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Jean Clemens
Jean Clemens
Born	Jane Lampton Clemens; July 26, 1880; Elmira, New York U.S.
Died	December 24, 1909 (aged 29); Redding, Connecticut U.S.
Cause of death	Drowning
Resting place	Woodlawn Cemetery
Nationality	American
Parent(s)	Mark Twain; Olivia Langdon Clemens
Relatives	Clara Clemens (sister); Susy Clemens (sister)

Jane Lampton "Jean" Clemens (July 26, 1880 – December 24, 1909) was the daughter of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (better known by his pen name Mark Twain) and Olivia Langdon Clemens. She founded or worked with a number of societies for the protection of animals.

Character and early life

Jean Clemens was born in Elmira, New York, the youngest of four children born to author and humorist Mark Twain and Olivia Langdon Clemens. Twain wrote from Elmira to his friend, William Dean Howells, reporting she "arrived perfectly sound but with no more baggage than I had when I was on the river," referring to his Life On The Mississippi.^[1] According to Mark Twain's Autobiography, Jean was kind-hearted and particularly fond of animals, like Olivia. She founded or worked with a number of societies for the protection of animals in the various locations where she lived.^[2]

Epilepsy

Jean had epilepsy from age 15 which Twain attributed to a head injury from when she was age 8 or 9.^[3] The family spent years seeking cures in the United States and Europe. Twain also attributed her mood swings and sometimes erratic behavior to her uncontrolled epilepsy.^[4]

Jean's mother tried to include her in family life despite her illness, but Olivia died in 1904 and it was left to Twain and Jean's older sister, Clara, to help Jean to manage the difficulties which her illness caused. Twain's secretary Isabel Lyon claimed that Jean physically attacked family maid Katy Leary on two occasions in 1906, saying that she wanted to kill her.^[5] In her 2004 biography Dangerous Intimacy: The Untold Story of Mark Twain's Final Years, historian Karen Lystra questions the accuracy of Lyon's account of Jean's violent behavior and suggests that Lyon manipulated a separation between father and daughter because Lyon hoped to marry Twain.^[6] Jean was sent to an epilepsy colony in Katonah, New York in the fall of 1906 and despite requesting to return home, Twain refused as he doubted his ability to care for her.^[7] Twain fired Lyon and her new husband in 1909, stating that they were guilty of embezzlement, and Jean was able to return home in April 1909. Jean and her father got along well, though she found him stubborn and temperamental.^[8]

Death

Jean was staying at her father's home Stormfield in Redding, Connecticut in December 1909, and she had decorated the home for the upcoming Christmas holiday. When she had not come down for breakfast a maid found her^[9] dead in the bathtub on the morning of December 24, 1909.^[10] While it was initially reported she had drowned during a seizure,^[11]^[12] an investigation showed she had not died directly from drowning but more probably from possibly strangulation due to epilepsy or from heart failure; the body was found in the bathtub only partly submerged and the lungs contained very little water.^[13] She was carried to Woodlawn Cemetery in Elmira. Her father did not travel with the casket, unable to bring himself to return to the place where he had already buried two children and his wife. He commemorated her passing by having his authorized biographer play her favorite piece of music, Impromptu No. 2 in A-flat major by Schubert.^[14] That night he wrote the final entry in his Autobiography, titling it "The Death of Jean." Twain died four months later on April 21, 1910.

Notes

^ Clemens, Samuel L. (2002). Mark Twain's Letters, 1876-1880. Berkeley: University of California Press.
^ Twain, Mark (1910). "The Death of Jean". Mark Twain's Autobiography. Archived from the original on December 21, 2003. Retrieved January 24, 2008.
^ Trombley, Laura Skandera. "She Wanted to Kill: Jean Clemens and Postictal Psychosis". Archived from the original on September 2, 2006. Retrieved January 24, 2008.
^ Ward, Duncan, and Burns (2001), p. 221
^ Ward, Duncan, and Burns (2001), pp. 227-230
^ Lystra (2004)
^ Ward, Duncan and Burns (2001), p. 230
^ Ward, Duncan, and Burns (2001), p. 248
^ Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel], December 25, 1909, Image 9 (Chronicling America website accessed 12/22/2023
^ LeMaster, J.R.; Wilson, James D., eds. (2013). The Routledge Encyclopedia of Mark Twain. Routledge. p. 153. ISBN 978-1-135-88128-3.
^ "Miss. Jean Clemens Found Dead in Bath". The New York Times. Redding, Conn. (published December 25, 1909). December 24, 1909. p. 1. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved April 21, 2008.
^ Ward, Duncan and Burns (2001), pp. 250-251
^ Burlington weekly free press. [volume], December 30, 1909, Page 14, Image 14. Retrieved 12.22.2023 Chronicling America Website
^ Seybold, Matt (December 23, 2020). "Death at Christmastime: Mark Twain & The Music of Merciful Release". Center for Mark Twain Studies. Retrieved July 6, 2021.

References

Lystra, Karen (2004). Dangerous Intimacy: The Untold Story of Mark Twain's Final Years. University of California Press Ltd. ISBN 0-520-23323-9.
Ward, Geoffrey C., Duncan, Dayton, Burns, Ken (2001). Mark Twain: An Illustrated Biography. Alfred A. Knopf. ISBN 0-375-40561-5