Current Exhibition

Books Enjoyed By The Clemens Family

Reading was an integral part of Clemens family life and surviving texts reveal much about Sam and Olivia Clemens and their daughters Susy, Clara, and Jean. Olivia (Livy) was a college-educated woman who valued the importance of books. She enjoyed decorating books, romantic novels, and ladies' magazines such as Harper's Bazaar, but her interests went beyond traditional female genres. Her daughters, like other Victorian girls, enjoyed Jane Austen (whose work Twain disdained), Sir Walter Scott, and James Fenimore Cooper.

The family particularly appreciated the poetry of their day and they owned numerous texts by Robert and Elizabeth Barrett Browning. Robert Browning was one of Twain's favorite writers. (Twain liked to read Browning aloud, saying, "I can read Browning so Browning himself can understand it.") Tennyson was a favorite of Susy Clemens and Twain referenced him a number of times in his own works.

The family owned several sets of Coleridge's poetry but Twain was especially fond of Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner. He referenced that work in his own writings and said after repaying his business debts in 1900 that he "felt like the Ancient Mariner when the dead albatross fell into the sea. I became a new man."

Books in the Clemens family library:

• Concise Dictionary of the Bible, for the Use of Families and Students, ed. By William Smith, 1865
• Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson(pseud. Lewis Carroll,) 1876
• Uncle Remus: His Songs and Sayings, Joel Chandler Harris, 1895
• The New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, 1869
• Merry Adventures of Robin Hood of Great Renown, in Nottinghamshire, Written and Illustrated by Howard Pyle, 1883
• Little Lord Fauntleroy, Francis Hodgson Burnett, 1896
• Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer, 1892
• Backlog Studies, Charles Dudley Warner, 1885
• Uncle Tom's Cabin (1888), Poganuc People, Their Loves and Their Lives (1884), and Religious Poems (1867), Harriet Beecher Stowe

Stowe was a generation older than Mark Twain and was already a literary giant when the Clemens family became her Hartford neighbors. Uncle Tom's Cabin is inscribed to the Clemens family with a message from the author: "He shall not fail, nor be discouraged Until He have set judgement in the Earth He shall deliver the needy whom he crieth The poor & Him that hath no helper He shall redeem their soul from deceit & violence And precious shall their blood be in His sight"
Harriet Beecher Stowe, July 13, 1889

Poetry enjoyed by Mark Twain and his family:

• Pauline; Paracelsus; Strafford: A Tragedy: Sordello; Pippa Passes: A Drama; King Victor and King Charles: A Tragedy; The Poetic and Dramatic Works of Robert Browning, 1887
• The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, 1884
• The Rubiyat of Omar Khayyam, nd
• Departmental Ditties, Barrack-Room Ballads, and Other Verses, Rudyard Kipling, 1890
• The Poetical Works of Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1883
• Poetical Works of Alfred Tennyson, 1885
• The Hanging of the Crane, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1875
• The Complete Poetical Works of John Greenleaf Whittier, 1883

Books and periodicals enjoyed by Susy, Clara and Jean Clemens:

• The Rollo Books and Rollo's Tour in Europe, Jacob Abbott, 1880
• Young People's Illustrated Bible History, Alvan Bond, ed., 1878
• Petite Grammaire Francaise, Auguste Brachet and J. Dussouchet, 1884
• The Chronicle of the Cid, Richard Markham, 1883
• The Boys' and Girls' Plutarch, Being Parts of the 'Lives' of Plutarch, 1883
• Little Susy's Six Birthdays and Little Susy's Six Teachers, Mrs. E. Prentiss, 1856
• The Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott, 1886
• Works, William Shakespeare, 1884 ed.
• St. Nicholas Magazine
• Tales of King Arthur and His Knights of the Round Table, Margaret Farrington Vere, 1888
• Young Folks History of Germany, Charlotte Mary Yonge, nd

Clara Clemens' later interests:

• Great Pianists on Piano Playing: Study Talks with Foremost Virtuosos, James Francis Cooke, 1917
• Practical Mysticism: A Little Book for Normal People, Evelyn Underhill, 1915

Books and periodicals enjoyed by Olivia Langdon Clemens:

• A Woman's Thoughts About Women, Dinah Maria Mulloch Craik, 1864
• Henderson's Handbook of Plants (1881) and Practical Floriculture: A Guide to the Successful Cultivation of Florists' Plants, for the Amateur and Professional Florist (1882), Peter Henderson
• Hints on Household Taste in Furniture, Upholstery, and Other Details, Charles Lock Eastlake, 1872
• Decoration and Furniture of Town Houses, Robert Edis, 1881
• Outlines of the History of Art, Wilhelm Lubke, ed. By Clarence Cook, 1881
• Life of Robert Browning, William Sharp, 1890
• Mystery of the Sea, Bram Stoker, 1902
• The Lady's Dressing-Room, Lady Charlotte Campbell Bury, (pseud. Lady Colin Campbell,) 1893
• Lady Rose's Daughter, A Novel, Mary Augusta Ward (pseud. Mrs. Humphrey Ward) 1903
• A Japanese Nightingale, Onoto Watanna, 1901