Olivia Susan Clemens (March 19, 1872 – August 18, 1896) was the second child and eldest daughter of Samuel Clemens, who wrote under the pen name
Mark Twain
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has p ...
, and his wife
Olivia Langdon Clemens
Olivia Langdon Clemens (November 27, 1845 – June 5, 1904) was the wife of the American author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain.
Early life
Olivia Langdon was born in 1845 in Elmira, New York, to Jervis Langdon and Olivia L ...
. She inspired some of her father's works, at 13 wrote her own biography of him, which he later published in his autobiography, and acted as a literary critic. Her father was heartbroken when she died of
spinal meningitis
Meningitis is acute or chronic inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, collectively called the meninges. The most common symptoms are fever, headache, and neck stiffness. Other symptoms include confusion or a ...
at age 24.
Her biography of her father was published in 1988 in its entirety as ''Papa: An Intimate Biography of Mark Twain'', a volume which also included a biography of Susy Clemens and her correspondence with her father.
Life
![Mark Twain's Joan of Arc](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d2/Mark_Twain%27s_Joan_of_Arc.jpg)
Born in
Elmira, New York
Elmira () is a city and the county seat of Chemung County, New York, United States. It is the principal city of the Elmira, New York, metropolitan statistical area, which encompasses Chemung County. The population was 26,523 at the 2020 cens ...
, Clemens was largely raised in
Hartford, Connecticut
Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut. It was the seat of Hartford County until Connecticut disbanded county government in 1960. It is the core city in the Greater Hartford metropolitan area. Census estimates since the ...
, but went abroad with her family to
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
in 1873 and again in 1878–79. At age 13, she wrote a biography of her father that Twain later included in his
''Chapters from my Autobiography''. The biography described her impressions of her father and her happy family life. Her father wrote: "I had had compliments before, but none that touched me like this; none that could approach it for value in my eyes." Like her father, she was interested in writing, and wrote her own plays and acted in them during her childhood and adolescence. Twain later described his favorite daughter as intelligent, thoughtful, sensitive and vivacious and said he had regarded her as a
prodigy
Prodigy, Prodigies or The Prodigy may refer to:
* Child prodigy, a child who produces meaningful output to the level of an adult expert performer
** Chess prodigy, a child who can beat experienced adult players at chess
Arts, entertainment, and ...
. "She was a magazine of feelings and they were of all kinds and of all shades of force; she was so volatile, as a little child, that sometimes the whole battery came into play in the short compass of a day," he wrote after her death. "She was full of life, full of activity, full of fire, her waking hours were a crowding and hurrying procession of enthusiasms ... Joy, sorrow, anger, remorse, storm, sunshine, rain, darkness -- they were all there: They came in a moment and they were gone as quickly. In all things she was intense: in her this characteristic was not a mere glow, dispensing warmth, but a consuming fire." He based the character of
Joan of Arc
Joan of Arc (french: link=yes, Jeanne d'Arc, translit= an daʁk} ; 1412 – 30 May 1431) is a patron saint of France, honored as a defender of the French nation for her role in the siege of Orléans and her insistence on the coronati ...
in his book ''
Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc
''Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc, by the Sieur Louis de Conte'' is an 1896 novel by Mark Twain which recounts the life of Joan of Arc.
The novel is presented as a translation by "Jean Francois Alden" of memoirs by Louis de Conte, a fictio ...
'' on his eldest daughter as he remembered her at age seventeen.
In the fall of 1890, Clemens attended
Bryn Mawr College
Bryn Mawr College ( ; Welsh: ) is a women's liberal arts college in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Founded as a Quaker institution in 1885, Bryn Mawr is one of the Seven Sister colleges, a group of elite, historically women's colleges in the United St ...
, where she was given the starring role of Phyllis in the play ''
Iolanthe
''Iolanthe; or, The Peer and the Peri'' () is a comic opera with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert, first performed in 1882. It is one of the Savoy operas and is the seventh of fourteen operatic collaborations by Gilbert ...
'', began calling herself by her real first name "Olivia" and developed a close friendship with fellow student Louise Brownell
[Lystra (2004), p. 15] that some biographers have speculated may have been romantic in nature. Clemens left the college after one semester, possibly because of her family's financial difficulties, because she found the studies too difficult, or because of her relationship with Brownell.
