Twain’s End by Lynn Cullen (Hardcover)

Reputation-squaring novel. Cullen splashes a surplus of fuel onto her incendiary raw material. New York Times

Ms. Cullen is the Bronte of our day. Huffington Post

A People Pick

Intelligently drawn. Library Journal

Starred Review from Publishers Weekly

From the bestselling and highly acclaimed author of the page-turning tale (Library Journal, starred review) Mrs. Poe comes a fictionalized imagining of the personal life of Americas most iconic writer: Mark Twain.

In March of 1909, Mark Twain cheerfully blessed the wedding of his private secretary, Isabel V. Lyon, and his business manager, Ralph Ashcroft. One month later, he fired both. He proceeded to write a ferocious 429-page rant about the pair, calling Isabel a liar, a forger, a thief, a hypocrite, a drunkard, a sneak, a humbug, a traitor, a conspirator, a filthy-minded and salacious slut pining for seduction. Twain and his daughter, Clara Clemens, then slandered Isabel in the newspapers, erasing her nearly seven years of devoted service to their family. How did Lyon go from being the beloved secretary who ran Twains life to a woman he was determined to destroy?

In Twains End, Lynn Cullen reimagines the tangled relationships between Twain, Lyon, and Ashcroft, as well as the little-known love triangle between Helen Keller, her teacher Anne Sullivan Macy, and Annes husband, John Macy, which comes to light during their visit to Twains Connecticut home in 1909. Add to the party a furious Clara Clemens, smarting from her own failed love affair, and carefully kept veneers shatter.

Based on Isabel Lyons extant diary, Twains writings and letters, and events in Twains boyhood that may have altered his ability to love, Twains End explores this real-life tale of doomed love.