Jean Clemens

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jean Clemens
Mark-twains-daughter-jean-clemens-pre1909.jpg
Born
Jane Lampton Clemens

(1880-07-26)July 26, 1880
Elmira, New York
DiedDecember 24, 1909(1909-12-24) (aged 29)
Redding, Connecticut
Cause of deathDrowning
Resting placeWoodlawn Cemetery
NationalityAmerican
Parent(s)Mark Twain
Olivia Langdon Clemens
RelativesLangdon Clemens (brother)
Clara Clemens (sister)
Susy Clemens (sister)

Jane Lampton "Jean" Clemens (July 26, 1880 – December 24, 1909) was the daughter of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (better known by his pen name Mark Twain) and Olivia Langdon Clemens. She drowned in a bathtub at Samuel's home on Christmas Eve 1909, likely due to a seizure.

Character and early life[]

Jean Clemens was born in Elmira, New York, the youngest of four children born to author and humorist Mark Twain and Olivia Langdon Clemens. Twain wrote from Elmira to his friend, William Dean Howells, reporting she "arrived perfectly sound but with no more baggage than I had when I was on the river," referring to his Life On The Mississippi.[1] According to Mark Twain's Autobiography, Jean was kind-hearted and particularly fond of animals, like Olivia. She founded or worked with a number of societies for the protection of animals in the various locations where she lived.[2]

Epilepsy[]

Jean had epilepsy from age 15 which Twain attributed to a head injury from when she was age 8 or 9.[3] The family spent years seeking cures in the United States and Europe. Twain also attributed her mood swings and sometimes erratic behavior to her uncontrolled epilepsy.[4]

Jean's mother tried to include her in family life despite her illness, but Olivia died in 1904 and it was left to Twain and Jean's older sister, Clara, to help Jean to manage the difficulties which her illness caused. Twain's secretary Isabel Lyon claimed that Jean physically attacked family maid Katy Leary on two occasions in 1906, saying that she wanted to kill her.[5] In her 2004 biography Dangerous Intimacy: The Untold Story of Mark Twain's Final Years, historian Karen Lystra questions the accuracy of Lyon's account of Jean's violent behavior and suggests that Lyon manipulated a separation between father and daughter because Lyon hoped to marry Twain.[6] Jean was sent to an epilepsy colony in Katonah, New York in the fall of 1906 and despite requesting to return home, Twain refused as he doubted his ability to care for her.[7] Twain fired Lyon and her new husband in 1909, stating that they were guilty of embezzlement, and Jean was able to return home in April 1909. Jean and her father got along well, though she found him stubborn and temperamental.[8]

Death[]

Jean was staying at her father's home Stormfield in Redding, Connecticut in December 1909, and she had decorated the home for the upcoming Christmas holiday. She was found dead in the bathtub on the morning of December 24,[9] likely having drowned during a seizure.[10][11] She was carried to Woodlawn Cemetery in Elmira. Her father did not travel with the casket, unable to bring himself to return to the place where he had already buried two children and his wife. He commemorated her passing by having his authorized biographer play her favorite piece of music, by Schubert.[12] That night he wrote the final entry in his Autobiography, titling it "The Death of Jean." Twain died four months later on April 21, 1910.

See also[]

Notes[]

  1. ^ Clemens, Samuel L. (2002). Mark Twain's Letters, 1876-1880. Berkeley: University of California Press.
  2. ^ Twain, Mark (1910). "The Death of Jean". Mark Twain's Autobiography. Retrieved January 24, 2008.
  3. ^ Trombley, Laura Skandera. "She Wanted to Kill: Jean Clemens and Postictal Psychosis". Archived from the original on September 2, 2006. Retrieved January 24, 2008.
  4. ^ Ward, Duncan, and Burns (2001), p. 221
  5. ^ Ward, Duncan, and Burns (2001), pp. 227-230
  6. ^ Lystra (2004)
  7. ^ Ward, Duncan and Burns (2001), p. 230
  8. ^ Ward, Duncan, and Burns (2001), p. 248
  9. ^ LeMaster, J.R.; Wilson, James D., eds. (2013). The Routledge Encyclopedia of Mark Twain. Routledge. p. 153. ISBN 978-1-135-88128-3.
  10. ^ "Miss. Jean Clemens Found Dead in Bath". The New York Times. Redding, Conn. (published December 25, 1909). December 24, 1909. p. 1. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 21, 2008.
  11. ^ Ward, Duncan and Burns (2001), pp. 250-251
  12. ^ Seybold, Matt (December 23, 2020). "Death at Christmastime: Mark Twain & The Music of Merciful Release". Center for Mark Twain Studies. Retrieved July 6, 2021.

References[]

  • Lystra, Karen (2004). Dangerous Intimacy: The Untold Story of Mark Twain's Final Years. University of California Press Ltd. ISBN 0-520-23323-9.
  • Ward, Geoffrey C., Duncan, Dayton, Burns, Ken (2001). Mark Twain: An Illustrated Biography. Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-375-40561-5
Retrieved from ""