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    Twain's End
    Twain's End
    Twain's End
    Audiobook12 hours

    Twain's End

    Written by Lynn Cullen

    Narrated by Cassandra Campbell

    3.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    From the bestselling and highly acclaimed author of the “page-turning tale” (Library Journal, starred review) Mrs. Poe comes a fictionalized imagining of the personal life of America’s 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 “a 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.” 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 Twain’s life to a woman he was determined to destroy?

    In Twain’s End, Lynn Cullen “cleverly spins a mysterious, dark tale” (Booklist) about 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 Anne’s husband, John Macy, which comes to light during their visit to Twain’s 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 Lyon’s extant diary, Twain’s writings, letters, photographs, and events in Twain’s boyhood that may have altered his ability to love, Twain’s End triumphs as “a tender evocation of a vain, complicated man’s twilight years and a last chance at love” (People).
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateOct 13, 2015
    ISBN9781442393899
    Author

    Lynn Cullen

    Lynn Cullen grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana and is the bestselling author of The Sisters of Summit Avenue, Twain’s End, and Mrs. Poe, which was named an NPR 2013 Great Read and an Indie Next List selection. She lives in Atlanta.

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    Reviews for Twain's End

    3.5/5

    57 ratings14 reviews

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    • 2/5
      Disappointing book I was unable to get very far into. I could not engage with any of the characters and thought all the women were unbelievable. Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain was obviously a narcissist but the fact that every woman within sight of him swooned and became his puppet as the book projects is unfathomable.
    • 2/5
      (Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)I don't know if it's this particular book, or the fact that I simply don't read much historical fiction to begin with, but I found Lynn Cullen's Twain's End a hard bird to wrap my mind around, in terms of deciding what exactly I thought about it. On the one hand, it's a very faithful and informative look at a true story -- the story of Samuel Clemens, that is, otherwise known as "Mark Twain" of this book's title, specifically a look at his later years when he was elderly and a bit of a curmudgeon, our particular story beginning during his family's famous extended trip to Italy in 1903 (where his sickly wife finally died), moving on to Clemens' grandiose home in Hartford, Connecticut in the 19-'Aughts (inspired directly by the aristocratic villas he visited in Italy), and finally ending with his death in 1910. Which was fine for what it was, although as someone who already knew a lot about Clemens' life, a whole lot of this book felt like someone basically writing a Wikipedia entry in the form of a narrative novel, which I must admit I didn't care for. (A very typical example: "He might have been feted around the world by royalty and men of mark, awarded an honorary degree from Oxford University in England, and made a boon companion of the rich and powerful in New York, but at heart he was a Mississippi steamboat pilot whose idea of luxurious decor was that found in a New Orleans brothel." Citation needed, user LCullen!)None of this, though, touches on the much more troubling part of this book, which is the "fiction" part of the "historical fiction" -- namely, Cullen uses as her book's framing device an obscure conspiracy theory about an elderly Clemens having a secret, never-proven-in-real-life affair with his private secretary Isabel Lyon, trying to shoehorn together whatever small amount of true facts exist about that situation in order to present us with the typical three-act plot of a contemporary relationship thriller, which feels ethically wrong during every step of the entire process; and especially egregious is her decision to portray Clemens' daughter Clara like the villain of a chick-lit novel (think "The Devil Wears Petticoats"), a scheming, slutty control freak who detests any woman her precious papa lavishes attention on, and who is just sitting around for most of this novel wringing her hands evilly, waiting for her parents to die so she can finally go be the man-attracting opera star in Europe that she's always wanted to be. All of this just sat really uncomfortably with me, just the ridiculous amounts of license that Cullen takes with these real people who were still alive only a century ago, forcing them into this convenient narrative that may or may not have actually happened in real life just so she'll have a contemporary novel that feels more like the crappy Nicholas Sparks bullshit that middle-aged suburban women can't seem to get enough of. Like I said, I don't know if this is a problem specifically with Cullen's book itself, or is just an unfortunate side effect of historical fiction in general; but by the end the whole thing had just left this bad taste in my mouth, a book that is both overly explanatory of the true info and way too speculative about the unknown parts, with an uneven pace to boot that is either too slow or too fast on any given page but never just the right speed. Although written competently, I am still choosing today to not recommend it to a general audience, other than those who are already fans of such too-much-license historical fiction and who won't be nearly as bothered by all the liberties Cullen takes here.Out of 10: 5.9
    • 4/5
      TWAIN'S END starts off as an entrancing tale with finely developed dialogue involving challenging alliancesrevolving around Mark Twain's quick silver moods and horrible temper tantrums. Unfortunately, it becomes repetitive, boring and predictable with his secretary Isabel's painfully stupid obedience to him and his daughter,Sure wish this book had been more fiction than fact - what jerks Clemens and his Clara turned out to be!
    • 3/5
      This novel, a historical fiction account of Mark Twain/Samuel Clemens and his relationship with his secretary Isabel Lyon, could have been so much better than it was. The writing is solid for the most part. However, I was distracted by a few editorial/proofreading misses (including mentioning Philip Keyes as the son of the man who wrote the Star Spangled Banner -- that should have been Philip Key) and at least one continuity error (Ossip Gabrilowitsch going upstairs with a hot water bottle for an earache, then returning downstairs a couple hours later with an ice bag on his ear). The copy I read from was the paperback edition, in which I would think those errors would have been corrected. I found that this novel portrayed nearly every character as being unlikable, especially Clemens' daughter Clara. She was obviously a strong-willed person, who chafed under her father's larger-than-life personality, but in this novel she was also much too irritated by Helen Keller's characteristics -- wincing at her voice or observing that Helen Keller was vacant-eyed or sniffing the air like a rabbit. As a deaf person myself, I found this attitude offensive (and unsure whether it was even necessary for this novel) even though I know there are people in real life who have Clara's attitude.As for why Helen Keller was in this novel, she was indeed a friend of Clemens. She is shown at the beginning and end of this book involved in a love-triangle with Annie Sullivan Macy and her husband, which may have been intended to mirror the alleged love triangle between Clemens, his secretary Isabel, and Clemens' wife.I think I would have preferred to read a non-fiction account of Clemens' and Lyon's relationship over this novel.
    • 5/5
      I love Cullen's work! I gravitate towards books that take historical figures and facts and turn them into novel form and this title was excellent. I spent a lot of time googling images, videos and websites pertaining to the people in between the pages to learn more about them. Fascinating to get a new perspective on an icon like Twain.

