Clemens, Cyril, 1902-1999

Cyril Clemens (1902- ) was editor of the Mark Twain Journal and president of an international Mark Twain society. Clemens was a native of St. Louis, Mo.; son of James R. and Katherine Boland Clemens; and a kinsman of Samuel L. Clemens.

Cyril Clemens, born in St. Louis on July 14, 1902, died in Kirkwood on May 16, 1999. Distant cousin of Mark Twain, founded the International Mark Twain Society in 1930 and edited the Mark Twain Quarterly, which later became the Mark Twain Journal. His most popular biography, My Cousin Mark Twain, was published in 1939, followed by a biography of Harry Truman. He also wrote a number of short biographies.

Cyril C. Clemens was born in 1902 in St. Louis, the only son of James Ross Clemens and Katharine Boland Clemens. Through his father, Cyril Clemens was the third cousin twice removed of Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens), and through both parents was related to the most prominent families of St. Louis. Although Cyril Clemens remembered visiting his cousin Mark Twain in 1909, one year before the author's death, he professed to have had no real fascination with Twain's work or even much knowledge about his life. It was while researching Twain in preparation for a talk to a woman's club in the early 1920s that Cyril conceived of the idea to promote the life and literature of his cousin through the creation of an International Mark Twain Society. He founded the society around 1923, and he proceeded with his aim of keeping Twain's name alive by linking it with 20th-century authors and other famous people who professed admiration for Mark Twain. Clemens invited these people to join his International Mark Twain Society. All Cyril would ask in return was an autograph of one of their books or of a photograph. According to Clemens, amassing a collection of these autographs and anecdotes about famous people was a secondary consideration for him. But he never denied that he was making a career of being Mark Twain's cousin. Indeed, Clemens practiced no profession apart from his activities for the Society. Cyril passed away in 1999 in Kirkwood, Missouri, the community that had been his home for 66 years.

Author and editor; from Webster Groves (Saint Louis County), Mo.

Biographer and editor.

Epithet: President International Mark Twain Society

Editor of the "Mark Twain Journal."

Cyril Coniston Clemens was born in in St. Louis, Missouri, on July 14, 1902. After attending Canterbury School in New Milford, Connecticut, he continued his education at St. Louis University High School, attended Georgetown University, and received his B.A.. and M.A. degrees from Washington University (St. Louis). He married Nan B. Shallcross on October 8, 1933. He was a distant cousin of Samuel Langhorn Clemens and spent his life researching, writing about, and otherwise promoting his famous cousin. A family inheritance enabled him to devote time to these pursuits, including offering a life membership in the International Mark Twain Society, which he founded in 1930, to hundreds of important individuals. He also founded and edited the Mark Twain Quarterly, 1936-1982. His writing include biographies of Twain and Truman and short sketches of famous authors and politicians, including George Bernard Shaw, A.E. Housman, Mussolini, Sir Robert Walpole, and John Galsworthy. He died May 16, 1999.

Author and editor; from Webster Groves (St. Louis County), Mo.

Editor and author.

Clemens was a relative of Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) and a collector of Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) materials.

Cyril Coniston Clemens, founder of the International Mark Twain Society, editor of the Mark Twain Journal, and author of My Cousin Mark Twain.

Author.

Cyril Coniston Clemens, son of James Ross and Katherine Boland Clemens and cousin of Mark Twain, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on July 14, 1902. After attending Canterbury School in New Milford, Connecticut, he continued his education at St. Louis University High School and received his A.B. and M.A. degrees from Washington University (St. Louis). He married Nan B. Shallcross on October 8, 1933. [Selby, P. O. 116 Short Biographies of Persons Associated with Mark Twain, 1970, p.4.]

Clemens founded the International Mark Twain Society in 1930 and edited the Mark Twain Quarterly, which later became the Mark Twain Journal, from 1936-82. His most popular biography, My Cousin Mark Twain, was published in 1939, followed by The Man from Missouri: A Biography of Harry S. Truman in 1945. He also wrote a number of short biographies which were published by the International Mark Twain Society, 1932-70, including sketches of Thomas Hardy, A. E. Housman, George Santayana, and Lytton Strachey.