The Birthday of Eternity

Mark Twain / Samuel Clemens, died April 21, 1910

“I do not fear death. 

I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.”

In 1897, a journalist was sent to inquire after Twain's health, thinking he was near to death; in fact it was his cousin who was very ill.   Twain recounted the event in the New York Journal issue June 2, 1897, including his famous words "The report of my death was an exaggeration." 

Mark Twain returned to the United States in 1900, having earned enough money from his global speaking tour to pay off his debts.

In the  New York Herald, October 15, 1900, he described his transformation and political awakening, in the context of the Philippine-American War, from being "a red-hot imperialist":

I wanted the American eagle to go screaming into the Pacific ... Why not spread its wings over the Philippines, I asked myself? ... I said to myself, Here are a people who have suffered for three centuries. We can make them as free as ourselves, give them a government and country of their own, put a miniature of the American Constitution afloat in the Pacific, start a brand new republic to take its place among the free nations of the world. It seemed to me a great task to which we had addressed ourselves. But I have thought some more, since then, and I have read carefully the treaty of Paris [which ended the Spanish-American War], and I have seen that we do not intend to free, but to subjugate the people of the Philippines. We have gone there to conquer, not to redeem. It should, it seems to me, be our pleasure and duty to make those people free, and let them deal with their own domestic questions in their own way. And so I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land.

Until his death in 1910, Twain was vice-president of the American Anti-Imperialist League, which opposed the annexation of the Philippines by the United States.  He wrote many political pamphlets for the organization. The Incident in the Philippines, posthumously published in 1924, was in response to the Moro Crater Massacre, in which six hundred Moros were killed. Many of his neglected and previously uncollected writings on anti-imperialism appeared for the first time in book form in 1992.

During the Philippine-American War , Twain wrote a short pacifist story entitled The War  Prayer, which makes the point that humanism and Christianity's preaching of love are incompatible with the conduct of war. It was submitted to Harper's Bazaar for publication, but on March 22, 1905 the magazine rejected the story as "not quite suited to a woman's magazine."  Eight days later, Twain wrote to his friend, Daniel Carter Beard, to whom he had read the story, "I don't think the prayer will be published in my time. None but the dead are permitted to tell the truth." Because he had an exclusive contract with Harper & Brothers, Twain could not publish The War Prayer elsewhere; it remained unpublished until 1923. It was republished as campaigning material by Vietnam War protesters. 

Daniel Carter Beard

King Leopold's Soliloquy is a stinging political satire about the Belgian king's private colony, the Congo Free State.  Reports of outrageous exploitation and grotesque abuses led to widespread international protest in the early 1900s, arguably the first large-scale human rights movement. In the soliloquy, the King argues that bringing Christianity to the country outweighs a little starvation. Leopold's rubber workers were tortured, maimed and slaughtered, until the movement forced Brussels to call a halt.

Albert Biegelow Paine, a successful novelist and short story writer, first met Twain at a club dinner in New York City in 1901. They began a correspondence, which led to Paine approaching Clemens about be his biographer. Clemens enthusiastically agreed to the proposal. 

Twain with Albert Biegelow Paine

Twain's last visit to his hometown of Hannibal, Missouri was May 29 to June 1, 1902.

Twain during his last visit to Hannibal, Missouri

In 1903, after living in New York City for three years, his wife of 34 years, Livy, became ill. 

Livy and Twain

Advised to live in a warmer and drier climate, Twain, Livy, their daughters Clara and Jean, along with a nurse, a maid, and a secretary traveled to Italy. 

Jean Clemens, 1904

They stayed at the rented Villa di Quarto in Florence.  

Villa di Quarto

The winter proved unseasonably foggy and rainy, and she worsened. She was in bed receiving oxygen; she slept sitting up, terrified of choking to death. Doctors told Twain not to bother Livy; the excitement of seeing him would make her wheeze. He was allowed to visit five minutes a day at most. 

Livy and Clara Clemens

Livy, aged 59, died from heart failure the following year. 

Olivia Clemens on her deathbed, Florence. Photographed by her daughter, Jean 

Twain was staying in a cottage in Tyringham, Massachusetts, still grieving for Livy, when he learned of his older sister Pamela's death in Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1904.  They had maintained a warm and affectionate correspondence throughout their lives.

Twain's Sister, Pamela

Following the death of her mother in 1904, Clara suffered a nervous breakdown and spent most of the next year in a Connecticut sanatorium receiving treatment. Declared well in November of 1905, she moved into her father's home in New York and resumed managing the Clemens household. 

Clara Clemens

After the death of her mother, Jean's epilepsy became worse and she spent most of the next five years in and out of sanatoriums. Twice, in 1905 and again in 1906, she broke down, attacking the family house-keeper Katy Lear.

Twain, in bed he had shared with Livy for many years

To celebrate Twain's seventieth birthday in 1905, a dinner party was arranged by George Harvey, editor of Harper's Weekly.  It was held at Delmonico's restaurant, New York City, on December 5th, 1905. 

