:Clara Clemens
{{Short description|American; daughter of Mark Twain; opera singer (1874–1962)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2021}}
{{Infobox musical artist
| name = Clara Clemens
| image = Clara Clemens.jpg
| image_upright =
| caption = Clemens c. 1907
| alt = Picture of woman in her thirties with short dark hair in a light dress with a necklace of dark beads sitting in an ornate wooden chair and holding a fan in her right hand and with her left hand clasping her cheek and chin.
| image_size =
| birth_name = Clara Langhorne Clemens
| birth_date = {{Birth date|1874|06|08}}
| birth_place = Elmira, New York, U.S.
| death_date = {{nowrap|{{Death date and age|1962|11|19|1874|06|08}}}}
| death_place = San Diego, California, U.S.
| instrument = Piano
| genre = Concert singer
| occupation =
| years_active = 1906–1908
| label =
| spouse = {{ubl| {{marriage|Ossip Gabrilowitsch|1909|1936|end=d.}} | {{marriage|Jacques Samossoud|1944}}}}
}}
Clara Langhorne Clemens Samossoud{{citation
| issn=0362-4331
| title = Mrs. Jacques Samossoud Dies; Mark Twain's Last Living Child
| newspaper = The New York Times
| page = 30
| date = November 21, 1962
| place = San Diego
| url = http://www.twainquotes.com/19621121.html
| access-date = April 23, 2008
}} (formerly Gabrilowitsch; June 8, 1874 – November 19, 1962), was an American concert singer,{{citation
| issn=0362-4331
| title = Twain's Daughter Talks about Him
| newspaper = The New York Times
| page = C3
| year = 1908
| publication-date = June 14, 1908
| place = London
| url = http://www.twainquotes.com/19080614.html
| access-date = April 21, 2008
}} and the daughter of Samuel Clemens, who wrote as Mark Twain. She managed his estate and guarded his legacy after his death as his only surviving child. She was married first to Ossip Gabrilowitsch, then to Jacques Samossoud after Gabrilowitsch's death. She wrote biographies of Gabrilowitsch and of her father. In her later life, she became a Christian Scientist.
Childhood
Clara was the second of three daughters born to Samuel Clemens and his wife Olivia Langdon Clemens in Elmira, New York.{{cite book |title=Autobiography of Mark Twain: Volume 1 |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=Harriet Elinor |year=2010 |publisher=University of California Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/autobiographyofm00twai_0/page/480 480] |isbn=978-0-520-26719-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/autobiographyofm00twai_0/page/480 }}{{citation
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=i2LiFNs_ZVUC&pg=PA60
| title = Mark Twain Along the Mississippi
| first1 = Wayne
| last1 = Youngblood
| page = 60
| isbn = 0-8368-6435-2
| publisher = Gareth Stevens
| year = 2006
}}
Her older sister Susy died when Clara was 22. Her brother Langdon died as an infant before she was born. Her younger sister was Jean. Clara had a serious accident as a child while riding a toboggan; she was hurled into a tree, resulting in a severe leg injury that almost led to amputation.{{citation
| chapter = The Father of Three Little Girls
| pages = 5, 14
| title = My Father Mark Twain
| last1 = Clemens
| first1 = Clara
| publisher = Harper & Brothers Publishers
| year = 1931
| place = New York and London
}}
Early career
Image:Samuel Clemens with Clara Clemens and her friend cph.3a02910.jpg
Clara lived in Vienna with her parents from September 1897 to May 1899{{citation
| issn=0362-4331
| title = What is Doing in Society
| newspaper = The New York Times
| page = 7
| date = December 13, 1898
| issn=0362-4331
| title = Twain's Farewell to Vienna
| newspaper = The New York Times
| page = 19
| date = May 30, 1899
| publication-date = June 11, 1899
| place = Vienna
| url = http://www.twainquotes.com/18990611.html
| access-date = April 23, 2008
}} where she cultivated her voice for the concert stage. Contemporaries characterized her voice as unusually sweet and attractive.{{citation
| issn=0362-4331
| title = Some Women
| newspaper = The New York Times
| page = 20
| date = February 26, 1899
}} She also studied piano in 1899 under Theodor Leschetizky, who had been a pupil of Carl Czerny. In December 1900, she was invited by the people of Hartford to perform at a grand concert given by the Boston Symphony Orchestra.{{citation
| issn=0362-4331
| title = Heard About Town
| newspaper = The New York Times
| page = 4
| date = December 25, 1900
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1900/12/25/archives/heard-about-town.html
| access-date = April 21, 2008
}} She studied for several years under masters in Europe before making her professional debut in Florence.{{citation
| issn=0362-4331
| title = Mark Twain's Daughter to Sing
| newspaper = The New York Times
| page = 9
| date = September 19, 1906
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1906/09/19/archives/belascos-stuyvesant-theatre-plans.html
| access-date = April 21, 2008
}} She made her American debut as a contralto concert singer on the evening of September 22, 1906, at the Norfolk Gymnasium{{citation
| issn=0362-4331
| title = Miss Clemens in Concert
| place = Winsted, Conn.
