Dangerous Intimacy: The Untold Story of Mark Twain’s Final Years

by Karen Lystra

The last phase of Mark Twain's life is sadly Crippled by losses and tragedies, America's greatest humorist sank into a deep and bitter depression. It is also wrong. This book recovers Twain's final years as they really were—lived in the shadow of deception and prejudice, but also in the light of the author's unflagging energy and enthusiasm.

Dangerous Intimacy relates the story of how, shortly after his wife's death in 1904, Twain basked in the attentions of Isabel Lyon, his flirtatious—and calculating—secretary. Lyon desperately wanted to marry her boss, who was almost thirty years her senior. She managed to exile Twain's youngest daughter, Jean, who had epilepsy. With the help of Twain's assistant, Ralph Ashcroft, who fraudulently acquired power of attorney over the author's finances, Lyon nearly succeeded in assuming complete control over Twain's life and estate. Fortunately, Twain recognized the plot being woven around him just in time. So rife with twists and turns as to defy belief, the story nonetheless comes to undeniable, vibrant life in the letters and diaries of those who witnessed it Katy the housekeeper, Jean, Lyon, and others whose own distinctive, perceptive, often amusing voices take us straight into the heart of the Clemens household.

Just as Twain extricated himself from the lies, prejudice, and self-delusion that almost turned him into an American Lear, so Karen Lystra liberates the author's last decade from a century of popular misunderstanding. In this gripping book we at last see how, late in life, this American icon discovered a deep kinship with his youngest child and continued to explore the precarious balance of love and pain that is one of the trademarks of his work.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction

363 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

Reviews

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book focuses on the last years of Mark Twain’s life, and more precisely the scandal that exploded when he fired his secretary and business manager with allegations of fraud. The famous author had been content to bask in the adulation of attractive Miss Lyon, who performed myriad tasks for him, including paying his bills. Unbeknownst to him, she also pulled strings behind the scenes to keep him away from his daughter Jean. Jean, an epileptic, was sent to a variety of country homes, rest homes and asylums in the vain hope that a quiet, regulated life would control her seizures. Because of the misconceptions around her disease, which was held to be associated with an unpleasant, even possibly dangerous personality, Mark Twain was easily persuaded that it would be in everybody’s interest to keep Jean away from his household. In an act of unbelievable cowardice, he even agreed to have Miss Lyon read Jean’s letters and respond to them, with him being only superficially involved in the correspondence. So poor Jean pined away for years, while the secretary lived the good life with a generous employer. This situation came to an end when Miss Lyon tried to control the purse strings for the other daughter, Clara. Clara came over from Europe to see for herself what was going on, and realized that her father was being fleeced by Miss Lyon and his business manager, Mr. Ashcroft. The scales fell from Mark Twain’s eyes, and he fired both, setting off a public relations battle that was largely fought in the pages of the New York Times. Mark Twain refrained from commenting on his private life in public, but wrote up a manuscript that contained all his rage directed at these two fraudsters, but also against himself, as a gullible victim of their schemes. Even as the lawyers and accountants were working through all this mess, he brought Jean home and spent a happy 9 months rediscovering the daughter he had all but ignored for years.

The book is a fascinating story of psychology and literary detective work. Several sources were carefully analyzed : Jean’s letters, Isabel Lyon’s diaries (which she seems to have redacted even decades later) and Mark Twain’s own memoirs and letters. The result is an engaging read, written with humanity and insight.

[Joyce · Rating 1 out of 5]

Although the topic of this book is interesting: classic story of the old goat and the young chic, the book is so badly written and edited I was tempted to throw it in the garbage rather than recycle it to another reader. It repeats the same thing over and over and over and then in the epilogue tells you the same thing one more time. I blame the editor for letting this pass. Highly creative people are hopeless with money issues; they simply don't think in boxes and numbers and lines. They would just let someone take care of all the nitty gritty of daily life and leave them to think of their art. Kingsley Amis comes to mind as does Frank Lloyd Wright and Leonard Cohen. Find another book about Mark TWain: don't bother reading this one.

