Gallery
October 2015
On Sale: October 13, 2015
Featuring: Isabel V. Lyon; Ralph Ashcroft; Mark Twain
ISBN: 1476758964 EAN: 9781476758961 Kindle: B00UDCNJ44 Hardcover / e-Book Add to Wish List
From the bestselling and highly acclaimed author of the βpage-turning taleβ (Library Journal, starred review) Mrs. Poe comes a fictionalized imagining of the personal life of Americaβs most iconic writer: Mark Twain.
In March of 1909, Mark Twain cheerfully blessed the wedding of his private secretary, Isabel V. Lyon, and his business manager, Ralph Ashcroft. One month later, he fired both. He proceeded to write a ferocious 429-page rant about the pair, calling Isabel βa liar, a forger, a thief, a hypocrite, a drunkard, a sneak, a humbug, a traitor, a conspirator, a filthy-minded and salacious slut pining for seduction.β Twain and his daughter, Clara Clemens, then slandered Isabel in the newspapers, erasing her nearly seven years of devoted service to their family. How did Lyon go from being the beloved secretary who ran Twainβs life to a woman he was determined to destroy?
In Twainβs End, Lynn Cullen reimagines the tangled relationships between Twain, Lyon, and Ashcroft, as well as the little-known love triangle between Helen Keller, her teacher Anne Sullivan Macy, and Anneβs husband, John Macy, which comes to light during their visit to Twainβs Connecticut home in 1909. Add to the party a furious Clara Clemens, smarting from her own failed love affair, and carefully kept veneers shatter.
Based on Isabel Lyonβs extant diary, Twainβs writings and letters, and events in Twainβs boyhood that may have altered his ability to love, Twainβs End explores this real-life tale of doomed love.
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