{{Short description|American; daughter of Mark Twain; opera singer (1874–1962)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=January 2021}} {{Infobox musical artist | name = Clara Clemens | image = Clara Clemens.jpg | image_upright = | caption = Clemens c. 1907 | alt = Picture of woman in her thirties with short dark hair in a light dress with a necklace of dark beads sitting in an ornate wooden chair and holding a fan in her right hand and with her left hand clasping her cheek and chin. | image_size = | birth_name = Clara Langhorne Clemens | birth_date = {{Birth date|1874|06|08}} | birth_place = [[Elmira, New York]], U.S. | death_date = {{nowrap|{{Death date and age|1962|11|19|1874|06|08}}}} | death_place = [[San Diego|San Diego, California]], U.S. | instrument = Piano | genre = Concert singer | occupation = | years_active = 1906–1908 | label = | spouse = {{ubl| {{marriage|[[Ossip Gabrilowitsch]]|1909|1936|end=d.}} | {{marriage|[[Jacques Alexandria Samossoud|Jacques Samossoud]]|1944}}}} }}
'''Clara Langhorne Clemens Samossoud'''<ref name="NYTimes1962death">{{citation | issn=0362-4331 | title = Mrs. Jacques Samossoud Dies; Mark Twain's Last Living Child | newspaper = The New York Times | page = 30 | date = November 21, 1962 | place = San Diego | url = http://www.twainquotes.com/19621121.html | access-date = April 23, 2008 }}</ref> (formerly '''Gabrilowitsch'''; June 8, 1874 – November 19, 1962<ref name="NYTimes1962death" />), was an American concert singer,<ref name="NYTimes1908picture">{{citation | issn=0362-4331 | title = Twain's Daughter Talks about Him | newspaper = The New York Times | page = C3 | year = 1908 | publication-date = June 14, 1908 | place = London | url = http://www.twainquotes.com/19080614.html | access-date = April 21, 2008 }}</ref> and the daughter of Samuel Clemens, who wrote as [[Mark Twain]]. She managed his estate and guarded his legacy after his death as his only surviving child. She was married first to [[Ossip Gabrilowitsch]], then to [[Jacques Alexandria Samossoud|Jacques Samossoud]] after Gabrilowitsch's death. She wrote biographies of Gabrilowitsch and of her father. In her later life, she became a [[Christian Scientist]].
==Family and childhood== Clara was the second of three daughters born to Samuel Clemens and his wife [[Olivia Langdon Clemens]] in [[Elmira, New York]].<ref name="mtauto">{{cite book |title=Autobiography of Mark Twain: Volume 1 |editor-last=Smith |editor-first=Harriet Elinor |year=2010 |publisher=University of California Press |page=[https://archive.org/details/autobiographyofm00twai_0/page/480 480] |isbn=978-0-520-26719-0 |url=https://archive.org/details/autobiographyofm00twai_0/page/480 }}</ref><ref name="Youngblood2006">{{citation | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=i2LiFNs_ZVUC&pg=PA60 | title = Mark Twain Along the Mississippi | first1 = Wayne | last1 = Youngblood | page = 60 | isbn = 0-8368-6435-2 | publisher = Gareth Stevens | year = 2006 }}</ref> Her older sister [[Susy Clemens|Susy]] died when Clara was 22. Her brother Langdon died as an infant before she was born. Her younger sister was [[Jean Clemens|Jean]] who suffered from epilepsy. Clara had a serious accident as a child while riding a toboggan; she was hurled into a tree, resulting in a severe leg injury that almost led to amputation.<ref name="Clemens1931">{{citation | chapter = The Father of Three Little Girls | pages = 5, 14 | title = My Father Mark Twain | last1 = Clemens | first1 = Clara | publisher = Harper & Brothers Publishers | year = 1931 | place = New York and London }}</ref>
==Early career== [[Image:Samuel Clemens with Clara Clemens and her friend cph.3a02910.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|alt=Photograph of Mark Twain playing piano, with his daughter Clara and her friend behind him|Twain playing the piano, with his daughter Clara and her friend behind him]] Clara lived in [[Vienna]] with her parents from September 1897 to May 1899<ref name="NYTimes1898">{{citation | issn=0362-4331 | title = What is Doing in Society | newspaper = The New York Times | page = 7 | date = December 13, 1898 }}</ref><ref name="NYTimes1899Vienna">{{citation | issn=0362-4331 | title = Twain's Farewell to Vienna | newspaper = [[The New York Times]] | page = 19 | date = May 30, 1899 | publication-date = June 11, 1899 | place = Vienna | url = http://www.twainquotes.com/18990611.html | access-date = April 23, 2008 }}</ref> where she cultivated her voice for the concert stage. Contemporaries characterized her voice as unusually sweet and attractive.