Twain's 70th Birthday Party at Delmonico's

It was an elaborate and lengthy occasion, with over 170 friends and fellow writers attending. Fifteen formal speeches and toasts were delivered, and musical accompaniment was provided by a forty-piece orchestra.  

George Washington Cable

Guests included  William Dean Howells, Andrew Carnegie, George Washington Cable, and Agnes Repplier.

Andrew Carnegie

Henry Huddleston Rogers and Twain enjoyed a more than 16-year friendship.  Rogers' family became Twain's surrogate family, and he was a frequent guest at the Rogers townhouse in New York City.  Earl J. Dias described the relationship in these words: "Rogers and Twain were kindred spirits - fond of poker, billiards, the theater, practical jokes, mild profanity, the good-natured spoof.."  They had a standing joke that Twain was inclined to pilfer items from the Rogers household whenever he spent the night there as a guest. Two letters provide an illustration:  Twain wrote to Anne Rogers that he had packed

 some articles that was laying around....two books, Mr. Rogers' brown slippers, and a ham. I thought it was one of ourn. It looked like one we used to have, but it shan't occur again, and don't you worry. He will temper the wind to the shorn lamb, and I will send some of the things back if there is some that won't keep. Yores in Jesus, S.L.C.

Twain with Henry Huddleston Rogers

Rogers responded on October 31, 1906 with the following:

Before I forget it, let me remind you that I shall want the trunk and the things you took away from my house as soon as possible. I learn that instead of taking old things, you took my best. Mrs. Rogers is at the White Mountains. I am going to Fairhaven this afternoon. I hope you will not be there. By the way, I have been using a pair of your gloves in the Mountains, and they don't seem to be much of an attraction.

By January 1906, Albert Paine was living in the Clemens home, and was Twain's companion for the remainder of his life.  Paine conducted extensive research about the life of Clemens, sifting through unpublished manuscripts and visiting places where Clemens spent periods of his life.  Twain began his autobiography, which he dictated and thought would be most entertaining if he went off on whims and tangents in non-chronological order. 

Twain and "Angel Fish"

Twain formed a club in 1906 for girls he viewed as surrogate granddaughters, the Angel Fish and Aquarium Club. The dozen or so members ranged in age from 10 to 16. Twain exchanged letters with his "Angel Fish" girls and invited them to concerts and the theatre and to play games. Twain wrote in 1908 that the club was his "life's chief delight."

After my wife’s death, June 5, 1904., l experienced a long period of unrest and loneliness. Clara and Jean were busy with their studies and their labors, and I was washing about on a forlorn sea of banquets and speechmaking in high and holy causes - industries which furnished me intellectual cheer and entertainment, but got at my heart for an evening only, then left it dry and dusty. I had reached the grandpapa stage of life; and what I lacked and what I needed, was grandchildren, but I didn't know it. By and by this knowledge came by accident, on a fortunate day, a golden day, and my heart has never been empty of grandchildren since. No, it is a treasure-palace of little people whom I worship, and whose degraded and willing slave I am. In grandchildren I am the richest man that lives today: for I select my grandchildren, whereas all other grandfathers have to take them as they come, good, bad or indifferent.

Twain with Dorothy Quick

Louise Paine, Albert Paine's daughter, was a member of the Angel Fish Club.

Twain with Louisa Paine

On May 4, 1907, when people lost track of a yacht he was traveling on, the New York Times published an article saying he might have been lost at sea.  In fact, the yacht had been held up by fog, and Twain had disembarked. Twain read the article, and cleared up the story by writing a humorous account in the Times the following day.

Oxford University awarded Twain an honorary doctorate in letters  in June, 1907.

Twain in Oxford Gown

Twain lived in New York City until 1908 when he moved into his last house, "Stormfield", in Redding, Connecticut.

Stormfield, Redding, Connecticut

In his later years he regarded Bermuda as his second home and spent all the time there he could.  

Twain in Bermuda

Twain was outraged when the first automobile in Bermuda, owned by the American newspaper magnate James Gordon Bennett, arrived on the latter's luxurious yacht.  It was exactly the kind of vehicle that Mark Twain and his friends did not want to see in Bermuda, to spoil their image of a motor-less Eden.  These friends were led by Woodrow Wilson, then President of Princeton University. but poised to launch his political career in earnest.  The wealthy industrialist Thomas D. Peck, a friend of Wilson's, was one of the most frequent daily callers at Twain's "Bay House" Bermuda home, often to ask Twain to join him in games of miniature golf British style, on a putting green.

Jean Clemens

Jean traveled to Germany with a friend to seek treatment for her epilepsy.  In September of 1908, she returned in better health at last, moving into Stormfield, and replacing Isabel Lyon as her father's private secretary.  In 1908, Clara also visited Germany to further her singing studies, returning to New York in October. She took an apartment, but continued to oversee the Clemens household, disapproving of Isabel Lyon's and Ralph Ashcroft's dealings in her father's business affairs.  She persuaded him to remove them early in 1909. 

