The following book review was written for the Mark Twain Forum by Cindy Lovell.
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_A Family Sketch and Other Private Writings_.  By Mark Twain, Livy
Clemens, and Susy Clemens. Edited by Benjamin Griffin of the Mark
Twain Project. University of California Press, 2014. Pp. 200.
Hardcover. ISBN 978-0-520-28073-1. $25.95 (hardcover). ISBN
978-0-520-95963-7. $16.86 (ebook).


Reviewed for the Mark Twain Forum
by Cindy Lovell

Copyright (c) 2015 Mark Twain Forum. This review may not be published
or redistributed in any medium without permission.


Casual and scholarly readers and admirers of Mark Twain hold high
expectations when the publisher of a new volume is the University of
California Press and the editor is among the esteemed scholars of the
Mark Twain Project. High though those expectations are, editor Ben
Griffin exceeds them with his thoughtful and insightful compilation of
six brief but compelling writings by Mark Twain, his wife Livy
(Olivia) Clemens, and their then thirteen-year-old daughter Susy
Clemens. The result is a hymn to family composed of conversations,
memories, and reflections of the young family--Papa, Mamma, Susy,
Clara, and Jean that become audible in the reader's imagination due to
the diligence of the editor to preserve the authenticity of the
original sources.


The book includes six primary texts: 1) "A Family Sketch" by Mark
Twain; 2) "A True Story, Repeated Word for Word as I Heard It" by Mark
Twain; 3) "A Record of the Small Foolishnesses of Susie and 'Bay'
Clemens (Infants)" by Mark Twain; 4) "At the Farm" by Mark Twain; 5)
"Quarry Farm Diary" by Livy Clemens; and 6) "Mark Twain" by Susy
Clemens. Ben Griffin's remarkable introduction and notes contextualize
the writings and prepare the reader for the intimate experience the
book offers, including more than a dozen photographs of the family and
servants. Griffin also includes a complete and thorough biographical
directory of the full cast of characters at the end of the book.


Both "A Family Sketch" and "A Record of the Small Foolishnesses of
Susie and 'Bay' Clemens (Infants)" appear in this volume for the first
time in their entirety.  "A Family Sketch" was acquired by the Mark
Twain Papers in 2010 at the record setting price of almost $250,000.
Griffin's introduction offers a brief history of both of these
manuscripts and their importance to Mark Twain biography.


The grieving Clemens was unable to satisfactorily complete a memorial
he attempted to write about Susy after her death at age 24; however,
he "found "A Family Sketch" growing under his hands to become an
account of the entire household--family and servants too. Servants
especially, we might say" (2). One would be hard pressed to find a
richer account of 19th century servants' lives anywhere other than the
biographies Clemens provides here of coachman Patrick McAleer, butler
George Griffin, lady's maid Katy Leary, nursemaid Rosina Hay and
others. His fondness for, and at times frustration with, the servants
reveals a familial intimacy. Clemens's admiration for Griffin was
genuine and well deserved. He described Griffin:


"He was invaluable for his large wisdoms and his good nature made up
for his defects. He was the peace-maker in the kitchen - in fact the
peace-keeper, for by his good sense and right spirit and mollifying
tongue he adjusted disputes in that quarter before they reached the
quarrel-point" (18).


Clemens describes the interactions among servants and family members,
which include Griffin's role as a lion or tiger in the Hartford home.
The "Sketch" includes similarly rich stories about the daughters. For
instance, Clemens inserted eight-year-old Clara's written account of a
near disaster in the Hartford barn from which a quick-thinking McAleer
saved her, Susy, and their friend Daisy Warner from suffocation in the
oat-bin where they were trapped.


"A Family Sketch" is told from the perspective of a reminiscing
Clemens years after the events had occurred. "A True Story Repeated
Word for Word as I Heard It," however, was written by Clemens shortly
after hearing the tale from Mary Ann Cord, a former slave employed as
the Crane family's cook at Quarry Farm. Griffin restores the text to
its original state in this edition. The _Atlantic Monthly_ took
editing liberties in its 1874 publication of the story. Clemens's
retelling of Cord's incredible account of her life as an enslaved
mother who had been separated from her children on the auction block
represents some of his best writing. Told in the first person, Cord's
dialogue is suggestive of the language that would later appear in
_Adventures of Huckleberry Finn_.


"A Record of the Small Foolishnesses of Susie and 'Bay' Clemens
(Infants)" spans nine years (1876-1885) and includes the kind of
sayings and stories cherished by parents everywhere. Stories about
Jean were included after her birth in 1880, but the emphasis is on the
actions of "Modoc" (Susie) and "the Bay" (Clara), primarily at the
Hartford home. Here the reader will especially appreciate Griffin's
masterful editing and clarifications. Clemens's accounts of Livy's
character, in these writings and elsewhere, are hyperbolic, and no
easier to interpret because of that. He represents her as an
untarnishable character, incapable of wrong; it follows that she is
the perfect mother, from whose ruling there is no appeal" (5). Griffin
goes on to point out, however, that in Susy's biography of her father,
"Mamma's oppinions and ideas upon the subject of bringing up children
has always been more or less of a joke in our family" (5). The reader
will likely conclude that the truth lies somewhere in the middle when
reading about the naughtiness and punishments of the Clemens
daughters. Clemens recorded a good example of this on December 31,
1880:


"For some months Bay has been bribed to not quarrel with Susie - at 3
cents a day. Conversation to-day:

Bay: "Mamma, you owe me for two days."

