Mark Twain’s Wife and Father-in-Law Called Him “Youth,” Describing An Alternate Personality, Not a Term of Endearment

Mark Twain’s wife, who was ten years younger than he was, often called him “Youth.” Biographers and Twain himself have called this “a pet name,” but I disagree, because it is not a term of endearment. Lovers and spouses commonly refer to each other as “baby,” but not as “youth,” because the former says you are adorable, but the latter says you are immature.

Mark Twain said, “That word ‘Youth,’ as the reader has perhaps already guessed, was my wife’s pet name for me. It was gently satirical but also affectionate. I had certain mental and material peculiarities and customs proper to a much younger person than I was” (1, p. 99). In other words, he knew that he was loved, but he also knew the particular kind of behavior that “Youth” was referring to.

That “Youth” was not simply or primarily a marital term of endearment is confirmed by the fact that his father-in-law often called him “Youth,” too (1, p. 114).

In the context of Twain’s multiple personality (dissociative identity)—discussed in several posts earlier this month—we can now understand that “Youth” was a name coined by his family to describe Twain’s behavior when a brilliant, but immature, child-aged, alternate personality was out.

1. Clemens, Susy: Papa: An Intimate Biography of Mark Twain (by his thirteen-year-old daughter). Forward and Comments by Mark Twain. Edited with an Introduction by Charles Neider. Garden City, New York, Doubleday & Company, 1985.