Overview

In this new volume of letters, readers are invited to meet Olivia Louise Langdon Clemens on her own terms, in her own voice--as complementary partner to her world-famous spouse, Mark Twain, and as enduring friend, mother to four children, world traveler, and so much more. The frail woman often portrayed by scholars and biographers and by Twain, himself, is largely absent in these letters. Instead, Olivia emerges as a nineteenth-century woman who was resilient, energetic, and was the family’s source and center of stability, of Gravity, and of private and public grace in an ever-changing landscape. Mark Twain’s biography recounted in the letters of his wife offers new insights, and her captivating voice engages and enlighten readers.

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9780826222916

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Reviews

"""The Muse and Salving Angel of Mark Twain's life has stood mostly in the shadows since her death in 1904. Only a handful of books offer glimpses of Olivia Langdon Clemens, and these mostly at a distance. Now Barbara Snedecor takes ""Livy"" by the hand and leads this small, quietly transformational woman fully into the sunlight. Through her exhaustive editing of Livy's letters and her own acute contextual commentary, Snedecor invites us to fathom Livy in full: in her temporizing wisdom, in her maternal joy and grief, and in the loving lifelong partnership she formed with the founding giant of American literature. Livy's gravitas, as Snedecor makes clear, was inextricable from Mark Twain's greatness.""--Ron Powers, Pulitzer Prize and Emmy-award winning journalist, author of Mark Twain: A Life ""To refresh our understanding of Mark Twain as an American icon, we need to know the temperament and interests of the woman with whom he kept company for nearly forty years. It was a surprising marriage: this 'Wild Humorist' from everywhere and nowhere, and Olivia Langdon, a cultured young woman with frail health from an Upstate New York aristocracy. For exciting clues about what drew them together and how it all worked, Barbara Snedecor's carefully-edited collection provides new insights into Olivia's passions and personality.""--Bruce F. Michelson, University of Illinois, author of Printer's Devil: Mark Twain and the American Publishing Revolution ""Barbara Snedecor's Gravity lays a firm cornerstone for all future studies of a remarkable woman. Olivia Langdon Clemens' reputation has suffered the frequent fate of famous writers' spouses. She has for too long been viewed as an intellectual lightweight and chronic invalid who somehow, for mysterious reasons, managed to wed one of the most celebrated authors of American literature. Kudos to Dr. Snedecor, for rescuing a gifted and adaptable personality from the unfavorable imputations of various Mark Twain biographers.""--Alan Gribben, author, Mark Twain's Literary Resources ""Barbara Snedecor's exemplary edition of Olivia Clemens' letters is not only a significant contribution to Mark Twain scholarship but the invaluable personal history of an intellectual distinguished in her own right. In these letters Livy speaks eloquently about women's rights, her travels across the U.S. and Europe and around the world, her anti-imperialism, and her roles as spouse, mother, companion, and literary adviser.""--Gary Scharnhorst, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English, University of New Mexico, author of The Life of Mark Twain Vols. 1-3"

"""Barbara Snedecor's Gravity lays a firm cornerstone for all future studies of a remarkable woman. Olivia Langdon Clemens' reputation has suffered the frequent fate of famous writers' spouses. She has for too long been viewed as an intellectual lightweight and chronic invalid who somehow, for mysterious reasons, managed to wed one of the most celebrated authors of American literature. Kudos to Dr. Snedecor, for rescuing a gifted and adaptable personality from the unfavorable imputations of various Mark Twain biographers.""--Alan Gribben, author, Mark Twain's Literary Resources ""Barbara Snedecor's exemplary edition of Olivia Clemens' letters is not only a significant contribution to Mark Twain scholarship but the invaluable personal history of an intellectual distinguished in her own right. In these letters Livy speaks eloquently about women's rights, her travels across the U.S. and Europe and around the world, her anti-imperialism, and her roles as spouse, mother, companion, and literary adviser.""--Gary Scharnhorst, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of English, University of New Mexico, author of The Life of Mark Twain Vols. 1-3"

Author Information

Barbara Snedecor has been a Writing Lecturer, Associate Director of the Writing Program, ESL Director, and Director of the Center for Mark Twain Studies at Elmira College. In addition to editing the second edition of Mark Twain in Elmira, Snedecor has contributed pieces to the Mark Twain Annual and American Literary Realism.

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