    • 4/5
      Samuel Clemens, also known as Mark Twain was not only an amazing author, but quite the character. Throughout his life he amassed quite a number of admirers, none more than those who were close to him- including many of his female staff. In his later years, Samuel Clemens employed Isabel Lyon as a secretary for his ailing wife. Soon, Isabel became Samuel’s constant companion and his own personal secretary. It does not take much to see that the relationship between the two has grown. However, a year before Samuel’s death, he blesses the marriage of Isabel and Ralph Ashcroft, his business manager only to besmirch their reputations one month later in an elongated written rant. I love learning more about the lives of authors that I admire. I really didn’t know much about the man behind Mark Twain other than the fact that he piloted a riverboat and that he came in and went out along with Hailey’s comet. Lynn Cullen has taken much of her account for Twain’s End from the diary of Isabel Lyon. The writing creates a tense back and forth, cat and mouse game between Samuel and Isabel. The overall feeling that is created is tense and a little uncomfortable, especially if you would prefer to keep Mark Twain in a positive light. Isabel was quite intriguing, especially as she tried to do her best to keep herself distant from the man she knew she should not get involved with. As she became more and more entwined with the family, this became more and more difficult and eventually led Samuel to believe different about her. One of the things I found most interesting was Samuel’s relationship with his wife and daughters; I really knew nothing about Olivia, Jean, Clara and Susie. Olivia is still a little of a mystery to me, she was ailing through most of her time throughout the book, but no one seemed to know why. However, the mutual love between Samuel and Olivia was still evident even through his indiscretions. One of the most colorful characters for me was Isabel’s mother, always scheming, always putting her nose in other’s business and terribly worried about Isabel’s marriage prospects, a perfect busybody. Overall, a suspenseful, surprising and insightful tale about a different view of one of America’s greatest authors. This book was received for free in return for an honest review.
    • 3/5
      Known for his scathing satire and his ability to shine a bright light on individual hypocrisy and human foibles, Twain was not able to look at himself. Toward the end of his life, he spun out of control. Losing two daughters and a wife, hastily forced to make a world speaking tour because of impending bankruptcy, Twain became increasingly bitter.This book focuses on the relationship he cultivated with his personal secretary Isabel V. Lyon, a person he claimed knew him the best of anyone, he blessed her wedding to his business manager, and then promptly wrote a 429 page rant calling her a thief, a liar and a person of ill repute. Fueled by his only remaining child, his diatribes grew obsessive. It was a tangled relationship, still, why did Twain become so vehemently jealous and angry?Taking the higher ground, Miss Lyon never met his anger with the same emotion. Failing to say anything derogatory about Twain, was the road she chose. There are interesting tidbits in this book. I didn't know that Twain was a friend of Helen Keller. This is a book worth reading, if you understand that it is written as a novel and thus knowing fact from fiction is difficult.Three Stars.
    • 4/5
      Twain’s End by Lynn Cullen is a 2016 Gallery Books publication. I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher as an XOXpert, the official street team of XOXO After Dark.Before beginning this novel, I took the time to do a quick internet search on Isabel Lyon and her relationship with Sam Clemens, aka, Mark Twain. Well, the story is certainly a curious one. The few facts we have indicate Isabel was very close to Sam Clemens as his personal secretary, many believing she knew the man better than anyone. It is possible the two came close to marrying at one time, but something went horribly awry, leaving historians much to debate about the meteoric rise and the epic fall from grace of Isabel Lyon. This novel boldly speculates on the relationship between Isabel and Sam Clemens for the seven years she served him and his family. Isabel had already taken a blow by losing her status and wealth, which forced her to take work as a governess, which eventually took her to Philadelphia and into a position as a secretary, supposedly for Olivia Clemens, Sam’s fragile wife. But, Isabel never worked for Livy, but instead began taking dictation for the autobiography of the great Mark Twain, the most beloved man in America. The man we meet, through Isabel Lyons’ perspective, is Sam Clemens, the man behind the myth of Mark Twain. Isabel knew family secrets, the nature of the marriage between Sam and Livy, the relationship with his surviving children, but also witnessed his alter