| newspaper = The New York Times
| page = 9
| date = September 23, 1906
| url = http://www.twainquotes.com/19060923.html
| access-date = April 21, 2008
}} in Norfolk, Connecticut, assisted by violinist Marie Nichols. She rented Edgewood there in 1905,{{citation
| issn=0362-4331
| title = Mark Twain Ill of Gout
| newspaper = The New York Times
| place = Winsted, Conn.
| page = 7
| date = August 20, 1905
| url = http://www.twainquotes.com/19050820.html
| access-date = April 21, 2008
}} and she used the proceeds from the concert to purchase a memorial window for her mother in the Norfolk Church of the Transfiguration.{{citation
| issn=0362-4331
| title = Window to Mrs. Clemens
| newspaper = The New York Times
| page = 1
| date = June 22, 1907
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1907/06/22/archives/window-to-mrs-clemens-mark-twains-daughter-earned-money-for-it-at.html
| access-date = April 21, 2008
}} Charles Edmund Wark (1876-1954) was a classical pianist from Cobourg, Ontario, and he became Clemens' piano accompanist from the winter of 1906 to late in 1908.{{citation
| issn=0362-4331
| title = Bissell Theatre Party; Mrs. Sanford Bissell Entertains for Her Debutante Daughter, Miss Doris
| newspaper = The New York Times
| page = 7
| date = February 7, 1908
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1908/02/07/archives/bissell-theatre-party-mrs-sanford-bissell-entertains-for-her.html
| access-date = September 20, 2009
}} Clemens and Nichols also continued to perform together, including a series of concerts in London and Paris in 1908.{{citation
| issn=0362-4331
| title = Miss. Clemens Sails to Sing in Europe
| newspaper = The New York Times
| page = 9
| date = May 17, 1908
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1908/05/17/archives/-peter-pan-for-paris-charles-frohman-takes-the-london-company-for.html
| access-date = April 21, 2008
}} On May 30, Clemens debuted in London at a benefit concert, raising money for American girls to attend Oxford and Cambridge Universities.{{citation
| issn=0362-4331
| title = To Help American Girls
| newspaper = The New York Times
| page = C3
| publication-date = May 31, 1908
| date = May 30, 1908
| place = London
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1908/05/31/archives/to-help-american-girls-addition-to-fund-for-oxford-and-cambridge.html
| access-date = April 21, 2008
}}
Marriage and inheritance
File:Clara Clemens wedding party 1909.jpg at the wedding of Clemens and Ossip Gabrilowitsch. From left: Mark Twain, Jervis Langdon Jr., Clara Clemens
, Ossip Gabrilowitsch, Jean Clemens, Joseph Twichell.]]
Clemens went for a sleigh ride on December 20, 1908, with Russian concert pianist Ossip Gabrilowitsch who was staying with her father at his residence "Innocents at Home" in Redding, Connecticut.The house was later renamed Stormfield. "[http://www.shapell.org/manuscript/samuel-clemens-jean-clemens-grover-cleveland Mark Twain on 'Innocence at Home,' Grover Cleveland, and God]," Shapell Manuscript Foundation, n.d. Retrieved June 12, 2018. The horse was frightened by a flapping newspaper and it bolted, causing Gabrilowitsch to lose control. The sleigh overturned at the top of a hill near a {{convert|50|ft|m|adj=on}} drop, throwing Clemens out. Gabrilowitsch saved both her and the horse from plunging over the edge, spraining an ankle in his exertions. He returned Clemens home unharmed except for the shock of the accident.{{citation
| issn=0362-4331
| title = Saves Miss. Clara Clemens
| newspaper = The New York Times
| page = 1
| date = December 21, 1908
| place = Danbury, Conn.
