Dangerous Intimacy (Magill’s Literary Annual 1991-2005)
At a glance:
- Author: Karen Lystra
- First Published: 2004
- Type of Work: Literary biography
- Time of Work: About 1902-1910
- Setting: New York and Redding, Connecticut
- Principal Characters: Mark Twain (Samuel L. Clemens), Olivia (Livy) Clemens, Clara Clemens, Jean Clemens, Isabel Lyon, Ralph Ashcroft, Katy Leary
- Genres: Nonfiction, Biography
- Subjects: New York, United States or Americans, Authors or writers, 1910’s, Novelists, Fathers, Wit or humor, Fame, Lectures or lecturing, Old age or elderly people
- Locales: New York, Redding, CT
When novelist Larry McMurtry reviewed Karen Lystra's Dangerous Intimacy for The New York Review of Books, he offered the offhand remark that “Mark Twain is one of those authors who is, invariably, more interesting to read than to read about, which is far from being the case with every writer.” McMurtry is right on both counts: Twain is more interesting to read than to read about, and the same is not true of most writers. However, McMurtry's dictum does not mean that Twain himself is not interesting to read about. In fact, his complex life makes for endlessly...
[The entire page is 2250 words long]
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