ego, Mark Twain, perform for guests, which included Helen Keller, a meeting that is an interesting mystery in itself. The contrast is startling, and the author did a great job of making the distinction between the private man and his larger than life alter ego. The portrayal of Isabel here paints a picture of a woman ensnared in the complicated relationships in the Clemens household, torn between her professional position, her reputation, and her personal feelings for Sam, and his pursuit of her. Their relationship blurred lines, and obviously extended beyond professionalism, a situation all those in the household, including the staff, and Livy were aware of.To me, there is no doubt Isabel was dazzled by Sam Clemens, in love with him, going so far as to nickname him, “The King”, writing about him in her diary, praising him lovingly. But, it was Clemens’ middle child, Clara, a most difficult girl, who may have been behind the demise of the tight relationship between her father and his secretary. Clara plays a large role in this story too, as she was also caught up in her father’s public role as Mark Twain, sucking all joy from her life as she struggles to create her own way, wishing to be appreciated for her unique talents and accomplishments, but found herself living in her father’s shadow, with him controlling and manipulating her personal life as well.In the end, Isabel married another man, and within a month was fired from her secretarial position, and became the subject of a 429 page manuscript Twain penned and threatened to publish, in which he accused Isabel of stealing from him, and assassinating her character, calling her a "a liar, a forger, a thief, a hypocrite, a drunkard, a sneak, a humbug, a traitor, a conspirator, a filthy-minded & salacious slut pining for seduction."What really went wrong between Clemens and Isabel will never fully be known, as Isabel never spoke out or defended herself against Twain’s accusations, but in real life, did visit with actor Hal Holbrook, although she insisted their conversation remain private. Some believe Isabel, who was so trusted by Clemens he actually gave her power of attorney, was indeed guilty of trying to isolate him from his daughters, was stealing from him, and trying to seduce him, as he claims in his manuscript. Others, however, believe Sam was attempting to besmirch her character due to the volatile information she possessed regarding Clara’s adulterous affair, or that Clara herself negotiated a trade in which she promised to give up her married lover if her father gave up Isabel. His choices thereafter were made on behalf of his family, and to protect the reputation that was so very important to him.This story is plausible, the result of extensive research by the author, and fits with the proven facts about Mark Twain. Anytime a speculative account is written, it can spark controversy, but when an author is bold enough to delve into the personal life of one of our most beloved authors, a man so etched into our consciousness, it’s a huge risk to take, and will no doubt offend many whose loyalties lie with the mustached man in the white suit who wrote the beloved classics we enjoyed in our youth. But, the truth is, that man is really a myth, a made up person, something even Sam Clemens will admit to. Still, we all wish to hold onto images, even if we know they are created personas who only came out to play in the public arena. Personally, I took no offense to the author’s view of Sam Clemens, and if you put the novel into perspective and remind yourself that it is a work of fiction, which should be approached with a critical eye, then your ideals on Mark Twain should not be tarnished. However, I do think it prudent to read some of the books the author used in her research, and if you are curious about the Twain- Lyon manuscript, you can read it in the third volume of the autobiography of Mark Twain. I can’t decide on which side of the fence I want to land on. It is quite possible Isabel saw a golden opportunity and seized it. It is also entirely possible that she grew to believe he would not marry her and thus made what looked like a spur of the moment decision to marry Ashcroft. When Ashcroft, who was a business associate of Clemens’, wrote a letter to Sam demanding he defend Isabel against Clara’s campaign against her, things turned really ugly. It is also possible the whole sordid mess was a cover-up to keep Clara’s adultery from becoming public knowledge. Clemens’ took six months to write this manuscript against Lyons, which seems a little excessive, so I have to wonder why he took this alleged betrayal so hard, and if, as it’s been pondered upon, losing Isabel led to his death within a year of firing her. Overall, I think the author did a great job of piecing together the facts about the relationship between Clemens and Lyon, and gives up a detailed accounting of how things may have actually played out. It is a fascinating read, very absorbing and certainly thought provoking, and has me itching to read more about Mark Twain and any other material detailing this most puzzling relationship. 4 stars
