Papa, an Intimate Biography of Mark Twain

by Susy Clemens

Book Overview

A biography of Twain written by his daughter Susy when she was thirteen and he was fifty. Includes correspondence between the two. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385232454
• ISBN13: 9780385232456
• Release Date: January 1985
• Publisher: Doubleday Books
• Length: 236 Pages
• Weight: 1.12 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Fascinating, but too Intimate?

I have had this book on my shelves for several years and finally picked it up as part of another research project. If you are interested in the biographical part of the Twain legend, you need to get this, both for Susy's work and for the long introduction by Charles Neider. I generally have to work through non-fiction, but it was hard for me to put this down. The description of Susy's love affair with another woman is so tragic, passionate and mysterious that it stayed with me for days. But be warned: it's easy to feel like a peeping tom, particularly when Neider shares the 1,100 or so word ramble that Susy wrote as she was dying of meningitis. At one point, I realized that I was reading things that Susy, her sister Clara Gabrilowitsch and Mark Twain--all people for whom I feel great affection--would simply not want to share. At what point does biography become voyeurism? Does death eliminate any right to privacy? Perhaps you can do as I did and say a prayer for their souls and hope that is recompense. In any case, don't discount this as a children's book. This is the real thing, another important view into what must be the most documented family in literary history.