Laura Skandera-Trombley’s book Mark Twain in the Company of Women examines the extent to which women influenced the life and literature of Samuel Clemens. The author first examines a dichotomy in Mark Twain scholarship that is characterized by the conflicting theories of two prevailing Twain scholars: Bernard DeVoto and Van Wyck Brooks. Brooks argues that a sense of “divided self” tormented Clemens and caused his fiction-writing skills to wan as he grew older. DeVoto argues that Clemens possessed an “integrated self” and that his ability to produce fiction remained intact throughout the duration of his life. DeVoto, Brooks, and the vast majority of Twain biographers, however, all agree that women only had a detrimental, if any, effect on Samuel Clemens. In writing this book, Skandera-Trombley rejects both sides of the DeVoto-Brooks dichotomy as well as the prevailing notion that women did not positively contribute to the greatness that now defines Mark Twain. She instead sets out to prove that the social and cultural influences that Clemens’ female friends and family members had on his life and literature were not only overwhelmingly positive, but also highly significant.

After she presents and rejects the Brooks-DeVoto dichotomy, Skandera-Trombley proceeds to chronologically trace the evolution of Samuel Clemens’ beliefs and writings as the women who surrounded him at each stage of his life affected them. She begins the chronology when she discusses the personality traits and values that Clemens shared with his mother Jane. For example, Clemens shared his mother’s love of spectacle and pageantry. Clemens recalls that his mother was “always ready for Fourth of July processions, Sunday-school processions, lectures, conventions, camp-meetings, revivals… and she never missed a funeral” (11). Their mutual love of spectacle is reflected in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer when the prospect of wearing a fancy uniform in a funeral procession entices Tom to become a member of the Cadets of Temperance.

Skandera-Trombley next introduces her reader to the person who had the greatest influence on Clemens and his work—his wife Olivia. Clemens enjoyed his first glimpse of her image in a photograph that her brother Charles carried aboard the Quaker City, where the two became acquainted while on the Mediterranean cruise that inspired Innocents Abroad. Skandera-Trombley proves that Olivia Langdon not only had a pretty face, but profound intellect and a unique character as well.

It quickly becomes clear that one of Skandera-Trombley’s goals in writing this book is to convince her audience that Olivia was not a typical conservative upper-class 19th-century woman. The author denies claims that Olivia projected her social class’ feminine ideal. By doing so, it sometimes seems as if Skandera-Trombley is trying to transform Olivia’s character into that of a modern-day feminist. Among other things, the author claims that Olivia was better educated than Clemens, that her love relationship with Clemens was based on intellect, and that the couple’s courtship did not encumber Olivia’s devotion to her studies. The author refutes notions that the frequent spells of poor health that plagued Olivia during her courtship with Clemens were sexual power plays or attempts to fulfill Victorian conventions for young aristocratic women. Referring to a photograph of a slender young Olivia as evidence, Skandera-Trombley hypothesizes that Olivia suffered severely from Pott’s disease and that her alleged illnesses were therefore genuine. The author also unconvincingly contends that Olivia’s plea to Clemens to repudiate smoking and drinking was not at all motivated by a desire to accord with social or religious mores. Rather, Skandera-Trombley claims that Olivia’s familiarity with esoteric medical theories alone prompted her to advise Clemens against his undesirable habits.

This book does, however, convincingly prove that Olivia had a potent impact on her husband’s beliefs, decisions, and career. Skandera-Trombley asserts that Olivia convinced Clemens to adopt her positions on a variety of social issues including prison reform, health care reform, temperance, unions, and women’s suffrage. Evidence of her influence in these areas abounds in Clemens’ literature. For example, Clemens defends unions in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court and the character Pap signs—but fails to adhere to—a temperance pledge in Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The author also maintains that Olivia’s influence guided his business decisions, such as his investment in a health food supplement called Plasmon. Perhaps the strongest argument in defense of Olivia’s supreme impact on Clemens’ life, however, is that she brutally edited his writings and challenged him to produce brilliant literature. Skandera-Trombley asserts that it is not coincidental that Clemens created his greatest works of fiction while Olivia and his young daughters served as his editors and inspiration. Accordingly, the book draws a correlation between the death of Olivia and the creative dysfunction that plagued Clemens in his old age.

Laura Skandera-Trombley rejects the prevailing opinion among Mark Twain scholars that the women in Samuel Clemens’ life were negligible to his success. She replaces this archaic notion with proof that women, in particular Olivia Langdon Clemens, did in fact profoundly impact Clemens’ life. Although some of the author’s feminist interpretations of Olivia are questionable, the majority of her arguments are sensible and persuasive. Mark Twain in the Company of Women leaves the reader with a lasting impression of how the women in Samuel Clemens’ life, particularly his wife Olivia, shaped the man whom the world knows as Mark Twain.