no realistic options. Isabel's alternatives were limited, but while she had a few, none was as attractive as her work with Clemens. Her devotion was such that she would never leave on her own. Just as Clemens turned on a dime regarding his private secretary, Tolstoy could do (an argument can be made that he did) the same for his wife Sophia.

Also in reading of the demise of the Clemens family brings to mind the demise of the Abraham Lincolns. There are no Samuel Clemens' descendants, and may not be any from Abraham Lincoln (DNA testing would be needed to confirm). The Last Lincolns: The Rise & Fall of a Great American Family describes the Lincolns as a family for which there are some parallels to the to the mental and physical problems of the Clemens'.

This is an excellent book I recommend it to anyone interested in Samuel Clemens and this period of literature.

Great book, who would ever have thought Mark Twain would have had such a dysfunctional family - interesting read.

Fascinating read that I didn't want to end.
I'm extending my gratitude to the author for all of the years of hard work she put into it.
Mark Twain fans shouldn't miss this one.

"Mark Twain's Other Woman" is on the ROROTOKO list of cutting-edge intellectual nonfiction. Professor Trombley's book interview ran here as the cover feature on March 15, 2010.