Jean and Twain

At Stormfield, Jean and her father found a new closeness, often taking walks together in the country-side. Jean became the favorite of the local children, who marvelled at her Russian wolfhound, which she commanded in Russian. 

Twain and Clara at Stormfield, 1909

Clara and Ossip Gabrilowitsch, a pianist, were married at Stormfield on October 6th, 1909, in a ceremony conducted by the Rev. Joseph Twichell. 

Joseph Twichell

The couple departed for Europe to settle and pursue their careers. 

Clara's Wedding, 1909

That year, Thomas Edison visited Twain at his home in Redding and filmed him. Part of the footage was used in The Prince and the Pauper (1909), a two-reel short film.

On May 20, 1909, his close friend Henry Rogers died suddenly.  His death was a severe blow.  When Rogers died in New York City of an apoplectic stroke, Twain had been on his way by train from Connecticut to visit Rogers. 

The day before Christmas, 1909, after Jean's usual morning ride, she retired to her bathroom, where she drowned in her bathtub, apparently from a heart-attack suffered during a seizure. She was 29 years old.

Doctors had cut down Mark Twain's daily allowance of 20 cigars and countless pipes to four cigars a day.  He tried to smoke on the steamer while returning from Bermuda in April 1910, and only gave it up because he was too feeble to draw on his pipe. 

Halley's Comet, 1910

In 1909, Twain was quoted as saying:

"I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together."

His prediction was accurate—Twain died of a heart attack on April 21, 1910, at his home in Redding, one day after the comet's closest approach to Earth.  He was 74 years old.  

Clara, receiving news of his decline, had returned from Europe to Stormfield, arriving four days before his death. 

He died painlessly at 6:30 in the evening; he had lapsed into coma at 3 o'clock in the afternoon and never recovered consciousness.  

Twain's funeral was at the "Old Brick" Presbyterian Church in New York.  Reverend Joseph Hopkins Twichell, Twain's friend for forty years, who had married Samuel and Olivia in 1870, and baptized their children, presided at his funeral service.

It was originally intended to open the church to the public at 3 o'clock, after the holders of the 400 tickets which had been distributed had taken their seats. But the crowd at Thirty-seventh Street and Fifth Avenue threatened to block traffic on the avenue, and at 2:30 it was decided to let them in. Several hundred persons who could not be accommodated remained on the streets during the service until it was time to view the body.

The service in the Brick Church lasted only twenty minutes. At its conclusion, it was announced that the coffin would be opened. The lines of those within the church began to pass around it, and the crowd from the street pushed in. This was at half past three. there was no abatement in the stream for the next hour and a half. More than three thousands persons had passed in front of the coffin.

Viewing Twain's body at the funeral

There was nothing on the coffin except a wreath which Dan Beard had made of bay leaves gathered the night before, at the request of the family, on the hill behind the house. This was put on the coffin when it was taken out of Stormfield.  A copper plate on the lid bore the inscription:

SAMUEL LANGHORNE CLEMENS
MARK TWAIN
1910

Twain was buried alongside his wife, his two daughters, Susan and Jean, and his infant son, Langhorne, in his wife's family plot at Woodlawn Cemetery in Elmira, New York.

Family Plot

The Langdon family plot where he is buried is marked by a 12-foot (two fathoms, or "mark twain") monument, placed there by his surviving daughter, Clara. 

Monument at Grave

Those who knew Twain well late in life recount that he dwelt on the subject of the afterlife, his daughter Clara saying: "Sometimes he believed death ended everything, but most of the time he felt sure of a life beyond."

As her father's heir, Clara stayed to oversee estate issues, returning to Europe with Ossip after the birth of their only child, Nina Gabrilowitsch, at Stormfield, in August of 1910.

After Twain's death, Albert Paine was named literary executor, and had complete control over all of Twain's unpublished writings. Working closely with Clara Clemens, Paine fashioned a public persona of Twain that showed the utmost respect to the deceased writer. In 1912, Paine published Mark Twain, A Biography, a massive three-volume work considered the most ambitious biography of Twain ever written. Paine would freely edit the unpublished manuscripts, striking out sections to maintain the image of Twain that he believed the world should see; unfortunately, he made no indication exactly which sections had been tampered with. It would take decades for scholars to determine the influence of his editing on the manuscripts. 

Clara in 1921

Twain's family suppressed some of his work that was especially irreverent toward conventional religion, notably Letters from the Earth.  It was not published until his daughter, Clara, reversed her position in 1962 in response to Soviet propaganda about the withholding.  Little Bessie, a story ridiculing Christianity, was first published in the 1972 collection Mark Twain's Fables of Man.

The first volume of Twain's autobiography, over 736 pages, was published by the University of California in November 2010, 100 years after his death as Twain wished.  It soon became an unexpected best seller, making Twain one of very few authors publishing new best-selling volumes in all three of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries.