Thursday, March 21, 2019

Cohn and Tarr on Mark Twain's Will

Henry S. Cohn and Adam Tarr have posted A Challenging Inheritance: The Fate of Mark Twain's Will, which is forthcoming in the Quinnipiac Law Review 37 (April 2019): 271-342
Mark Twain, 1907 (LC)
There have been numerous books and essays written about Mark Twain’s final two unhappy years in Redding, Connecticut, as well as several writings capturing the lives, also generally tragic, of his surviving daughter and granddaughter. This article retells some of that story, but from a legal perspective.

The article makes use of documents from the estates of Mark Twain and his descendants, including original wills, probate papers, trust instruments, and court and business filings. This legal perspective concludes on a happier note, explaining how the literary “Mark Twain” has succeeded in the twenty-first century, well beyond his death in 1910.