As she grew older, she became frustrated with her father's fame, which sometimes left her in the shadows. She was annoyed by her father's reputation as a "mere humorist" and felt he should represent himself as a serious writer instead of just as a funny man. She was embarrassed when Twain performed the
ghost story
A ghost story is any piece of fiction, or drama, that includes a ghost, or simply takes as a premise the possibility of ghosts or characters' belief in them."Ghost Stories" in Margaret Drabble (ed.), ''Oxford Companion to English Literature'' ...
''The Golden Arm'' for an audience at Bryn Mawr. She had begged him not to tell the story, thinking it too unsophisticated for her worldly classmates, and ran out of the hall crying when her father told the story anyway.
She later accompanied her family abroad and attended schools in
Geneva
Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...
and
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...
, where she took language and voice lessons, though she was disappointed when her voice teacher, Mathilde Marchesi, told her she had a lovely
soprano
A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880&n ...
voice but didn't have the strength or stamina for grand opera. Marchesi observed that Clemens was
anemic
Anemia or anaemia (British English) is a blood disorder in which the blood has a reduced ability to carry oxygen due to a lower than normal number of red blood cells, or a reduction in the amount of hemoglobin. When anemia comes on slowly, th ...
,
sleep-deprived
Sleep deprivation, also known as sleep insufficiency or sleeplessness, is the condition of not having adequate duration and/or quality of sleep to support decent alertness, performance, and health. It can be either chronic or acute and may vary ...
, and
anorexic
Anorexia nervosa, often referred to simply as anorexia, is an eating disorder characterized by low weight, food restriction, body image disturbance, fear of gaining weight, and an overpowering desire to be thin. ''Anorexia'' is a term of Gre ...
. She had Clemens stop singing lessons for the time being and encouraged her to restore her health first. She recommended
hydrotherapy
Hydrotherapy, formerly called hydropathy and also called water cure, is a branch of alternative medicine (particularly naturopathy), occupational therapy, and physiotherapy, that involves the use of water for pain relief and treatment. The term ...
and proper diet and exercise, while Twain thought Susy might also be helped by
hypnotism
Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychologica ...
. However, she was never able to acquire enough lung capacity to project her voice from the stage. In
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
she was at loose ends, bored by her family's evenings at home and annoyed by her father's frequent temperamental outbursts.
[Ward Duncan and Burns (2001), p. 151] She wrote to her friend Brownell that she sometimes had trouble finding a reason for existence. She was also frustrated by society's refusal to see her as anything other than the daughter of Mark Twain. In
Florence
Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...
, the then nineteen-year-old Clemens became infatuated with a married
Italian
Italian(s) may refer to:
* Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries
** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom
** Italian language, a Romance language
*** Regional Ita ...
count
Count (feminine: countess) is a historical title of nobility in certain European countries, varying in relative status, generally of middling rank in the hierarchy of nobility. Pine, L. G. ''Titles: How the King Became His Majesty''. New York: ...
.
Her physical and mental health suffered, and she again sought cures ranging from hydrotherapy to "mind cures". She felt she was helped by Mental Science, a less structured version of
Christian Science
Christian Science is a set of beliefs and practices associated with members of the Church of Christ, Scientist. Adherents are commonly known as Christian Scientists or students of Christian Science, and the church is sometimes informally know ...
, and to some extent by modern
Spiritualism
Spiritualism is the metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century, Spiritualism (when not lowercase) ...
.
Death
Clemens chose not to accompany the family to Europe on Twain's lecture tour of 1895–1896, citing
seasickness
Motion sickness occurs due to a difference between actual and expected motion. Symptoms commonly include nausea, vomiting, cold sweat, headache, dizziness, tiredness, loss of appetite, and increased salivation. Complications may rarely include de ...
and a desire to recover her health and become an
opera
Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...
singer. She stayed in Elmira, at the home of her aunt Susan Crane. In August 1896, while visiting her former home in Hartford, Clemens developed a fever that turned into
spinal meningitis
Meningitis is acute or chronic inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, collectively called the meninges. The most common symptoms are fever, headache, and neck stiffness. Other symptoms include confusion or a ...
. Clemens was moved to her family home, and stayed in her parents' mahogany bed, which had detachable angels on each post, a bed that she and her sisters had fond memories of playing with as children. Katy Leary, the family's Irish maid, took care of her, sleeping on a sofa in the room. Clemens developed
delirium
Delirium (also known as acute confusional state) is an organically caused decline from a previous baseline of mental function that develops over a short period of time, typically hours to days. Delirium is a syndrome encompassing disturbances in ...