| url = http://www.twainquotes.com/19081221.html
| access-date = April 21, 2008}} Twain biographer Michael Shelden doubts the truth of this heroic tale and suggests that the story was planted in the press to quiet rumors that Clara was having an affair with Charles Wark, her former accompanist and a married man.Shelden, M.: Mark Twain: Man in White. Random House, 2010
Theodor Leschetizky was training Gabrilowitsch in Vienna in 1899, and he introduced him to Clemens. They were married on October 6, 1909, in the drawing room at Stormfield, the Clemens home, with her father's friend Rev. Joseph Twichell presiding.{{citation
| issn=0362-4331
| title = Mark Twain's Daughter Here
| newspaper = The New York Times
| page = 2
| date = April 17, 1910
| url = http://www.twainquotes.com/19100417.html
| access-date = April 21, 2008
| issn=0362-4331
| title = Miss. Clemens Weds Mr. Gabrilowitsch
| newspaper = The New York Times
| page = 9
| date = October 7, 1909
| place = West Redding, Conn.
| url = http://www.twainquotes.com/19091007.html
| access-date = April 23, 2008
}} Her father said that the engagement was not new, having been "made and dissolved twice six years ago". He also said that the marriage was sudden because Gabrilowitsch had just recovered from a surgical operation which he had undergone in the summer and they were about to head off to their new house in Berlin where he would begin his European season.
Samuel Clemens died on April 21, 1910, leaving his estate to be equally divided between his surviving daughters in a will dated August 17, 1909. His daughter Jean Clemens died in the bathtub on December 24, 1909, after having an epileptic seizure.{{citation
| issn=0362-4331
| title = Miss. Jean Clemens Found Dead in Bath
| newspaper = The New York Times
| page = 1
| date = December 25, 1909
| place = Redding, Conn.
| url = http://www.twainquotes.com/19091225.html
| access-date = April 21, 2008
}} Clara inherited the entire estate, which provided quarterly payments of interest to keep it "free from any control or interference from any husband she may have."{{citation
| issn=0362-4331
| title = Mark Twain's Will Filed
| newspaper = The New York Times
| page = 1
| date = May 4, 1910
| place = Redding, Conn.
| url = http://www.twainquotes.com/19100504.html
| access-date = April 22, 2008
}} On July 9, Clara announced that she was donating her father's library of nearly 2,500 books to the Mark Twain Free Library.{{citation
| issn=0362-4331
| title = Twain Books for Library
| newspaper = The New York Times
| page = 1
| date = July 10, 1910
| place = Redding, Conn.
| url = http://www.twainquotes.com/19100710.html
| access-date = April 22, 2008
}}
On August 19, 1910, Clara's only child Nina was born at Stormfield.{{citation
| issn=0362-4331
| title = Daughter Born to Mrs. Gabrilowitsch
| newspaper = The New York Times
| page = 7
| date = August 20, 1910
| place = Redding, Conn.
| url = http://www.twainquotes.com/19100820.html
| access-date = April 22, 2008
}} Nina Gabrilowitsch (1910–1966) was Twain's last descendant, and she died January 16, 1966, in a Los Angeles hotel. She had been a heavy drinker, and bottles of pills and alcohol were found in her room.{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20190521041534/https://marktwainonline.com/nina-clemens Mark Twain Online]}}
Later life
Image:Ossip Gabrilowitsch & Clara Clemens.jpg]]
On April 23, 1926, Clara played the title role in a dramatization of Twain's 1896 novel Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc at Walter Hampden's Broadway theater.{{citation
| issn=0362-4331
| title = Clara Clemens in Role
| newspaper = The New York Times
| page = 18
| date = April 12, 1926
| url = http://www.twainquotes.com/19260412.html
| access-date = April 23, 2008
}} This adaptation and her performance were not very well received by critics.
