Thanks, Matt, for sharing this glimpse into Nina’s life, a record of a year which stands in sharp contrast to what most of us recall about Nina.  If we think of her at all, it’s the story of the last years of her life and the circumstances surrounding her death.   Reminds me of the common depiction of Twain’s last years, at least until Michael Shelden, in his book, Mark Twain: Man in White: The Grand Adventure of His Final Years, provided us with a more balanced account than had heretofore existed.

Martin Zehr
Marion Bloch Neuroscience Institute
Kansas City, Missouri

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

From: Matthew Seybold
Sent: Monday, October 7, 2019 8:59 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Nina's Lost Diary 
As many of you know, the story of Sam and Livy’s granddaughter, Nina Gabrilowitsch, is a tragic one. Few have captured that tragedy so well as Alan Rankin, as he writes about the decades he spent trying to unravel the mystery of her “lost diary,” which he stumbled upon in 1992. I recommend keeping some tissues at the ready for this one:

https://marktwainstudies.com/finding-the-lost-diary-of-mark-twains-granddaughter-nina-gabrilowitsch/ <https://marktwainstudies.com/finding-the-lost-diary-of-mark-twains-granddaughter-nina-gabrilowitsch/>

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Matt Seybold
Assistant Professor of American Literature & Mark Twain Studies
Elmira College
Editor, MarkTwainStudies.org
MattSeybold.com