Gravity

In this new volume of letters, readers are invited to meet Olivia Louise Langdon Clemens on her own terms, in her own voice--as complementary partner to her world-famous spouse, Mark Twain, and as enduring friend, mother to four children, world traveler, and so much more. The frail woman often portrayed by scholars and biographers and by Twain, himself, is largely absent in these letters. Instead, Olivia emerges as a nineteenth-century woman who was resilient, energetic, and was the family’s source and center of stability, of Gravity, and of private and public grace in an ever-changing landscape. Mark Twain’s biography recounted in the letters of his wife offers new insights, and her captivating voice engages and enlighten readers.