[Lydia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Update to below:

It only got worse. I have never seen so many probables, suggests, perhapses, seems likes and such in one place. Similar behaviors in different people are painted as "good" or "evil" depending on which side of the Lyon/Twain controversy they lie. Lyon's powers to mesmerize, sway and charm everyone around her are so incredible, per this book, that Lyon's brain should have been kept alongside Einstein' for scientific research. Twain's behaviors, even when atrocious, are given a pass and never examined as a PERHAPS logical explanation for his writings about Lyon. This book has an axe to grind and grinds it right in your face.
END OF UPDATE

I am only on page 127 but I am so disappointed in this book, I am not sure I can finish it. I am actively interested in the Lyon-was-to-blame side of the story after reading Trombley's Mark Twain's Other Woman. Since this relates to research I am doing, I've read other resources as well. However, this book presents its case on the most flimsy and insidious kind of non-evidence. The author constantly defaults to scenarios she finds "likely," "probable" or "reasonable" with or without evidence. She judges every action of Lyon in the worst possible light, even going so far as to note the absence of any remarks by Lyon on some subjects as some sort of sly proof that she knew about those subjects and kept quiet about it! And her analysis of the way Lyon approached Jean's epilepsy just glosses over the fact that at the time, even most of the experts thought that it was a proper assessment. Lyon's remarks that Jean was violent and had struck someone are made to appear as crafty maneuvering and Jean's own admission and apology of striking someone else with a tennis racket attributed to an overly self-critical assessment of herself. None of this is actual evidence. It is biased argument. Not to mention the manipulative language.

The big question about this period is whether or not Twain's late writings about Lyon were true or an attempt to paint her a certain way for other reasons. This book actually refers to things Twain said after the fact, in those late writings, as evidence. For example, as evidence that Twain believed early on belief that Lyon was trying to manipulate him into marriage, a quote is presented from Twain stating he did. But a quick check of the footnote seems to indicate that the quote is FROM those later writings! I am going to try to finish this for something that sheds new light. Problem is, I feel I can't trust it.

[BookSweetie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating! Surprising! This 2004 work by Karen Lystra, a professor of American Studies, informs and entertains readers as she pulls back the curtain upon Mark Twain's final years. Her focus is largely upon Twain's domestic life and his inner circle, beginning around the time his beloved wife Livy takes ill and dies in 1904. A side benefit, the author also provides a rather detailed window into the turn of the century attitudes towards and social/cultural treatment of one medical condition -- epilepsy.

A charming woman, Isabel Lyon, who is obsessed with the much older Twain (30 years age difference), gains employment assisting Twain and managing his household at his wife's death. Over the years, she increases her emotional connections to Twain, gaining power over the purse strings and some key family interactions, to the detriment, in particular, of Twain's epileptic daughter Jean.

Fortunately, Twain did not die before waking up to his own vulnerabilities and the realities of her deceptions. Twain had to take legal action to undo the fraudulently obtained power of attorney over Twain's finances. He was able to bring his daughter Jean home from institutionalization and share brief, but important emotional time with her and his other living daughter Clara. History and biography in this vein gains potency from the common practice of the time -- letter writing.

If readers enjoy literary biography and are curious about Mark Twain, this book deserves a place on your shelf.

[Chambers Stevens · Rating 4 out of 5]

I consider myself somewhat of a Mark Twain expert.
I've read all his books.
Many of his plays.
His autobiography and a dozen biographies.
My son is even named Twain.
So when I picked up Dangerous Intimacy about MT's final years I didn't expect to learn many new things.
Well I was wrong.
Karen Lystra takes what many of us think of as Twain's boring years and makes them exciting.
I don't want to spoil it for you.
But there is a lot of heat in this book.

[Bernadette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had no preconceptions about Mark Twain's final years, but after reading this book I feel like I now know the real story. Exceedingly well researched, the book details the manipulative behavior of two of Twain's employees and how they nearly destroyed Twain's family life. I like reading about writers' personal lives so this was a fascinating Goodread for me.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detailed and intimate account of the last years of Twain's life, told through letters and records of his close family, friends and staff. Parallels to King Lear abound and there is an especially poignant account of his relationship with his epileptic daughter Jean.

[Megan · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite biographies, Lystra travels into an undiscovered and uncensored world of Twain that you may or may not want to visit. Loved it.

[Booksrock · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of stuff I had always thought, but now this historian shows the evidence to support my beliefs about Twain's last years.