One title on the Barnes & Noble Review's list of five true love stories:Mark and Livy: The Love Story of Mark Twain and the Woman Who Almost Tamed HimRead about the other true love stories on the list.
by Resa Willis
When Samuel Clemens met Olivia Langdon in 1868, she was an invalid with little hope of regaining her health or finding a husband. He was a roughhewn writer on the rise, ten years her senior, and so smitten that he quickly proposed. Livy rejected him, but the man who would be Twain was not so easily dissuaded. Over the next thirteen months and in more than 200 letters, he advanced his case, insisting that Livy could help smooth his jagged edges. He proposed a second time, and throughout the 36 years of marriage that followed, she was his editor, muse, critic, and advisor,while raising their three children and following him around the globe. Access to their letters gives Willis a fresh perspective on one of America's defining voices and one of the most touching courtships of the 19th century.
--Marshal Zeringue
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