, at one point clutching an article of her mother's clothing and crying because she thought her mother had died, and at another looking out the windows at the traffic and singing, "''Up go the
trolley car
A tram (called a streetcar or trolley in North America) is a rail vehicle that travels on tramway tracks on public urban streets; some include segments on segregated right-of-way. The tramlines or networks operated as public transport are ...
s for Mark Twain's daughter. Down go the trolley cars for Mark Twain's daughter.''" She spent several days writing a 47-page
prose poem
Prose poetry is poetry written in prose form instead of verse form, while preserving poetic qualities such as heightened imagery, parataxis, and emotional effects.
Characteristics
Prose poetry is written as prose, without the line breaks associat ...
partially addressed to the opera singer
Maria Malibran
Maria Felicia Malibran (24 March 1808 – 23 September 1836) was a Spanish singer who commonly sang both contralto and soprano parts, and was one of the best-known opera singers of the 19th century. Malibran was known for her stormy personality ...
, whom she had taken as a kind of role model. Eventually she
lost her sight and lapsed into a
coma
A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. Coma patients exhi ...
. On August 18, 1896, she died at age twenty-four. Her family was devastated.
Clemens was buried in
Woodlawn Cemetery in Elmira. The poem on her headstone was adapted from a poem called ''Annette'' by poet
Robert Richardson: "''Warm summer sun shine kindly here, Warm southern wind blow softly here, Green sod above, lie light, lie light – Good night, dear heart, Good night, good night.''"
Popular culture
A children's book, ''The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According to Susy),'' features excerpts of Susy's biography of her father with smaller journal-style pages inserted between the main pages.
Mark Twain: Words & Music is a double-CD that tells the life story of Samuel Clemens in spoken word and song and features segments about his family. The project was produced by
Carl Jackson
Carl Eugene Jackson (born September 18, 1953) is an American country and bluegrass musician. Jackson's first Grammy was awarded in 1992 for his duet album with John Starling titled "Spring Training." In 2003 Jackson produced the Grammy Award-wi ...
as a benefit for the
Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum
The Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum is located on 206-208 Hill Street, Hannibal, Missouri, on the west bank of the Mississippi River in the United States. It was the home of Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as author Mark Twain, from 18 ...
. The story line was written by
Cindy Lovell
Cindy Lovell (born 1956) is an American educator and writer.
Life
Cindy Lovell was born in Altoona, Pennsylvania. She graduated from Stetson University with a BA and MA in Elementary Education and from The University of Iowa with a Ph.D. in Ed ...
and is narrated by
Garrison Keillor
Gary Edward "Garrison" Keillor (; born August 7, 1942) is an American author, singer, humorist, voice actor, and radio personality. He created the Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) show ''A Prairie Home Companion'' (called ''Garrison Keillor's Radio ...
with
Clint Eastwood
Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western TV series '' Rawhide'', he rose to international fame with his role as the "Man with No Name" in Sergio Leone's "''Doll ...
performing as Twain and
Angela Lovell performing as Susy.
[ Lovell (2011)]
Sources
*Clemens, Susy (1988). ''Papa: An Intimate Biography of Mark Twain''. Doubleday Books.
*Kerley, Barbara (2010). ''The Extraordinary Mark Twain (According to Susy)''. Scholastic Press.
*Lovell, Cindy (2011). ''Mark Twain: Words & Music''. Mailboat Records. ASIN: B005MR4P6Q
*Lystra, Karen (2004). ''Dangerous Intimacy: The Untold Story of Mark Twain's Final Years''. University of California Press Ltd. .
*
Ward, Geoffrey C.; Duncan, Dayton; Burns, Ken (2001). ''Mark Twain: An Illustrated Biography''. Alfred A. Knopf.
Notes and references
External links
Twain Writes of Family Mourning Daughter SusyShapell Manuscript Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clemens, Susy
1872 births
1896 deaths
19th-century American women writers
19th-century American writers
American biographers
American women biographers
Bryn Mawr College alumni
Burials in New York (state)
Susy
Deaths from meningitis
Neurological disease deaths in Connecticut
Infectious disease deaths in Connecticut
Writers from Elmira, New York
Writers from Hartford, Connecticut
Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Elmira, New York)