# Jean Clemens

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Youngest daughter of Mark Twain (1880–1909)

Not to be confused with [Jean Cleymans](/source/Jean_Cleymans).

Jean Clemens Born Jane Lampton Clemens (1880-07-26)July 26, 1880 Elmira, New York U.S. Died December 24, 1909(1909-12-24) (aged 29) Redding, Connecticut U.S. Cause of death Drowning Resting place Woodlawn Cemetery Parent(s) Mark Twain Olivia Langdon Clemens Relatives Clara Clemens (sister) Susy Clemens (sister)

**Jane Lampton "Jean" Clemens** (July 26, 1880 – December 24, 1909) was the daughter of Samuel Langhorne Clemens (better known by his pen name [Mark Twain](/source/Mark_Twain)) and [Olivia Langdon Clemens](/source/Olivia_Langdon_Clemens). She founded or worked with a number of societies for the protection of animals.

## Character and early life

Jean Clemens as a young child with her mother, [Olivia Langdon Clemens](/source/Olivia_Langdon_Clemens), and her older sisters, [Susy](/source/Susy_Clemens) and [Clara Clemens](/source/Clara_Clemens).

Jean Clemens was born in [Elmira, New York](/source/Elmira%2C_New_York), the youngest of four children born to author and humorist [Mark Twain](/source/Mark_Twain) and [Olivia Langdon Clemens](/source/Olivia_Langdon_Clemens). Twain wrote from Elmira to his friend, [William Dean Howells](/source/William_Dean_Howells), reporting she "arrived perfectly sound but with no more baggage than I had when I was on the river," referring to his *[Life On The Mississippi.](/source/Life_on_the_Mississippi)*[1] According to *[Mark Twain's Autobiography](/source/Mark_Twain's_Autobiography)*, Jean was kind-hearted and particularly fond of animals, like Olivia. She founded or worked with a number of societies for the protection of animals in the various locations where she lived.[2]

## Epilepsy

Jean had [epilepsy](/source/Epilepsy) from age 16 which Twain attributed to a head injury from when she was age 10 or 11.[3] The family spent years seeking cures in the United States and Europe. Twain also attributed her mood swings and sometimes erratic behavior to her uncontrolled epilepsy.[4]

Jean's mother tried to include her in family life despite her illness, but Olivia died in 1904 and it was left to Twain and Jean's older sister, [Clara](/source/Clara_Clemens), to help Jean to manage the difficulties which her illness caused. Twain's secretary [Isabel Lyon](/source/Isabel_Lyon) claimed that Jean physically attacked family maid Katy Leary on two occasions in 1906, saying that she wanted to kill her.[5] In her 2004 biography *Dangerous Intimacy: The Untold Story of Mark Twain's Final Years*, historian Karen Lystra questions the accuracy of Lyon's account of Jean's violent behavior and suggests that Lyon manipulated a separation between father and daughter because Lyon hoped to marry Twain.[6] Jean was sent to an epilepsy colony in [Katonah, New York](/source/Katonah%2C_New_York) in the fall of 1906 and despite requesting to return home, Twain refused as he doubted his ability to care for her.[7] Twain fired Lyon and her new husband in 1909, stating that they were guilty of embezzlement, and Jean was able to return home in April 1909. Jean and her father got along well, though she found him stubborn and temperamental.[8]

## Death

Photograph taken by Frank J. Sprague on October 6, 1909 at the wedding of [Clara Clemens](/source/Clara_Clemens) and [Ossip Gabrilowitsch](/source/Ossip_Gabrilowitsch). From left: [Mark Twain](/source/Mark_Twain), Jervis Langdon Jr., Clara Clemens, Ossip Gabrilowitsch, Jean Clemens, Rev. Dr. Joseph Twichell.

Jean was staying at her father's home [Stormfield](/source/Stormfield) in [Redding, Connecticut](/source/Redding%2C_Connecticut) in December 1909, and she had decorated the home for the upcoming Christmas holiday. When she had not come down for breakfast a maid found her[9] dead in the bathtub on the morning of December 24, 1909.[10] While it was initially reported she had drowned during a seizure,[11][12] an investigation showed she had not died directly from drowning but more probably from possibly strangulation due to epilepsy or from heart failure; the body was found in the bathtub only partly submerged and the lungs contained very little water.[13] She was carried to [Woodlawn Cemetery](/source/Woodlawn_Cemetery_(Elmira%2C_New_York)) in Elmira. Her father did not travel with the casket, unable to bring himself to return to the place where he had already buried two children and his wife. He commemorated her death by having his authorized biographer play her favorite piece of music, [Impromptu No. 2 in A-flat major](/source/Impromptus_(Schubert)) by [Schubert](/source/Franz_Schubert).[14] That night he wrote the final entry in his *Autobiography,* titling it "The Death of Jean." Twain died four months later on April 21, 1910.

## Notes

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Clemens, Samuel L. (2002). *Mark Twain's Letters, 1876-1880*. Berkeley: University of California Press.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Twain_2-0)** Twain, Mark (1910). ["The Death of Jean"](https://web.archive.org/web/20031221103634/http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/mtwain/bl-mtwain-deathofjean.htm). *Mark Twain's Autobiography*. Archived from [the original](http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/mtwain/bl-mtwain-deathofjean.htm) on December 21, 2003. Retrieved January 24, 2008.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-Trombley_3-0)** Trombley, Laura Skandera. ["She Wanted to Kill: Jean Clemens and Postictal Psychosis"](https://web.archive.org/web/20060902095940/http://www.pitzer.edu/offices/president/speeches/jean_clemens.htm). Archived from [the original](http://www.pitzer.edu/offices/president/speeches/jean_clemens.htm) on September 2, 2006. Retrieved January 24, 2008.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Ward, Duncan, and Burns (2001), p. 221

