Early in June that year, Clemens had
developed unmistakable symptoms of heart trouble
of a very serious nature. It was angina pectoris,
and while to all appearances he was as well as
ever and usually felt so, he was periodically
visited by severe attacks of acute “breast pains”
which, as the months passed, increased in frequency
and severity. He was alarmed and distressed—not
on his own account, but because of his daughter
Jean—a handsome girl, who had long been
subject to epileptic seizures. In case of
his death he feared that Jean would be without
permanent anchorage, his other daughter, Clara—following
her marriage to Ossip Gabrilowitsch in October —having
taken up residence abroad.
This anxiety was soon ended.
On the morning of December 24th, jean Clemens
was found dead in her apartment. She was not
drowned in her bath, as was reported, but died
from heart exhaustion, the result of her malady
and the shock of cold water. [Questionable diagnosis!
D.W.]
The blow to her father
was terrible, but heavy as it was, one may
perhaps understand that
her passing in that swift, painless way must
have afforded him a
measure of relief.
To Mrs. Gabrilowitsch,
in Europe:
&nb
sp; Redding,
Conn.,
Dec.
29, ’09.
O, Clara, Clara dear, I am so glad she is out of it
and safe—safe! I am not melancholy;
I shall never be melancholy again, I think. You
see, I was in such distress when I came to realize
that you were gone far away and no one stood between
her and danger but me—and I could die at
any moment, and then—oh then what would
become of her! For she was wilful, you know,
and would not have been governable.
You can’t imagine what a darling she was, that
last two or three days; and how fine, and good, and
sweet, and noble-and joyful, thank Heaven! —and
how intellectually brilliant. I had never been
acquainted with Jean before. I recognized that.
But I mustn’t try to write about her—I
can’t. I have already poured my heart
out with the pen, recording that last day or two.
I will send you that—and you must let no
one but Ossip read it.
Good-bye.
I
love you so!
And
Ossip.
Father.
The writing mentioned in the last paragraph was his
article ’The Death of Jean,’ his last
serious writing, and one of the world’s most
beautiful examples of elegiac prose.—[Harper’s
Magazine, Dec., 1910,] and later in the volume, ‘What
Is Man and Other Essays.’
Letters of 1910. Last trip
to Bermuda. Letters to Paine.
The last letter