    • 4/5
      To Mark Twain's late nineteenth/early twentieth century audience, the former river boat pilot turned popular author was a lovable, witty dispenser of homespun humor. To his wife, daughters, and employees, however, he was an unpredictable petty tyrant, charming and generous one moment, controlling and manipulative the next. In Twain's End Lynn Cullen dramatizes the last years of Twain's life, with a focus on his relationship with his secretary, Isabel Lyon. She loved him, and he said that she was the person who knew him best in the world. After Twain's sickly wife died, the two came close to marrying. Yet after a series of events involving his spiteful daughter Clara's ill-advised attempt at a singing career, Twain's love turned to apparent hate. The author denounced his former secretary and accused her of embezzling from him--and worse.This book felt sort of lopsided to me. Twain's and Lyon's relationship builds up slowly, then Twain's denunciation and its aftermath are wrapped up very quickly. Cullen's portrayal of Isabel is so positive it is hard to see how anyone could have taken Twain's accusations against her seriously. Still I enjoyed reading this book and it made me want to find out more about the historical figures who inspired it.
    • 4/5
      Lynn Cullen delves into Samuel Clemens’ bizarre and brutal behavior toward his once beloved secretary, Isabel Lyons, in her latest historical novel. Following Lyons’ marriage to Clemens’ business manager, Ralph Ashcroft, he fired them both and embarked on a strange vendetta against them accusing her of theft, drunkenness and Shakespearean-level scheming, a story that seems to have been widely accepted by historians. Cullen’s perspective seems to have been greatly influenced by reading Isabel’s diaries and letters, an approach that curiously seems to have been overlooked by historians. The novel re-imagines their complex relationship in an effort to explain the mystery. Notwithstanding Cullens’ obvious and commendable research, the reader should approach this work as fiction and not as unbiased scholarship. Cullens’ failing in this regard is never to seriously question Isabel’s credulity, while simultaneously casting considerable doubt on Clemens’ side of the controversy. Although this is a third person narrative, the story clearly is told from Isabel’s perspective. Isabel is portrayed as an intelligent, efficient and loyal secretary, who is protective of her widowed mother and the Clemens family. She is obviously enchanted by Clemens to the point of believing that he would marry her following the death of his wife.Clemens is characterized as a man who has attained considerable success by creating the likable humorist figure—Mark Twain—while keeping his own dark personality hidden from his many admirers. Cullen does a remarkably good job of showing the reader that dark figure. He is narcissistic, using his biting humor almost exclusively in a mean-spirited way. He is controlling of everyone he includes in his life, always needing to be the center of attention. His wife, Livy, seems to be the only person who truly understands Sam and exercises her control remotely from her sickbed. Of the three Clemens daughters, only Clara emerges as a key figure in the book. Sara dies before the action of this novel and Jean is institutionalized in a mental institution through most of it. Clara willfully defies her father by carrying on an affair with a married man while also treating Isabel atrociously. The ever-resourceful Isabel finds herself in the middle of this extremely dysfunctional family where one is constantly reminded of Tolstoy’s famous observation: “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”As if the Clemens clan is not strange enough, Cullen imagines a ménage a troi between Helen Keller, Anne Sullivan and her new husband. One questions the wisdom of including this strange piece of information in the book since it defames two beloved Americans while adding little to the already bizarre witches’ brew that Cullen creates with the Clemens family. In the final analysis, does the novel solve the mystery? The answer is a decided no. If anything, it questions Clemens’ side of the story and raises the possibility that Isabel was the injured party. However, it remains essentially a “he said, she said” lack of resolution. With this said, Cullen does suggest some interesting alternatives. Clara may have influenced her father in order to cover up her illicit affair. The other suggestion is the strangest, but quite intriguing: Clemens may have inherited an extreme need for revenge from his mother, who may have committed a despicably vengeful act during Sam’s childhood that cannot be revealed without spoiling the story.
    • 4/5