<ref name="NYTimes1899">{{citation | issn=0362-4331 | title = Some Women | newspaper = The New York Times | page = 20 | date = February 26, 1899 }}</ref> She also studied piano in 1899 under [[Theodor Leschetizky]], who had been a pupil of [[Carl Czerny]].<ref name="NYTimes1936death" /> In December 1900, she was invited by the people of Hartford to perform at a grand concert given by the [[Boston Symphony Orchestra]].<ref name="NYTimes1900">{{citation | issn=0362-4331 | title = Heard About Town | newspaper = The New York Times | page = 4 | date = December 25, 1900 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1900/12/25/archives/heard-about-town.html | access-date = April 21, 2008 }}</ref> She studied for several years under masters in Europe before making her professional debut in [[Florence]].<ref name="NYTimes1906a">{{citation | issn=0362-4331 | title = Mark Twain's Daughter to Sing | newspaper = The New York Times | page = 9 | date = September 19, 1906 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1906/09/19/archives/belascos-stuyvesant-theatre-plans.html | access-date = April 21, 2008 }}</ref> One of her voice teachers was [[Giorgio M. Sulli]].<ref>{{cite news|url=https://archive.org/details/etude_191806/page/n3/mode/2up?q=Sulli|title=The World of Music. Georgio M. Sulli|work=[[The Etude]]|page=363|date=June 1918}}</ref>
Clemens made her American debut as a contralto concert singer on the evening of September 22, 1906, at the Norfolk Gymnasium<ref name="NYTimes1906a" /><ref name="NYTimes1906b">{{citation | issn=0362-4331 | title = Miss Clemens in Concert | place = Winsted, Conn. | newspaper = The New York Times | page = 9 | date = September 23, 1906 | url = http://www.twainquotes.com/19060923.html | access-date = April 21, 2008 }}</ref> in [[Norfolk, Connecticut]], assisted by violinist Marie Nichols. She rented ''Edgewood'' there in 1905,<ref name="NYTimes1905Winsted">{{citation | issn=0362-4331 | title = Mark Twain Ill of Gout | newspaper = The New York Times | place = Winsted, Conn. | page = 7 | date = August 20, 1905 | url = http://www.twainquotes.com/19050820.html | access-date = April 21, 2008 }}</ref> and she used the proceeds from the concert to purchase a memorial window for her mother in the Norfolk Church of the Transfiguration.<ref name="NYTimes1907">{{citation | issn=0362-4331 | title = Window to Mrs. Clemens | newspaper = The New York Times | page = 1 | date = June 22, 1907 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1907/06/22/archives/window-to-mrs-clemens-mark-twains-daughter-earned-money-for-it-at.html | access-date = April 21, 2008 }}</ref> Charles Edmund Wark (1876-1954) was a classical pianist from [[Cobourg, Ontario]], and he became Clemens' piano accompanist from the winter of 1906 to late in 1908.<ref name="NYTimes1908picture" /><ref name="NYTimes1908">{{citation | issn=0362-4331 | title = Bissell Theatre Party; Mrs. Sanford Bissell Entertains for Her Debutante Daughter, Miss Doris | newspaper = The New York Times | page = 7 | date = February 7, 1908 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1908/02/07/archives/bissell-theatre-party-mrs-sanford-bissell-entertains-for-her.html | access-date = September 20, 2009 }}</ref> Clemens and Nichols also continued to perform together, including a series of concerts in London and Paris in 1908.<ref name="NYTimes1908c">{{citation | issn=0362-4331 | title = Miss. Clemens Sails to Sing in Europe | newspaper = The New York Times | page = 9 | date = May 17, 1908 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1908/05/17/archives/-peter-pan-for-paris-charles-frohman-takes-the-london-company-for.html | access-date = April 21, 2008 }}</ref> On May 30, Clemens debuted in London at a benefit concert, raising money for American girls to attend [[Oxford University|Oxford]] and [[Cambridge University|Cambridge]] Universities.<ref name="NYTimes1908picture" /><ref name="NYTimes1908b">{{citation | issn=0362-4331 | title = To Help American Girls | newspaper = The New York Times | page = C3 | publication-date = May 31, 1908 | date = May 30, 1908 | place = London | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1908/05/31/archives/to-help-american-girls-addition-to-fund-for-oxford-and-cambridge.html | access-date = April 21, 2008 }}</ref>
==Marriage and inheritance==
[[File:Clara Clemens wedding party 1909.jpg|thumb|left|Photograph taken by [[Frank J. Sprague]] at the wedding of Clemens and Ossip Gabrilowitsch. From left: [[Mark Twain]], [[Jervis Langdon Jr.]], Clara Clemens
, [[Ossip Gabrilowitsch]], [[Jean Clemens]], [[Joseph Twichell]].]]
