Mark and Livy

<p>Olivia Langdon Clemens was not only the love of Mark Twain's life and the mother of his children she was also his editor muse critic and trusted advisor. She read his letters and speeches. He relied on her judgment on his writing and readily admitted that she not only edited his work but also edited his public persona.Until now little has been known about Livy's crucial place in Twain's life. In Resa Willis's affecting and fascinating biography we meet a dignified optimistic women who married young raised three sons and a daughter endured myriad health problems and money woes and who faithfully traipsed all over the world with Twain - Africa Europe Asia - while battling his moodiness and her frailty.Twain adored her. A hard-drinking dreamer with an insatiable wanderlust he needed someone to tame him. It was Livy who encouraged him to finish his autobiography even through the last stages of her illness. When she died in 1904 Twain's zest for life and writing was gone. He died six years later.</p><p>A triumph of the biographer's art Mark and Livy presents the fullest picture yet of one of the most influential women in American letters.</p>