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

348 Pages·2003·7.96 MB·English

by  Resa Willis

MARK AND LIVY
MARK AND LIVY
The Love Story of Mark Twain
and the Woman Who Almost
Tamed Him
RESA WILLIS
ROUTLEDGE
NEW YORK LONDON
Published in 2004 by
Routledge
29 West 35th Street
New York, NY 10001
www.routledge-ny.com
Published in Great Britain by
Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane
London EC4P 4EE
www.routledge.co.uk
Copyright © 1992, 2000, 2004 by Resa Willis
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor and Francis Group.
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2005.
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Willis, Resa.
Mark and Livy :the love story of Mark Twain and the woman who almost
tamed him/Resa Willis.
p. cm.
Originally published: New York :Atheneum ;Toronto :Maxwell Macmillan
Canada ;New York :Maxwell Macmillan International, 1992.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-415-94774-X (pbk.: alk. paper)
1. Twain, Mark, 1835–1910—Marriage. 2. Clemens, Olivia Langdon,
1845–1904—Marriage. 3. Authors, American—19th century—Biography. 4.
Authors’ spouses—United States—Biography. 5. Married people—United
States—Biography. I.Title.
PS1332 .W55 2004
818′.409—dc22
2003019141
ISBN 0-203-50309-0 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-57786-8 (Adobe eReader Format)
This book is dedicated to
Mary Rose Sweeney and Gordon O.Taylor
because “A teacher affects eternity….”
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS vii
INTRODUCTION ix
CHAPTER 1 “I feel so frightfully banished” 1
CHAPTER 2 “A generous free household” 12
CHAPTER 3 “Quietly and steadily” 21
CHAPTER 4 “Twenty-two yesterday! Growing old fast!” 29
CHAPTER 5 “As happy as a queen” 43
CHAPTER 6 “The clouds will come.” 52
CHAPTER 7 “I believe my heart prays.” 64
CHAPTER 8 “I feel so incompetent.” 71
CHAPTER 9 “I feel so rich and thankful for you.” 80
CHAPTER 10 “Show our babies and our new house” 89
CHAPTER 11 “So desperately happy” 99
CHAPTER 12 “We dread changing our manner of life.” 1 12
CHAPTER 13 “Women must be everything.” 1 24
CHAPTER 14 “This is my work!” 1 38
CHAPTER 15 “I love you, I idolize you and I miss you.” 1 46
CHAPTER 16 “I wish there was no one in this world 1 61
troubled for money.”
CHAPTER 17 “Such is life.” 1 74
vi
CHAPTER 18 “I cannot afford it!” 1 84
CHAPTER 19 “Sombre days” 1 97
CHAPTER 20 “The bondage of debt” 2 13
CHAPTER 21 “I cannot find Susy & I cannot find the 2 25
light.”
CHAPTER 22 “If I looked into the eyes of a friend I might 2 38
talk.”
CHAPTER 23 “We are going to give up our Hartford 2 48
home.”
CHAPTER 24 “We will save each other in Florence I 2 63
think.”
NOTES 2 69
BIBLIOGRAPHY 3 04
INDEX 3 07
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Mark Twain felt that biographies were only the “clothes and
buttons” of a person. I may have sat by myself researching,
taking notes, and writing, but many helped me to stay in that
chair and to keep looking for the connecting “threads.” My
gratitude to these people has only increased since this book
was first published.
At the Mark Twain Project at the University of California at
Berkeley, the director, Robert Hirst, and Sunny Gottberg
helped me cull through a great deal of material and gave me
access to unpublished information. On the other coast, Diana
Royce of the Stowe-Day Foundation in Hartford, Connecticut,
let me see unpublished letters and diaries from the Langdon
family. Beverly Zell helped me select photographs of the
Clemenses. John Reazer, librarian today at the Stowe Center
Library, has continued the generosity.
Giselda J.Lozada and Jonathan Miller at Louisiana State
University Library in Baton Rouge gave me access to the Grace
King Collection. Frank Lorenz of Hamilton College in Clinton,
New York, allowed me to use the Susy Clemens-Louise
Brownell Saunders unpublished letters.
Michelle Cotton and the Chemung County Historical Society
guided me to information about the Langdons and their
connections with Elmira, New York. Mary Heller gave me
access to the Park Church Archives in Elmira.
viii
Livy came alive for me in the places where she and Clemens
lived. The Executive Director, John Vincent Boyer, and former
Curator, Marianne Curling, of the Mark Twain House in
Hartford, Connecticut, let me wander through that remarkable
house. The present Curator, Margaret Moore, keeps the
Clemens family’s generosity alive today. Herbert Wisbey, Jr. of
Elmira College, the former director of Mark Twain Studies, gave
me access to the files of Quarry Farm and the archives of the
college and let me stay at the summer home that gave Livy so
much pleasure. As the director of Quarry Farm, Gretchen
Sharlow continued that kindness toward me. Henry Sweets,
the Curator of the Mark Twain Boyhood Home in Hannibal,
remains a dear friend and colleague.
Lee Goerner first edited and published Mark and Livy. Peter
Kaufman cared enough to publish it again. My gratitude now
goes to Karen Wolny and Ron Longe for keeping it in print. My
agent, Elaine Markson, and her staff have always worked
patiently with me.
Finally, none of this would happen without my family and
friends who always have more faith in me than I have or
deserve—my friends Katherine Kurk, Krystal Compas, Eltjen
Flikkema, my niece Theresa, and my husband, Michael. Then
there are the people who make me look good—Jerry F.Cash
and his staff, J.D.Dunning, and George Mires.
INTRODUCTION
This biography of Olivia Langdon Clemens, the woman married
to America’s most famous and favorite writer, Mark Twain,
began when I discovered that among the numerous volumes
about him there was no definitive biography of her. The story
of their incomparable thirty-seven year romance needed to be
told. And so it was published in 1992 by Atheneum. Since that
time I have received many letters and questions from those
who read the book. Often these fans of Livy and Clemens would
ask: Will the book be out in paperback? Is a film going to be
made of it? Well, I can now answer in the affirmative. I
continue to be gratified by the interest in this quiet, dignified,
but very influential woman in American letters just as I think
Mark Twain would be.
Livy was not only Samuel Clemen’s wife and the mother of
his children, she was Mark Twain’s editor. She read and
proposed changes to nearly everything he wrote. She attended
many of his lectures and made constant suggestions regarding
material to include in his platform speeches. He relied on her
judgment as to what his readers would and wouldn’t accept.
Twain once remarked, “Mrs. Clemens has kept a lot of things
from getting into print that might have given me a reputation
I wouldn’t care to have, and that I wouldn’t have known any
better than to have published.” He readily recognized the
civilizing effect she had on him, for he admitted that his wife
not only edited his work but also edited him.