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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.

Authors, American - 19th century - Biography. --- Authors, American - 20th century - Biography. --- Twain, Mark,-- 1835-1910-- Last years. --- Authors, American --- English --- Languages & Literatures --- American Literature --- Biography --- Twain, Mark, --- Lyon, Isabel, --- Last years. --- Relations with private secretaries. --- Relations with women. --- Finance, Personal. --- Tvėn, Mark, --- Tuėĭn, Mark, --- Tuwayn, Mārk, --- Twayn, Mārk, --- Tʻu-wen, Ma-kʻo, --- Tven, M. --- Touen, Makū, --- Twain, Marek, --- Make Tuwen, --- Tuwen, Make, --- Make Teviin, --- Твен, Марк, --- Touain, Mark, --- טבןַ, מרק, --- טוויין, מארק, --- טוויין, מרק, --- טווין, מארק, --- טווין, מרק, --- טווען, מארק, --- טוין, מרק, --- טװען, מארק, --- טװײן, מארק, --- 馬克吐温, --- Ashcroft, Ralph W., --- Ashcroft, Isabel, --- Clemens, Samuel Langhorne, --- Snodgrass, Quintus Curtius, --- Conte, Louis de, --- Tuvāyn, Mārk, --- تواين، مارک --- Tvāyn, Mārk, --- Twain, Mark --- Tvėn, Mark --- Tuėĭn, Mark --- Tuwayn, Mārk --- Twayn, Mārk --- Tʻu-wen, Ma-kʻo --- Touen, Makū --- Twain, Marek --- Make Tuwen --- Tuwen, Make --- Make Teviin --- Твен, Марк --- Touain, Mark --- Tuvāyn, Mārk --- Tvāyn, Mārk --- Clemens, Samuel Langhorne --- Snodgrass, Quintus Curtius --- Conte, Louis de --- Biography. --- 19th century american culture. --- 19th century american literature. --- american literature. --- american studies. --- clara clemens. --- daughter. --- death. --- deception. --- depression. --- embezzlement. --- epilepsy. --- family drama. --- family. --- financial impropriety. --- grief. --- heartfelt. --- humorist. --- institutionalized. --- isabel lyon. --- jean clemens. --- kinship. --- lifetime. --- mark twain company. --- mark twain. --- near scandal. --- popular misunderstanding. --- power of attorney. --- prejudice. --- psychiatry. --- ralph ashcroft. --- self delusion.