Mark Twain

Between late 1906 and early 1907, Mark Twain juggled public triumph and private disarray. Jean, increasingly ill with epilepsy, entered Hillbourne Farms sanitarium, chafing at rules while seizures, loneliness, and clashes with Clara and Isabel mounted. Clara’s fragile singing career faltered, while Isabel herself collapsed and took a rest cure, yet her duties—and emotional dependence on Twain—kept expanding. 

Twain, gout-ridden but restless, lobbied Congress in a dazzling white suit for a longer copyright term to secure his daughters’ future. He then took two vacations to Bermuda while still cultivating new “angelfish.” He developed plans for a country house in Redding, but the family remained scattered, anxious, and frequently at odds.

Invited to receive an honorary doctor of letters at Oxford, 71-year-old Twain sailed for England in June 1907. Onboard he befriended 17-year-old Carlotta Welles, the latest “angelfish.” He then captured London with bath-robe strolls, packed press conferences, royal garden parties, and a triumphant Oxford procession in scarlet gown and mortarboard. He lunched with George Bernard Shaw, collected new admirers such as 16-year-old Frances Nunnally, and basked in adulation that healed decades-old slights about his lack of schooling. 

Rumors in New York that he would marry Isabel Lyon prompted Twain to make public denials.