Mark Twain's connection to York remains strong more than a century after his departure from the town. "And Now...Mark Twain!" will be presented at the Remick Barn on Sunday, May 4, at 3 p.m. This solo performance by Richard Clark is a delightful look at the life and work of America's foremost humorist. Admission is $5 for Old York members and $7 for nonmembers, and reservations are required.
Courtesy photo
If you visit the Perkins House by the York River, it is most likely your tour guide will mention Samuel L. Clemens, better known as Mark Twain.
On the other side of the river from Miss Perkins' summer residence stands "The Pines," a summer rental at the time, which is now a year-round private residence, where Twain spent the summer of 1902 with his family. Is there any connection between our locally famous benefactress and the world-renowned author? They probably had friends in common and might have met a few times that summer, but in an article written on Mark Twain in the early 1940s, Miss Perkins does not hint at any connections between her and Huck Finn's creator.
Elizabeth Perkins and her mother bought the riverfront property in 1899. They spent summers there. Three years later, the Clemenses spent the summer across the river from them. They arrived in June 1902 aboard the yacht Kenawha owned by their friend Henry H. Rogers, John Rockefeller's business partner. Twain was looking forward to a peaceful summer in Maine after an exhausting world tour and the death of his daughter Susy a few years earlier. The family vacations in Venice, Italy, had been cancelled earlier due to the poor health conditions of both his wife Livy and daughter Jean. His third daughter, Clara, later joined the group in York with her new fiancé.
While in York, Twain spent a considerable amount of time with his good friend William Dean Howells, the editor of The Atlantic Monthly, on vacation in Kittery. They exchanged stories, read manuscripts, and visited each other's rental cottages. Livy wrote to a friend that "the drive [probably on what is today Route 103] was most beautiful, and never in my life have I seen such a variety of wild flowers in so short a space."
Twain completed at least two manuscripts, "The Belated Russian Passport" and "Was it Heaven? Or Hell?" the second one to be published by Harper's Magazine in December 1902. "Was it Heaven? Or Hell?" tells the story of two aunts who have to lie to their dying niece about her own daughter's fatal illness. Twain realized later that this short story was a prophecy for his own life: his daughter Clara would have to lie to Livy when Jean became ill that winter.
In 1902 York was celebrating its 250th anniversary and Mark Twain was one of the select guests invited to give a speech on Aug. 5. Twain seemed very fond of York, joking that he would be present at the 300th anniversary of the town because the "moral climate" of the town made him feel younger everyday. Today what is most often recalled from his speech about York is his joke about the number of post offices: "One cannot throw a brickbat across a 37-acre lot without danger of disabling a postmaster."
But Twain's stay in York unfortunately did not continue in the same spirit. A week after the anniversary celebration, Livy fell seriously ill: "Tuesday, August 12 1902 At 7 a.m. Livy taken violently ill. (...) she could not breathe - was likely to stifle. Also she had severe palpitation. She believed she was dying. I also believed it." The rest of the summer is spent by Livy's bedside, or, after being banished by the doctors, at the home of friend and fisherman Millard Sewall. Letters written by Twain's daughter Jean to Millard's daughter Grace in the fall of 1902 underline the strong bond between the two families. Jean dearly missed York: "I shall many times wish I were in York under the pines by your house." (October 16, 1902)
The Clemens family left York in October to return to their home in Riverdale, N.Y. Livy's health did not improve and around Christmastime Jean caught pneumonia. Livy Clemens passed away in Venice, Italy, 22 months after leaving York. Twain supposedly believed the town had brought him bad luck, and that was why he never returned. He was, however, fondly remembered by summer and year-round residents alike. Miss Perkins kept several Twain books in her bedroom and, I am sure, nourished a certain nostalgia for "the days when York was the center for the masters of writing, in the early years of this century."