It was again produced in 1927, opening on April 12 for a series of special morning and afternoon performances at the Edyth Totten Theatre.{{citation
| issn=0362-4331
| title = Theatrical Notes
| newspaper = The New York Times
| page = 25
| date = March 25, 1927
| url = http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0B1EF93B5D17738DDDAC0A94DB405B878EF1D3
| access-date = April 23, 2008
| issn=0362-4331
| title = Clara Clemens in "Joan of Arc."
| newspaper = The New York Times
| page = 26
| date = April 15, 1927
| url = http://www.twainquotes.com/19270415.html
| access-date = April 23, 2008
}}
Gabrilowitsch was conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra from 1918 until 1935, when he fell ill. He entered the Henry Ford Hospital on March 25, 1935, where he stayed until he was released to his home to convalesce on September 28.{{citation
| issn=0362-4331
| title = Gabrilowitsch, 58, Dead in Detroit
| newspaper = The New York Times
| page = 29
| date = September 15, 1936
| place = Detroit
| url = http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F2071FFB345B1B7B93C7A81782D85F428385F9
| access-date = April 22, 2008
| issn=0362-4331
| title = Gabrilowitsch on Mend
| newspaper = The New York Times
| page = N8
| date = September 29, 1935
| place = Detroit
| url = http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30910FE3C5A107A93CBAB1782D85F418385F9
| access-date = April 22, 2008
}} He died at home on September 14, 1936, age 58. Clara married Jacques Samossoud on May 11, 1944, a Russian-born symphony conductor 20 years her junior. They were married in her Hollywood home.{{citation
| issn=0362-4331
| title = Kin of Mark Twain Wed in Hollywood
| newspaper = The New York Times
| page = 17
| date = May 12, 1944
| place = Hollywood, Calif.
}}
Clara explored eastern religions for several years before embracing Christian Science, but there are questions as to her seriousness and commitment to it. She wrote Awake to a Perfect Day on the subject, published in 1956.{{citation
| title = Rolling Away the Stone: Mary Baker Eddy's Challenge to Materialism
| last1 = Gottschalk
| first1 = Stephen
| isbn = 0-253-34673-8
| year = 2005
| publisher = Indiana University Press
| page = 86
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=N9dRtPR5uwYC&pg=PA86
| issn=0362-4331
| title = Anti-Religious Work by Twain, Long Withheld, to Be Published
| newspaper = The New York Times
| page = 23
| date = August 24, 1962
| last1 = Gelb
| first1 = Arthur
| url = http://www.twainquotes.com/19620824.html
| access-date = April 22, 2008
}} She also published biographies of her father (My Father, Mark Twain in 1931) and of her first husband (My Husband: Gabrilowitsch in 1938).The New York Times, November 21, 1962, transcribed on [http://www.twainquotes.com/19621121.html TwainQuotes]. Retrieved November 27, 2020.
She objected in 1939 to the release of her father's Letters from the Earth, but she changed her stance and allowed them to be published shortly before her death on November 20, 1962.The New York Times, November 21, 1962, from [http://www.twainquotes.com/19621121.html TwainQuotes], op. cit. She prevented Charles Neider from including certain of her father's dictations from June 1906 (the 19th, 20th, 22nd, 23rd, and 25th) in the version of The Autobiography of Mark Twain that was in preparation into 1958.Charles Neider, The Autobiography of Mark Twain, introduction (noted from Blackstone Audio version).
Published works
- [https://archive.org/details/myfathermarktwai0000clem My Father, Mark Twain] (1931)
- [https://archive.org/details/myhusbandgabrilo0000unse My Husband, Gabrilowitsch] (1938)
- [https://archive.org/details/awaketoperfectda00clem Awake to a Perfect Day] (1956)
Notes
{{Reflist|30em}}
References
- {{Citation|last1=Ward|first1=Geoffrey C.|author-link1=Geoffrey C. Ward|last2=Dayton|first2=Duncan|last3=Burns|first3=Ken|author-link3=Ken Burns|title=Mark Twain: An Illustrated Biography|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|location=New York|year=2001|isbn=0-375-40561-5|url=https://archive.org/details/marktwain00ward}}
- {{Citation|last=Trombley|first=Laura Skandera|author-link=Laura Skandera Trombley|title=Mark Twain's Other Women: The Hidden Story of His Final Years|year=2010}} This book includes new details regarding a romantic connection between Clara Clemens and her piano accompanist, Charles E. "Will" Wark (a married man), also the impact this illicit romantic relationship had on her father, Samuel Clemens and how it eventually fostered Clara Clemen's relationship with Ossip Gabrilowitz.
External links
{{commons category|Clara Clemens}}
- [http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/projects/applebaum/clara.html Mark Twain in His Times by Stephen Railton]
{{good article}}
{{Mark Twain|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clemens, Clara}}
Category:American women biographers
Category:American Christian Scientists
Category:American people of Cornish descent
Category:People from Elmira, New York
Category:Singers from New York (state)
Category:Writers from New York (state)
Category:Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Elmira, New York)