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** Ward, Duncan, and Burns (2001), pp. 227-230

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** Lystra (2004)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** Ward, Duncan and Burns (2001), p. 230

1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** Ward, Duncan, and Burns (2001), p. 248

1. **[^](#cite_ref-9)** [Los Angeles herald. \[microfilm reel\], December 25, 1909, Image 9 (Chronicling America website accessed 12/22/2023](https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn85042462/1909-12-25/ed-1/seq-9/#date1=12%2F24%2F1909&index=16&date2=12%2F31%2F1909&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&words=Clemens+Jean&proxdistance=5&state=&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=Jean+Clemens+&phrasetext=&andtext=&dateFilterType=range&page=1)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-routledge_10-0)** LeMaster, J.R.; Wilson, James D., eds. (2013). *The Routledge Encyclopedia of Mark Twain*. Routledge. p. 153. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [978-1-135-88128-3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/978-1-135-88128-3).

1. **[^](#cite_ref-NYTimes1909_11-0)** ["Miss. Jean Clemens Found Dead in Bath"](http://www.twainquotes.com/19091225.html). *The New York Times*. Redding, Conn. (published December 25, 1909). December 24, 1909. p. 1. [ISSN](/source/ISSN_(identifier)) [0362-4331](https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0362-4331). Retrieved April 21, 2008.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-12)** Ward, Duncan and Burns (2001), pp. 250-251

1. **[^](#cite_ref-13)** [Burlington weekly free press. \[volume\], December 30, 1909, Page 14, Image 14. Retrieved 12.22.2023 Chronicling America Website](https://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86072143/1909-12-30/ed-1/seq-14/#date1=12%2F24%2F1909&index=18&date2=12%2F31%2F1909&searchType=advanced&language=&sequence=0&words=Clemens+Jean&proxdistance=5&state=&rows=20&ortext=&proxtext=Jean+Clemens+&phrasetext=&andtext=&dateFilterType=range&page=1)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-14)** Seybold, Matt (December 23, 2020). ["Death at Christmastime: Mark Twain & The Music of Merciful Release"](https://web.archive.org/web/20210709184227/https://marktwainstudies.com/death-at-christmastime-mark-twain-the-music-of-merciful-release/). *Center for Mark Twain Studies*. Archived from [the original](https://marktwainstudies.com/death-at-christmastime-mark-twain-the-music-of-merciful-release/) on July 9, 2021. Retrieved July 6, 2021.

## References

- Lystra, Karen (2004). *Dangerous Intimacy: The Untold Story of Mark Twain's Final Years*. University of California Press Ltd. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-520-23323-9](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-520-23323-9).

- Ward, Geoffrey C., Duncan, Dayton, Burns, Ken (2001). *Mark Twain: An Illustrated Biography*. Alfred A. Knopf. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-375-40561-5](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-375-40561-5)

v t e Mark Twain Bibliography Novels The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today The Adventures of Tom Sawyer The Prince and the Pauper Adventures of Huckleberry Finn A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court The American Claimant Tom Sawyer Abroad Pudd'nhead Wilson Tom Sawyer, Detective Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc A Double Barrelled Detective Story A Horse's Tale The Mysterious Stranger Hellfire Hotchkiss Short stories "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" "Cannibalism in the Cars" "A Literary Nightmare" "A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage" "The Great Revolution in Pitcairn" 1601 "The Stolen White Elephant" "Luck" "The Million Pound Bank Note" "A Double Barrelled Detective Story" "Those Extraordinary Twins" "The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg" "A Dog's Tale" "Extracts from Adam's Diary" "The War Prayer" "Eve's Diary" "Extract from Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven" "My Platonic Sweetheart" "Advice for Good Little Girls" Collections Mark Twain's (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance Sketches New and Old Mark Twain's Library of Humor Merry Tales The £1,000,000 Bank Note and Other New Stories The $30,000 Bequest and Other Stories Plays Is He Dead? Essays "The Awful German Language" "On the Decay of the Art of Lying" "Advice to Youth" How to Tell a Story and Other Essays "Concerning the Jews" "To the Person Sitting in Darkness" "Edmund Burke on Croker and Tammany" "What Is Man?" "The United States of Lyncherdom" "Fenimore Cooper's Literary Offenses" Letters from the Earth Nonfiction Territorial Enterprise letters Letters from Hawaii The Innocents Abroad Roughing It Old Times on the Mississippi A Tramp Abroad Life on the Mississippi Following the Equator Is Shakespeare Dead? Autobiography of Mark Twain (Chapters from My Autobiography) King Leopold's Soliloquy The Private History of a Campaign That Failed Christian Science Speeches "Some Thoughts on the Science of Onanism" "Votes for Women" Places and events Family cabin Birthplace State Historic Site State Park Boyhood home and museum Mark Twain Cave Mark Twain in Nevada Territorial Enterprise Sagebrush School Quarry Farm Mark Twain House Stormfield Twain–Ament indemnities controversy Popular culture Mark Twain Prize for American Humor Mark Twain Readers Award Mark Twain Tonight! The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944) The Adventures of Mark Twain (1985) Mark Twain (2001 documentary) Twain and Shaw Do Lunch (2011 play) Mark Twain: The Musical Family Olivia Langdon Clemens (wife) Susy Clemens (daughter) Clara Clemens (daughter) Jean Clemens (daughter) John M. Clemens (father) Jane Lampton Clemens (mother) Orion Clemens (brother) Related Jap Herron Center For Mark Twain Studies Mark Twain (book) Mark Twain National Forest Mark Twain Tree National Tom Sawyer Days

Authority control databases International VIAF FAST WorldCat National United States Other SNAC

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Jean Clemens](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Clemens) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Clemens?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.