Posted on 05/24/2010 3:36:11 AM PDT by Daffynition
Mark Twain's autobiography is finally to be published later this year, and a section is on his scandalous relationship with a woman who became his secretary after his wife died.
The writer, who created Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, had instructed that his autobiography should not to be published till 100 years after his death.
Mark Twain died April 21, 1910. He left behind nearly 5,000 unedited pages of memoirs along with handwritten notes that said he didn't want them to be published for at least a century.
The Independent reported Monday that the University of California, Berkeley, will release in November the first volume of the autobiography. The manuscript is in a vault there.
The trilogy will run to half a million words and shed new light on the American novelist.
Some scholars feel the memoir was kept under wraps as he wanted to talk freely about issues such as religion and politics, while others think that the 100-year period ensured that none of his friends will be offended.
A section of the memoir will detail his relationship with Isabel Van Kleek Lyon, who became his secretary after his wife Olivia died in 1904.
The report said Mark Twain was so close to Lyon that she once bought him an electric vibrating sex toy. She was sacked in 1909 after Twain claimed she had "hypnotised" him into giving her the power of attorney over his estate.
"Most people think Mark Twain was a sort of genteel Victorian. Well, in this document he calls her a slut and says she tried to seduce him. It's completely at odds with the impression most people have of him," historian Laura Trombley was quoted as saying.
"There is a perception that Twain spent his final years basking in the adoration of fans. The autobiography will perhaps show that it wasn't such a happy time. He spent six months of the last year of his life writing a manuscript full of vitriol, saying things that he'd never said about anyone in print before. It really is 400 pages of bile."
Robert Hirst, who is leading the team at Berkeley, said: "When people ask me 'Did Mark Twain really mean it to take 100 years for this to come out', I say 'He was certainly a man who knew how to make people want to buy a book'."
Nice, Thank you for sharing! :-) My family likes Mark Twain
Whatever became of Samuel Clemmons?
Mark Twain was just a better name for popularity for him, i guess.
more info here
http://www.marktwainhouse.org/theman/bio.shtml
He was 89 when he died, so he would have been 84 or 85 when his wife died.
He called his longtime secretary names and said she tried to seduce him and hypnotize him to give her his power of attorney.
He wrote a vitrolic manuscript unlike anything else he had ever written in his last 6 months of life.
Really sounds to me like the great writer might have been suffering from Alzheimers or severe dementia by the end.
Not his longtime secretary. Learn to read.
Really? I've read everything I could get my hands on about Twain and I've never had the impression that he was a "genteel Victorian". My impression of him is exactly the opposite..... and that is one of the things I like about him.
Amen!!!
LOL ...didn’t see your post/link about his home. Have you been?
Huckleberry Finn was a decent book but I honestly find most of what I read by or about Twain/Clemmons overblown and tiresome. For a “humorist”, he’s just not that funny, at least by today’s standards. He’s got the curmudgeon bit down, that’s for sure, but it’s gets pretty old pretty fast. I really think it’s yet another case of the reality not living up to the hype. I’m sure I’ll get flamed, but OK, flame away.
I read much of his stuff as a teenager. I had the impression that as he aged the more bitter, depressed and angry he became. I guess I’ll find out if that was true when this is published.
thank you :-)
very interesting read. yes indeed, i’d love to tour his homestead. :-)
I agree. Working on Mississippi steamboats is not a traditional training ground for Victorian gentlemen. I don’t doubt that Twain was quite earthy.
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