      This was definitely an eye opening read for me. I am familiar with Mark Twain's novels but not the man himself or his personal life. He was definitely a very complex man and all too human with his good and bad qualities. I thought the author did a wonderful job with showing Mark Twain as a very talented and flawed man. The novel details (very delicately) the relationship between Twain and his secretary Isabel Lyon and the mystery of their parting. It is obvious that Lynn Cullen did a lot of research with diaries, and letters and it shows in this exquisite novel. It would really appeal to anyone interested in one of most revered authors of our time, and also those who like love stories especially doomed ones. I will definitely be reading more by this author.
    • 1/5
      I know I'm in the minority with this book and most reviewers are praising it highly. I can't find it in my heart to offer it any praise at all. In fact, I found it to be quite offensive. I certainly don't believe in putting famous people on a pedestal or imagine in any regard that they aren't human with all of mankind's failings. But this book, at least to me, reduced the last years of Samuel Clemens's life to a Harlequin romanceI thought the premise of the book sounded so interesting. Why would Clemens have turned on a secretary who had seemingly been only faithful and true to him? And to do it in such a brutal way has caused much speculation. The author states that she gleaned most of the facts of this book from Isabel Lyon's own diary. But was Isabel Lyon a reliable narrator? I've read that Lyon's diary was heavily edited by her with pages ripped out. She even hand wrote a second edited new edition of her 1906 daily reminder which must raise a question as to the validity of anything written by her. What she wrote is just one side of the story. I've read in other books that Lyons stole from Clemens and took advantage of him. Who knows exactly what happened? These people are long gone from our world and can't defend themselves. They can't say, oh, no, that's not what happened at all. The plot of this book needs to be taken with a grain of salt. The offense that I found in this book was that Clemens and his family were painted in such a completely negative way, as were others.If there's one person that I truly admire in the history of the world, it's Helen Keller. The unkind things said about her in this book angered me no end. Her "honking voice". She sniffed the air like "a rabbit". Why hadn't anyone taught her to hide her feelings that were plainly shown all over her face? Those comments did not shed any light into her life but only angered me. She, too, was portrayed in a very negative one-sided way, as was Anne Sullivan. Again, the meetings with Clemens, Keller, Sullivan and John Macy (Sullivan's husband) and the "looks" between them were mostly taken from Lyon's diaries. At one point, Macy says something about Keller and "our" dogs and Lyon makes a point of derogatorily insinuating in a sexual context that these three people might be sharing everything in the house they lived in. If Keller lived in the house as part of their household and family, Macy may naturally have felt the dogs belonged to her, too. Or he may have just been referring to "our dogs" as his and Anne's and wasn't including Helen in that statement at all. Again, this was a comment taken out of context and slanted in a negative way.Even if I read this book without the main characters being actual people, I wouldn't have liked it. There was so much bitterness and distrust and jealous behavior throughout that I found it very unpleasant to read. Reading about these women and their daily fighting for the attention of The King (Clemens) was just plain boring. I didn't find Isabel Lyon to be a sympathetic character at all. She was a mature educated woman who knew what she was doing and what she was getting into. I've read plenty of historical novels and understand that they're fictional accounts based on some facts but I've enjoyed them. This one I found to be far too negative and cannot recommend it. I'll continue to respect Samuel Clemens, Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan for the wonderful accomplishments that they achieved in their lives and leave their private moments to be just that - private. This book will be pushing me away from historical novels for some time to come. I wish I could think of something positive to say about this book but it really did hit me the wrong way. I usually tend to veer towards the positive side when writing reviews as I do respect the hard work undertaken by authors. My apologies to the publisher for not being able to do so in this instance. I don't recall ever having given a 1-star rating before. However, the reviews I give to others need to be honest and as I see it, not as others see it.This book was given to me by the publisher through Edelweiss and NetGalley in return for an honest review.
    • 4/5