Clemens went for a sleigh ride on December 20, 1908, with Russian concert pianist [[Ossip Gabrilowitsch]] who was staying with her father at his residence "Innocents at Home" in [[Redding, Connecticut]].<ref name="NYTimes1908horse" /><ref>The house was later renamed [[Stormfield]]. "[http://www.shapell.org/manuscript/samuel-clemens-jean-clemens-grover-cleveland Mark Twain on 'Innocence at Home,' Grover Cleveland, and God]," Shapell Manuscript Foundation, n.d. Retrieved June 12, 2018.</ref> The horse was frightened by a flapping newspaper and it bolted, causing Gabrilowitsch to lose control. The sleigh overturned at the top of a hill near a {{convert|50|ft|m|adj=on}} drop, throwing Clemens out. Gabrilowitsch saved both her and the horse from plunging over the edge, spraining an ankle in his exertions. He returned Clemens home unharmed except for the shock of the accident.<ref name="NYTimes1908horse">{{citation
| issn=0362-4331 | title = Saves Miss. Clara Clemens | newspaper = The New York Times | page = 1 | date = December 21, 1908 | place = Danbury, Conn. | url = http://www.twainquotes.com/19081221.html | access-date = April 21, 2008}}</ref> Twain biographer Michael Shelden doubts the truth of this heroic tale and suggests that the story was planted in the press to quiet rumors that Clara was having an affair with Charles Wark, her former accompanist and a married man.<ref>Shelden, M.: ''Mark Twain: Man in White''. Random House, 2010</ref>
Theodor Leschetizky was training Gabrilowitsch in Vienna in 1899, and he introduced him to Clemens.<ref name="NYTimes1936death" /> They were married on October 6, 1909, in the drawing room at Stormfield, the Clemens home, with her father's friend Rev. [[Joseph Twichell]] presiding.<ref name="NYTimes1910">{{citation | issn=0362-4331 | title = Mark Twain's Daughter Here | newspaper = The New York Times | page = 2 | date = April 17, 1910 | url = http://www.twainquotes.com/19100417.html | access-date = April 21, 2008 }}</ref><ref name="NYTimes1909wed">{{citation | issn=0362-4331 | title = Miss. Clemens Weds Mr. Gabrilowitsch | newspaper = The New York Times | page = 9 | date = October 7, 1909 | place = West Redding, Conn. | url = http://www.twainquotes.com/19091007.html | access-date = April 23, 2008 }}</ref><ref name="Clemens1931" /> Her father said that the engagement was not new, having been "made and dissolved twice six years ago".<ref name="NYTimes1909wed" /> He also said that the marriage was sudden because Gabrilowitsch had just recovered from a surgical operation which he had undergone in the summer and they were about to head off to their new house in Berlin where he would begin his European season.<ref name="NYTimes1909wed" />
Samuel Clemens died on April 21, 1910, leaving his estate to be equally divided between his surviving daughters in a will dated August 17, 1909. However, his youngest daughter [[Jean Clemens]] died in the bathtub on December 24, 1909, after having an epileptic seizure.<ref name="NYTimes1909sister">{{citation | issn=0362-4331 | title = Miss. Jean Clemens Found Dead in Bath | newspaper = The New York Times | page = 1 | date = December 25, 1909 | place = Redding, Conn. | url = http://www.twainquotes.com/19091225.html | access-date = April 21, 2008 }}</ref> Clara inherited the entire estate, which provided quarterly payments of interest to keep it "free from any control or interference from any husband she may have."<ref name="NYTimes1910father">{{citation | issn=0362-4331 | title = Mark Twain's Will Filed | newspaper = The New York Times | page = 1 | date = May 4, 1910 | place = Redding, Conn. | url = http://www.twainquotes.com/19100504.html | access-date = April 22, 2008 }}</ref> On July 9, Clara announced that she was donating her father's library of nearly 2,500 books to the Mark Twain Free Library.<ref name="NYTimes1910library">{{citation | issn=0362-4331 | title = Twain Books for Library | newspaper = The New York Times | page = 1 | date = July 10, 1910 | place = Redding, Conn. | url = http://www.twainquotes.com/19100710.html | access-date = April 22, 2008 }}</ref>
