TY - BOOK ID - 8582741 TI - Dangerous intimacy : the untold story of Mark Twain's final years PY - 2004 SN - 128327714X 9786613277145 0520940377 1597345717 9780520940376 1417508345 9781417508341 0520233239 9780520233232 9781283277143 6613277142 9781597345712 9780520250000 0520250001 0520233239 9780520233232 PB - Berkeley, CA : University of California Press, DB - UniCat KW - Authors, American - 19th century - Biography. KW - Authors, American - 20th century - Biography. KW - Twain, Mark,-- 1835-1910-- Last years. KW - Authors, American KW - English KW - Languages & Literatures KW - American Literature KW - Biography KW - Twain, Mark, KW - Lyon, Isabel, KW - Last years. KW - Relations with private secretaries. KW - Relations with women. KW - Finance, Personal. KW - Tvėn, Mark, KW - Tuėĭn, Mark, KW - Tuwayn, Mārk, KW - Twayn, Mārk, KW - Tʻu-wen, Ma-kʻo, KW - Tven, M. KW - Touen, Makū, KW - Twain, Marek, KW - Make Tuwen, KW - Tuwen, Make, KW - Make Teviin, KW - Твен, Марк, KW - Touain, Mark, KW - טבןַ, מרק, KW - טוויין, מארק, KW - טוויין, מרק, KW - טווין, מארק, KW - טווין, מרק, KW - טווען, מארק, KW - טוין, מרק, KW - טװען, מארק, KW - טװײן, מארק, KW - 馬克吐温, KW - Ashcroft, Ralph W., KW - Ashcroft, Isabel, KW - Clemens, Samuel Langhorne, KW - Snodgrass, Quintus Curtius, KW - Conte, Louis de, KW - Tuvāyn, Mārk, KW - تواين، مارک KW - Tvāyn, Mārk, KW - Twain, Mark KW - Tvėn, Mark KW - Tuėĭn, Mark KW - Tuwayn, Mārk KW - Twayn, Mārk KW - Tʻu-wen, Ma-kʻo KW - Touen, Makū KW - Twain, Marek KW - Make Tuwen KW - Tuwen, Make KW - Make Teviin KW - Твен, Марк KW - Touain, Mark KW - Tuvāyn, Mārk KW - Tvāyn, Mārk KW - Clemens, Samuel Langhorne KW - Snodgrass, Quintus Curtius KW - Conte, Louis de KW - Biography. KW - 19th century american culture. KW - 19th century american literature. KW - american literature. KW - american studies. KW - clara clemens. KW - daughter. KW - death. KW - deception. KW - depression. KW - embezzlement. KW - epilepsy. KW - family drama. KW - family. KW - financial impropriety. KW - grief. KW - heartfelt. KW - humorist. KW - institutionalized. KW - isabel lyon. KW - jean clemens. KW - kinship. KW - lifetime. KW - mark twain company. KW - mark twain. KW - near scandal. KW - popular misunderstanding. KW - power of attorney. KW - prejudice. KW - psychiatry. KW - ralph ashcroft. KW - self delusion. UR - https://www.unicat.be/uniCat?func=search&query=sysid:8582741 AB - The last phase of Mark Twain's life is sadly familiar: 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 firsthand: 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. ER -