Mark Twain

Mark Twain: A Simple Biography

The simple facts of writer Mark Twain's life are these: he was born November 30, 1835, with the appearance of Haley's Comet, had a remarkable literary career, and died April 21, 1910, the next year that the comet appeared. These facts, while relevant, hardly contain the story of Twain's life. Samuel Clemens was the sixth of seven children for John Marshall and Jane Lampton Clemens and one of only four to survive to adulthood. He grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, where he later set the adventures of Tom Sawyer, a character based on his childhood friend Tom Blankenship. After Sam's father's death in 1847, he became a printer's apprentice and later worked as a riverboat pilot; this was the career that furnished his famous pseudonym (a mark was a depth measurement, and twain means "two") and the material for many of his books.

His next job was as an itinerant reporter, which gave him the connections and stories to do his first performances on a lecture circuit. In 1868, he visited his friend Charley Langdon in New York, primarily because of his infatuation with Charley's sister Olivia. Clemens proposed three times before Livy agreed, though by all accounts they loved each other their entire lives. They had four children-Langdon, who died in infancy, Susy, Clara and Jean. During this time, the family moved to Hartford and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884) were written. They were followed by A Tramp Abroad (1880), inspired by the Clemens family's visit to Europe and The Prince and the Pauper (1881). The family often traveled abroad, as Clemens struggled with debt and investments. He was working on The Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (1896) traveling on a European lecture circuit when he received word that his daughter Susy had died of spinal meningitis. It was several years before the family returned to America, where Livy's health declined; they went back to Europe and on June 5, 1904, she died in Italy. Clemens was devastated. These deaths likely contributed to his bitter and angry portrayal of humanity in his later writings.

For the remaining six years of his life, Clemens became increasingly isolated. Jean was committed to a series of sanitariums after attempting to kill their long-time maid, and though Clara lived with him, their relationship had always been troubled, in part because of her ambitions to be a singer. Her father strongly discouraged this; his own Victorian ideas of propriety are a possible reason. Her choice of a public profession-or the simple fact that she had a profession- reflected on him as a father, as well, and may well have made him feel like a failure as a Victorian parent. It is also possible that he wanted to keep her from the public life because he knew the cost of fame from his own experiences; he often traveled without his family and knew the loneliness of the road. Perhaps to replicate the relationship he had had with his daughters in the past, he cultivated a series of friendships with young girls whom he called his "Angelfish." He was awarded an honorary degree from Oxford University in 1908 and Jean returned home for the first time in years in 1909. On Christmas Eve of that same year, Jean, who was epileptic, suffered a seizure and drowned in the bathtub. Clemens left for the Bahamas, one of his favorite locations, and returned only when his health was truly failing. He passed away April 21, 1910, in his home.

The Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc (1896) was published when Susy died of spinal meningitis in 1896; however, there is much to suggest that her father wrote it as paean of praise for his favorite daughter. Clemens's relationship with his other two children was always troubled. Additionally, Susy was the first child born after the death of Langdon, Sam and Livy's only son and firstborn child, which likely gave her a sentimental place in her father's heart. Personal Recollections may be read as a book praising the True Woman and her attributes, but it also cites Susy as a living representation of those attributes. In praising Susy, Clemens also indirectly applauded Livy, his beloved True Woman wife, who raised their eldest daughter to be so like Livy herself. In so doing, however, he also criticizes his two other daughters, Clara, whose musical aspirations he did not support, and Jean, an epileptic whose mental instability would cause him heartache her entire life. If Susy is Joan, then Clara and Jean are the imperfect novices who ought to learn from her saintly example. In a way, Susy had to be the "good" daughter by default. She died at age twenty-four, before she and her father ever experienced the sort of conflict he had with Clara, or before any latent mental illnesses exposed themselves as they did with Jean.

Surprisingly, all the Clemens girls loved Personal Recollections, in part because they believed the public undervalued their father's talent as a serious writer. And since Susy died the year of its publication, perhaps Clara and Jean saw only the best parts of their sister in the text, and not the implied criticism of their own behavior.