On August 19, 1910, Clara's only child Nina was born at Stormfield.<ref name="NYTimes1910daughter">{{citation | issn=0362-4331 | title = Daughter Born to Mrs. Gabrilowitsch | newspaper = The New York Times | page = 7 | date = August 20, 1910 | place = Redding, Conn. | url = http://www.twainquotes.com/19100820.html | access-date = April 22, 2008 }}</ref> Nina Gabrilowitsch (1910–1966) was Twain's last descendant, and she died January 16, 1966, in a Los Angeles hotel. She had been a heavy drinker, and bottles of pills and alcohol were found in her room.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20190521041534/https://marktwainonline.com/nina-clemens Mark Twain Online]}}</ref>
==Later life== [[Image:Ossip Gabrilowitsch & Clara Clemens.jpg|thumb|right|alt=Ossip and Clara (in her forties) at a piano showing the upper half of their bodies. Ossip sits at the piano looks to the right with one hand resting on the keyboard. Clara is standing and leans her elbow on the top of the piano and looks at Ossip. Her hair is dark short and styled in waves. |Clara Clemens with her husband [[Ossip Gabrilowitsch]]]] On April 23, 1926, Clara played the title role in a dramatization of Twain's 1896 novel ''[[Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc]]'' at [[Walter Hampden]]'s Broadway theater.<ref name="NYTimes1926JoanOfArc2">{{citation | issn=0362-4331 | title = Clara Clemens in Role | newspaper = The New York Times | page = 18 | date = April 12, 1926 | url = http://www.twainquotes.com/19260412.html | access-date = April 23, 2008 }}</ref> This adaptation and her performance were not very well received by critics.<ref name="NYTimes1926JoanOfArc2" />
It was again produced in 1927, opening on April 12 for a series of special morning and afternoon performances at the Edyth Totten Theatre.<ref name="NYTimes1927JoanOfArc2">{{citation | issn=0362-4331 | title = Theatrical Notes | newspaper = The New York Times | page = 25 | date = March 25, 1927 | url = http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0B1EF93B5D17738DDDAC0A94DB405B878EF1D3 | access-date = April 23, 2008 }}</ref><ref name="NYTimes1927JoanOfArc3">{{citation | issn=0362-4331 | title = Clara Clemens in "Joan of Arc." | newspaper = The New York Times | page = 26 | date = April 15, 1927 | url = http://www.twainquotes.com/19270415.html | access-date = April 23, 2008 }}</ref>
Gabrilowitsch was conductor of the [[Detroit Symphony Orchestra]] from 1918 until 1935, when he fell ill. He entered the [[Henry Ford Hospital]] on March 25, 1935, where he stayed until he was released to his home to convalesce on September 28, 1935.<ref name="NYTimes1936death">{{citation | issn=0362-4331 | title = Gabrilowitsch, 58, Dead in Detroit | newspaper = The New York Times | page = 29 | date = September 15, 1936 | place = Detroit | url = http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F2071FFB345B1B7B93C7A81782D85F428385F9 | access-date = April 22, 2008 }}</ref><ref name="NYTimes1935">{{citation | issn=0362-4331 | title = Gabrilowitsch on Mend | newspaper = The New York Times | page = N8 | date = September 29, 1935 | place = Detroit | url = http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F30910FE3C5A107A93CBAB1782D85F418385F9 | access-date = April 22, 2008 }}</ref> He died at home on September 14, 1936, age 58.<ref name="NYTimes1936death" /> Clara married [[Jacques Samossoud]] on May 11, 1944, a Russian-born symphony conductor 20 years her junior. They were married in her Hollywood home.<ref name="NYTimes">{{citation | issn=0362-4331 | title = Kin of Mark Twain Wed in Hollywood | newspaper = The New York Times | page = 17 | date = May 12, 1944 | place = Hollywood, Calif. }}</ref>
