Scandals of Mark Twain: Isabel Lyon

Samuel Clemens AKA Mark Twain (1835-1910) encountered a great deal of drama and turbulence after Isabel Van Kleek Lyon entered his life (1863-1958). After building homes in Farmington, Connecticut, and living in Oldgate with her mother and two siblings, Isabel worked as a governess in Philadelphia and New York City after her father's death. Meeting Twain at a whist party in 1892, Lyon made such an impression Twain's wife Olivia Clemens (1845-1904) remembered her 10 years later for a position as secretary. Lyon was in attendance when Olivia died in Florence in 1904. Helping send Twain's epileptic daughter Jean Clemens to an epileptic colony in 1906, Lyon worked to prevent her homecoming to Twain's home Stormfield until 1909. Recollections of Jean differ, and this video presents Jean as a self-sufficient outdoorswoman with her life under control. Unfortunately this did not save her, and she was found dead in her bathtub on Christmas Eve in 1909 with Lyon lurking around the neighborhood.

Sources:

Connecticut Family Group Sheets, https://www.fgs-project.com/connecticut/groups/m/moore-jesse-.html

New England Historical Society, "Mark Twain Refuses to Succumb", https://newenglandhistoricalsociety.com/mark-twain-refuses-to-succumb-to-silken-dainties-isabel-lyon/

Mark Twain Project, Biography: Isabel Lyon, https://www.marktwainproject.org/biographies/bio_lyon_isabel.html

Museum of Disability, the Craig Colony, https://www.museumofdisability.org/blog/entry/the-craig-colony

Lynn Cullen, "Twain's End", Los Angeles Public Library, https://www.lapl.org/books-emedia/lapl-reads/review/twains-end

The New York Times, "Mark Twain Suits All Off", http://www.twainquotes.com/19090913.html (September 1909)

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