      In 1909, Samuel Clemens- Mark Twain- first blessed the marriage of his secretary, Isabel Lyon, to his business manager, Ralph Ashcroft, and then, one month later, fired them both and went on a rampage of invective against Lyon. Why did he do this after she’d served him for seven years? He claimed- in newspapers as well as in a 400 page manuscript- she stole from him, she was a drunk, she lied, and that she had attempted to seduce him. He took back the small house he’d deeded over to Lyon and her mother. Clemens and Lyon had previously enjoyed a close- some in the household said too close- relationship. What happened? Most took Clemens’ version at face value. But author Cullen had access to Lyon’s diary that she kept during her time in Clemens’ employ. A very different story emerged from that, one that clears Lyon’s name. This novel brings Lyon’s time with Clemens to life and shows us a side of Clemens not usually seen: how he hated the persona of Mark Twain that he had invented to charm the American public, a persona he felt obliged to keep alive no matter what it did to his family. And he was a man who constantly sought attention and love.The story covers the time of his beloved wife dying; his collecting of young girls as ‘angelfish’; the death of his daughter Jean; his meeting with Helen Keller, Anne Sullivan, and Sullivan’s husband John Macy; the affair of his daughter Clara with her married musical accompanist and her subsequent marriage to another man, and Lyon’s own marriage. Cullen’s use of period details- dress, home décor, transportation, and more- bring the story to life. Lyon emerges as a good woman who has the misfortune to love someone unsuitable for her; Clemens seems to be a considerably darker figure that the Mark Twain we are introduced to in school. Very interesting if sad story.
    • 4/5
      I started reading Mark Twain when I was about twelve years old, and over the decades I have come to read a substantial portion of his novels, essays, and other writing, including even his very long “autobiography.” Too, I have read collections of his letters, biographies, and books about his books, so I was already pretty much aware that Mark Twain’s personality often bore little resemblance to that of Samuel Clemens. But still, I was unaware of the scandal involving Clemens and Isabel Lyon until I read last year’s nonfiction account of it in Laura Trombley’s Mark Twain’s Other Woman (one of the many books used in Lynn Cullen’s research for Twain’s End). So when I heard about Cullen’s new novel about Twain’s dedicated effort to ruin the reputation of his longtime secretary, I was eager to get my hands on it.Twain’s End can certainly be read straight through like an ordinary novel, but it might be more meaningful if one starts with the author’s presentation of her impressive research sources and techniques. Best of all, Cullen shrewdly uses excerpts from Isabel Lyon’s actual diary as the basic, chronological structure of her novel. Then, with the basic facts established, it is up to Cullen to speculate about the motives, hidden agendas, personalities, newspaper sensationalism, and half-truths that inevitably shadow a scandal of this nature. And what Cullen “reveals” about Mark Twain, Clara Clemens, Jean Clemens, Olivia Clemens, Helen Keller, Anne Sullivan Macy, and John Macy is not often pretty.Sam Clemens originally hired Isabel Lyon as the personal secretary of his ailing wife, but in reality, even from the beginning, she served more as secretary and manager of the day-to-day affairs of the entire Clemens family. The Clemens family was not a happy one when Lyon entered the picture, and it was certainly not a happy family when she left it. One daughter, Suzy, was dead; another, Jean, was in and out of asylums; and Clara had a volatile relationship with her overprotective father. And sadly enough, Olivia Clemens strongly suspected that her husband was physically attracted to his secretary. Twain’s End is the story of the slowly evolving relationship between Sam Clemens, Isabel Lyon, and Clara Clemens. As presented by Lynn Cullen, the relationship may have been slow to develop, but it was an inevitable one that finally ran its course because Isabel Lyon was patient enough to bide her time. In the end, however, Lyon’s dreams were frustrated and denied her. And when she finally gave them up and married a younger suitor, Clemens cut her off, accused her of embezzlement of his personal funds, and made a concerted effort to ruin her reputation and life. No one, not a single person, in this sordid story exactly covers himself with glory.Twain’s End will be of interest to Mark Twain fans yearning to know more about what made the man tick. I enjoyed much of the story, but found that it left me wishing that more time had been spent on the embezzlement aspect of the relationship and a good bit less on the “romance” itself. My biggest surprise was the side plot involving Helen Keller, Anne Sullivan Macy, and Sullivan’s cad of a husband, John Macy. That’s a story (and a side of Keller) that I want to explore more in my reading, so here’s hoping that Lynn Cullen writes a novel about that trio next.