Mamma: "Bay, you have not seen Susie for 2 days--she has been sick in bed."

Bay: "Why Mamma, don't you count that?" (81).


Immediately following that story is one Hal Holbrook has been known to
perform eloquently in "Mark Twain Tonight!" in which Susie announces
to Livy that she has altered her way of praying:


"Tell me about it, Susie."

"Well, mamma, I don't know that I can make you understand: but you
know, the Indians thought they knew; and they had a great many gods.
We know, now, that they were wrong. By and by, maybe it will be found
out that _we_ are wrong, too. So, now, I only pray _that there may be
a God--and a heaven_ --OR SOMETHING BETTER" (82).


And so it continues, the "Record" offering the tender and comic
musings and antics of Susie, Clara, and Jean Clemens.


"At the Farm" consists of a handful of paragraphs Clemens recorded in
Elmira. They are especially important because they provide generous
descriptions of four-year-old Jean who was already revealing her love
of animals. On July 7, 1884 Clemens wrote:


"Yesterday evening our cows (after being inspected and worshiped by
Jean from the shed for an hour,) wandered off down into the pasture,
and left her bereft. I thought I was going to get back home, now, but
that was an error. Jean knew of some more cows, in a field somewhere,
and took my hand and led me thitherward" (96).


The fifth text of the book, a mere six pages written by Livy Clemens
during the summer of 1885, is "Quarry Farm Diary." It is all the more
precious for its brevity and includes a surprising (considering
Clara's feisty nature) note in Clara's Bible reminding herself, "Be
good to Susy. . . Be sweet to Mamma. . . Be good always" (102). Livy
laments having to leave "this beloved Quarry Farm" (103) and closes
with an unfulfilled prediction: "Probably the next time I write in
this book will be in Hartford, if we are spared to arrive there
safely" (104).


The apt final text of the collection is a biography titled "Mark
Twain" penned by thirteen-year-old Susy Clemens. Many readers will be
familiar with this piece through Charles Neider's  _Papa: An Intimate
Biography of Mark Twain_ (1985) and through Mark Twain's own
insertions of Susy's writings in "Chapters from My Autobiography" in
_North American Review_ (1906-7). Giving Susy her due, Griffin's
"present edition aims to preserve Susy's spelling and grammar, with
minimal editorial correction, and to print her little book as she
wrote it, without the intervention of her famous father" (7).


Susy's honest account of her beloved papa expands on the entire
family, including the menagerie of pets, special friends and guests,
and family members she knew or only knew of. She retells stories
handed down to her, describing, for instance, how her Grandpa Langdon
bought the newlyweds a home "in Bufalo; but he wanted to keep it a
secret, from 'Youth' as Grandpa called papa" (110). It is a treasury
of detail, intimate and sweet, full of day-to-day family tidbits that
beckon the reader to join the family. Her love for her papa and her
entire family is evident. Despite her inventive spelling she is a fine
storyteller in her own right. It is a book one wishes to read in its
entirety; however, it is a book that was never completed. The
unsuspecting reader who makes it to Susy's entry on June 26, 1886 will
experience high anticipation. She writes:


"We are all of us on our way to Keokuk to see Grandma Clemens, who is
very feeble and wants to see us. And pertickularly Jean who is her
name sake. We are going by way of the lakes, as papa thought that
would be the most comfortable way" (164).


Now, who wouldn't be speculating as to what comes next? Does Jane
Clemens tell the girls stories about Sam's Hannibal childhood? Does
she suggest a trip to Hannibal, which is just sixty miles to the
south? Are there celebrations planned for the upcoming 4th of July? We
will never know. Susy's next--and final--entry for her book reads:


"July 4. We have arrived in Keokuk after a very pleasant" (164).


It ends mid-sentence, without any punctuation, and with all the intent
of the average thirteen-year-old to resume writing any time now. But
she does not, and that is where this book ends--leaving the reader
wanting much more.


It is impossible to reference every wonderful and delightful story in
this review--Clara's long list of wet nurses and the so-called effects
of their characteristics upon her personality; Jean's speculation of
"I wonder God lets us have so much ducks--Patrick kills them so" (93);
Susy's mention of a game of croquet or the visit to General Grant's
with her papa.


In this age of blogs, Facebook, and Twitter, every cute utterance by
babies everywhere is recorded and widely shared. The remembrances on
these pages are the Clemens family's record and the stuff of every
parent's most cherished memories--the charmingly mispronounced words,
the amusingly misunderstood concepts, and the endearingly phonetic
spellings. It is also a partial record of Mark Twain's publishing
career, with the children commenting on new manuscripts and favorite
stories--works that today constitute the Clemens literary canon but at
the time were simply novelties to little girls whose papa was a wealth
of stories.


This book is a credit to the Mark Twain Project and its editor Ben
Griffin. The guides at the Mark Twain House & Museum in Hartford
regard it as their primary source for good reason. It offers a
poignant and moving account of the happiest years of the Clemens
family, and it is an excellent work of scholarship that can be relied
upon to be credible, accurate, and authentic.