Clara explored eastern religions for several years before embracing [[Christian Science]], but there are questions as to her seriousness and commitment to it. She wrote ''Awake to a Perfect Day'' on the subject, published in 1956.<ref name="Gottschalk">{{citation | title = Rolling Away the Stone: Mary Baker Eddy's Challenge to Materialism | last1 = Gottschalk | first1 = Stephen | isbn = 0-253-34673-8 | year = 2005 | publisher = Indiana University Press | page = 86 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=N9dRtPR5uwYC&pg=PA86 }}</ref><ref name="NYTimes1962">{{citation | issn=0362-4331 | title = Anti-Religious Work by Twain, Long Withheld, to Be Published | newspaper = The New York Times | page = 23 | date = August 24, 1962 | last1 = Gelb | first1 = Arthur | url = http://www.twainquotes.com/19620824.html | access-date = April 22, 2008 }}</ref> She also published biographies of her father (''My Father, Mark Twain'' in 1931) and of her first husband (''My Husband: Gabrilowitsch'' in 1938).<ref>The New York Times, November 21, 1962, transcribed on [http://www.twainquotes.com/19621121.html TwainQuotes]. Retrieved November 27, 2020.</ref>
She objected in 1939 to the release of her father's ''[[Letters from the Earth]]'', but she changed her stance and allowed them to be published shortly before her death on November 20, 1962.<ref>The New York Times, November 21, 1962, from [http://www.twainquotes.com/19621121.html TwainQuotes], op. cit.</ref> She prevented [[Charles Neider]] from including certain of her father's dictations from June 1906 (the 19th, 20th, 22nd, 23rd, and 25th) in the version of The ''[[Autobiography of Mark Twain]]'' that was in preparation into 1958.<ref>Charles Neider, ''The Autobiography of Mark Twain'', introduction (noted from Blackstone Audio version).</ref>
==Published works== * ''[https://archive.org/details/myfathermarktwai0000clem My Father, Mark Twain]'' (1931) * ''[https://archive.org/details/myhusbandgabrilo0000unse My Husband, Gabrilowitsch]'' (1938) * ''[https://archive.org/details/awaketoperfectda00clem Awake to a Perfect Day]'' (1956)
==Notes== {{Reflist|30em}}
==References== *{{Citation|last1=Ward|first1=Geoffrey C.|author-link1=Geoffrey C. Ward|last2=Dayton|first2=Duncan|last3=Burns|first3=Ken|author-link3=Ken Burns|title=Mark Twain: An Illustrated Biography|publisher=[[Alfred A. Knopf]]|location=New York|year=2001|isbn=0-375-40561-5|url=https://archive.org/details/marktwain00ward}} *{{Citation|last=Trombley|first=Laura Skandera|author-link=Laura Skandera Trombley|title=Mark Twain's Other Women: The Hidden Story of His Final Years|year=2010}} This book includes new details regarding a romantic connection between Clara Clemens and her piano accompanist, Charles E. "Will" Wark (a married man), also the impact this illicit romantic relationship had on her father, Samuel Clemens and how it eventually fostered Clara Clemen's relationship with Ossip Gabrilowitz.
==External links== {{commons category|Clara Clemens}} *[http://etext.virginia.edu/railton/projects/applebaum/clara.html Mark Twain in His Times by Stephen Railton]
{{good article}}
{{Mark Twain|state=collapsed}} {{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clemens, Clara}} [[Category:1874 births]] [[Category:1962 deaths]] [[Category:20th-century American biographers]] [[Category:American women biographers]] [[Category:American Christian Scientists]] [[Category:American people of Cornish descent]] [[Category:Clemens family|Clara]] [[Category:American contraltos]] [[Category:People from Elmira, New York]] [[Category:Singers from New York (state)]] [[Category:Writers from New York (state)]] [[Category:Burials at Woodlawn Cemetery (Elmira, New York)]] [[Category:Converts to Christian Science from Presbyterianism]] [[Category:Former Presbyterians]]