Friends of the USC Libraries member Rafael de Marchena-Huyke with Laura Skandera Trombley at the May 19 Literary Luncheon
Pitzer College president and Mark Twain scholar Laura Skandera Trombley read from her most recent book at the Friends of the USC Libraries Literary Luncheon in Doheny Library on May 19. In Mark Twain’s Other Woman: The Hidden Story of His Final Years, Skandera Trombley (who received her Ph.D. in English in 1989 from USC) explores the iconic American humorist's complex relationship with his confidante and secretary Isabel Van Kleek Lyon during the final decade of his life.
In the process, she uncovered a hidden dimension of Twain's personality that has not been captured in earlier biographies of the quintessential American humorist.
“Twain was determined that he would be remembered for three things: first, for being America’s greatest author, forever; and he would be known as a brilliant business person; and that he would be revered as a family man,” said Trombley. “People struggle. People have children who are difficult children. We don’t make the right choices all the time. For him, to have to have to deal with the enormous weight of his success and then try and comfort a fragile daughter, it was really an impossible situation for anyone,” Trombley explained. “I think [my book] brings, perhaps, a new dimension to who Twain was and it renders him much more in the realm of the human.”
A portion of the luncheon was underwritten by Friends member Rafael de Marchena-Huyke who, in 2007, also donated a collection of rare books by French writers such as Baudelaire, Molière, Racine, Rousseau, and Voltaire to the USC Libraries, as well as an early edition of Oliver Goldsmith’s 1766 novel The Vicar of Wakefield. Several of the collection’s books were on display during the luncheon.