My book coming out in November is a volume of letters of each Clemens with
a southern woman writer, Grace King, who was their friend for two decades.
She writes home to her family in New Orleans describing times with Twain
and the family in 1887, 1888, and 1892 (outside Florence). In other years
they exchange letters, especially between confidants Livy and Grace. There
are also letters from Susy, Clara, and Jean that include references to
what's happening in the family.
King knew him as loving father, husband, and generous friend as well as a
public figure.
*A New Orleans Author in Mark Twain's Court: Letters from Grace King's New
England Sojourns* has the complete collection of letters among them with
one from Clara to Grace as late as 1930.
I hope someone from the Forum will review it and more will read it. I think
King's is a voice that hasn't fully been heard.
Here's a link to LSU Press catalog describing the book:
https://lsupress.org/books/by-catalog/fall-2019/
Thanks for the opportunity to tell about it.
Miki
On Sun, Jun 30, 2019 at 9:11 AM Clay Shannon <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dave, that is an awesome quote.
> I wonder how closely this Van Dyke is related to Dick, whom I consider the
> most Twain-like "comedian" of our time.
> - B. Clay Shannon
>
> On Sunday, June 30, 2019, 06:53:01 AM PDT, Dave Davis <
> [log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> A quick search uncovers this lead:
>
>
> "Untitled," Henry Van Dyke on Mark Twain
>
> When Mark Twain turned 67, his longtime friend and advisor Henry Van Dyke
> read a poem for him at the Metropolitan Club in New York City. Its last
> line was, "Long life to you, Mark Twain." Just seven years later, he'd be
> delivering the eulogy at Twain's funeral in New York City. In it, he
> provides a working definition of quality humor that everyone would be wise
> to remember: "But the mark of this higher humor is that it does not laugh
> at the weak, the helpless, the true, the innocent; only at the false, the
> pretentious, the vain, the hypocritical...we may say without doubt that
> [Twain] used his gift, not for evil, but for good."
>
> A Times report from that day wrote, "Throughout it was evident that the
> speaker was making a strong effort to keep down his emotion and control his
> voice.
> http://mentalfloss.com/article/61227/11-eulogies-writers-written-writers
>
> On Sun, Jun 30, 2019 at 9:42 AM Clay Shannon <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Are there any surviving writings about Twain by those who actually knew
> him, other than those by Susy, Clara, Howells, Katy Leary, Dorothy Quick
> (the Angelfish), and Paine?
> I would be especially interested in what the Clemens family themselves
> said/wrote about him (his mother and siblings) and the Moffett family; but
> also Harte, Goodman, Redpath, Keller, Kipling, Bixby, Howland, Paige,
> Twichell, Aldrich, Gilder, Joel C. Harris, &c &c.
> I do know that Kipling wrote about his "pilgrimage" to meet Twain.
> Do such writings exist? Even better would be if they were all collected
> together in a volume (excluding the writings which are already of book
> length - those alluded to in the first paragraph). Has anybody done this
> yet?
> - B. Clay Shannon
>
>
>
--
Miki Pfeffer, Ph D
*A New Orleans Author in Mark Twain's Court: Letters from Grace King's New
England Sojourns *(fall 2019)
*Southern Ladies and Suffragists: Julia Ward Howe and Women's Rights at the
1884 New Orleans World's Fair*
|
