Mark Twain

Eve's Diary, Complete Mark Twain

Lester RalphBIRTH29 Jul 1876New York, New York County (Manhattan), New York, USADEATH5 Apr 1927 (aged 50) New York, New York County (Manhattan), New York, USAArtist, newspaper journalist, war correspondent, magazine illustrator and son of famous author and journalist Julian Ralph. Lester married Elsie Reasoner, America's first female war correspondent and well known accomplished artist and sculptor, in May 1904. After Elsie's unfortunate sudden death in 1913 while visiting her sister in Lloyd Florida, Lester married again to Pauline and they had a child before 1915, according to census records. Lester Ralph attracted attention by his illustrations of Mark Twain's "Eve's Diary." Because of the graphic drawings, particularly those of Eve, the book was widely banned and the center of much controversy. Mark Twain himself was very pleased with the illustrations. Along with many libraries, when the Charleton Public Library in Pennsylvania in 1906 banned the book because of Lester Ralph's graphic illustrations, Twain referred to those making that decision as "the Charleton Library freaks." In 2011 the library agreed to display the book for a week. New York Times article April 6, 1927 says he was living at 41 West Forty ninth Street when he died April 5, 1927 at age 48 at night at St. Luke's Hospital after an operation for appendicitis..."Eve's Diary" is a comic short story by Mark Twain. It was first published in the 1905 Christmas issue of the magazine Harper's Bazaar, and in book format in June 1906 by Harper and Brothers publishing house. SummaryIt is written in the style of a diary kept by the first woman in the biblical creation story, Eve, and is claimed to be "translated from the original MS." The "plot" of this story is the first-person account of Eve from her creation up to her burial by her mate Adam, including meeting and getting to know him, and exploring the world around her, Eden. The story then jumps 40 years into the future after the Fall and expulsion from Eden. It is one of a series of books Twain wrote concerning the story of Adam and Eve, including Extracts from Adam's Diary, 'That Day In Eden, ' 'Eve Speaks, ' 'Adam's Soliloquy, ' and the 'Autobiography of Eve.' "Eve's Diary" has a lighter tone than the others in the series, as Eve has a strong appreciation for beauty and love. The book may have been written as a posthumous love-letter to Mark Twain's wife Olivia Langdon Clemens, or Livy, who died in June 1904, just before the story was written. Mark Twain is quoted as saying, "'Eve's Diary' is finished