Mark Twain and Isabel Lyon
An untold Story
By Susan Boone Durkee
Isabel Van Kleek Lyon
1863-1958
The relationship
between Isabel Lyon and Mark Twain has basically been kept a secret for nearly
70 years. How can that be? Here is a woman about whom Twain himself said he
knew most intimately in all the world -- with the exception of his wife, Livy.
Mark Twain first met
Isabel Lyon in 1892, when she was 29 and working as a Governess for a Hartford family. He
encountered her at a party while he was playing charades, and he was so charmed
by her that at the end of the evening, when invited to return, he replied:
“I’ll come only if I can play with the little Governess.”
When Isabel Lyon
first came to work for the Clemens family in 1902, Twain described her as
“slender, petite, comely, 39 years old by the almanac, and 17 in ways and
carriage and dress.” A charming woman, hard working and competent she soon took
responsibility for the entire Clemens household.
After Livy’s death
in 1904, Isabel became Mark Twain’s secretary, bookkeeper, household manager,
social companion, literary critic, and holder of his power of attorney. For a
period she lived at Stormfield with Twain.
Supposedly her bedroom was next to his and her office was located just
inside Stormfield’s front hall on the
left.
Intelligent, and
sensitive, Isabel worshipped Twain, referring to him as “The King.” He, in
turn, called her “The Lioness.” Isabel staggered under the demands that Twain
placed on her. As Twain described her,
“Miss
Lyon runs Clara, and Jean, and me, and the servants, and the housekeeping, and
the house building, and the secretary work, and remains as extraordinarily as
competent as ever.”
In her diary, Isabel
records:
“I
have been so busy, for there is this house to look after (The Lobster Pot), and
the Tuxedo house to think and plan for, and the Redding house to be after too,
and Santa (Clara) to love and be with when she was here and do for, and Jean to
be anxious over and to help if I can, and her doctors to see, and the King’s
social life to look after – for in these days he is very lonely and reaches out
for people — and people he must have, so now I am planning parties for him.”
Although it is said
that Isabel had designs to marry Twain, she ended up marrying Twain’s
business manager, Ralph Ashcroft, in 1909. It was an unhappy marriage and ended
in divorce in 1920.
There is no evidence
that Lyon ever betrayed Twain, even though she
was paid poorly and treated badly at the end of her service -- Twain even took
back the “The Lobster Pot,” her “darling
house,” which he had given her as a gift in 1907. Still, Isabel
remained devoted to him. Many years later, she would refer to the situation as,
“we had a falling out.” A young actress friend, Joyce Aaron, who lived next to
Isabel when Isabel was in her mid-nineties and living in Brooklyn,
told this to me.
What really happened
between Twain and Isabel? Was it Clara’s jealous prodding? Was Twain jealous
that she married Ashcroft and not him? Did she really try to steal from Twain?
Was Albert Bigelow Paine jealous of her control of Twain? Or did Mark Twain just lose interest in her
companionship, or did Isabel know too much of the families dirty secrets?
We may never know
for sure.
So why so little known about this
relationship?
After Twain died,
Clara Clemens and Albert Bigelow Paine removed virtually all record of Isabel
Lyon’s existence. So as far as the public was concerned, Isabel Van Kleek Lyon
never existed.
Isabel died in 1958.
She willed her diary and photos to the Mark Twain Papers collection at the University of California,
Berkeley, with
the condition that they not be open to the public until after Clara’s Death. So
I guess you can say that after Clara died, Isabel was reborn.
We all owe a lot to
this woman, Isabel Lyon. Because of her diligence in keeping a sequence of
detailed journals and photos the last years of Mark Twain’s life can now be
better known to all.
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