University Business - November 2006 - (Page 62)

Rising Stars Pitzer students are inspired by the institution's leader. Laura SkanderaTrombley hours of 5 and 6 in the morning, and 10 and 11 at night she can usually be found working on her other passion: the life of Mark Twain. She's nearly completed her third book on the author, and says the information she has uncovered is so compelling that it keeps her trudging back to the desk at 5 a.m. I wouldn't recom- mend writing a biography this way, but it's the only way I can squeeze it in, she says. Are we there yet? No, there are Over the years, Skandera Trombley has become a leading Twain always things that you want scholar, even appearing as a commentator in Ken Burns' 2002 documentary on the author. I had all the sad parts, she jokes. to strive for that will make the Whenever somebody died, I was on screen talking about it. institution stronger. Her fascination with Twain began while she was at the Univer- sity of Southern California, working toward her Ph.D. I had fully intended to do my dissertation on the neo-platonic progression of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn without his association with William Wordsworth's The Prelude, she says, but a chance discov- this very social reform-minded family. ery set her on a very different path. Dropping Wordsworth, Skandera Trombley wrote her disserta- A professor asked her to check out a report that someone had a tion instead on Twain and the women in his life, culminating in hundred letters supposedly written by Samuel Clemens. She trav- the 1994 book Mark Twain in the Company of Women. eled to Sacramento to meet with a philatelist who purchased the Her latest book focuses on Isabel Lyon, the controversial secre- letters from a dealer for $50, hoping the stamps would be of value. tary that worked for Clemens in the last years of his life, and kept The stamps were worthless and he was going to throw the let- copious notes on everything he did. A lot of questions about ters away, Skandera Trombley says. But his wife started to read Twain's supposed melancholy and bitterness near the end of his them and said, `I don't know who this guy is but he's funny. He life can be answered as a result of what this woman reveals. tells a good story.' It wasn't long before they connected S.L. Clemens the letter writer to Mark Twain. What Skandera Trombley saw was a per- Influences and Advisors That Skandera Trombley had recognized the influence of women spective on Clemens's life largely ignored by other biographers. in Twain's life isn't surprising, considering her own upbringing. These letters were written primarily to his daughters, she says. In many ways, my principle guide was the example set by my I didn't even know he had daughters. I had this kind of classic parents, she says. My mother was an elementary school principal American, solitary man image for no particular reason other in Los Angeles at a time when there was just one other woman in than that is what popular culture had given me. And here is Twain her district. My father elected to stay in the classroom; he spent 30 writing to his daughters saying, `This is my best anecdote and I'm years as a second-grade teacher. So seeing a woman in a position of sending it to you because I know you won't lose it.' He was really leadership was normal, and I thought the rest of the world worked treating them as intellectual equals. To date, Skandera Trombley is that way. It wasn't until I grew up that I learned differently. the only person to have read the entire collection of letters. Today, she seeks counsel and guidance from fellow presidents Intrigued by the find, she read through existing Twain biog- and administrators she has known for many years. I'm very for- raphies, and found them lacking in what she believes was a key tunate to have people that I can trust to be honest with me and ingredient in what shaped him as a writer and person. tell me when I'm doing something wrong, she says. I also work The daughters weren't really mentioned, they were just seen with a top group of administrators here at Pitzer who have been as totally extraneous. And when his wife was mentioned, it was in place since I arrived. We work together in a very cooperative either as a nullity or as someone who actually had a detrimental fashion and we trust each other and seek each other's advice. effect on his career, she says. That seemed kind of odd consid- One piece of advice they shared with her was about handling ering that at the time Twain was the most famous man in the the stresses of the job. world. I thought this popular view doesn't really reconcile with The one thing you learn when you become a college president the primary documents. is how much you worry about everything: What's the stock market Her research showed that his wife, Olivia, who came from a going to do? What are my students going to do Friday night? she well-educated, independent, and iconoclastic family, shaped many says. You have to learn how to manage that stress and be more of Twain's political beliefs. My argument is you wouldn't have 62 | November 2006 universitybusiness.com Stars.indd 62 10/24/06 10:39:53 AM http://www.universitybusiness.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of University Business - November 2006

Table of Contents
College Index
Company Index
Advisory Board
Editor's Note
Stats Watch
People Watch
Sense of Place
Viewpoint
Marketing
Human Resources
Money Matters
Community Colleges
Wireless: The "n" is Near
TECH Central
Rising Stars
Coming Back from Katrina
Business Technology
What's New
Calendar of Events
Direct Connect
End Note

University Business - November 2006