About Laura
Laura Trombley's fifth book, Mark Twain's Other Woman, was published by Knopf on March 16, 2010 and the paperback edition will be issued by Vintage on March 8, 2011.
Laura is an internationally renowned Mark Twain scholar, authoring several books and dozens of scholarly articles on Twain. She appeared in Ken Burns's Mark Twain documentary and, as a graduate student, discovered the largest known cache of Mark Twain letters.
In addition to Mark Twain's Other Woman, Laura's other works on Twain include Mark Twain in the Company of Women and Constructing Mark Twain: New Directions in Scholarship.
Laura was raised in Southern California, and at age sixteen she attended Pepperdine University, where she earned her BA and MA. She then attended the University of Southern California, where she earned a PhD in English literature. She earned tenure in three years as an associate professor of English at SUNY Potsdam, and held several administrative posts. In four more years, she was named full professor, and she later became dean of the faculty and vice president of academic affairs at Coe College.
In addition to being an author, Laura is also the president of Pitzer College. She is known by the Pitzer community for her extraordinarily high level of energy and devotion. During her tenure, Pitzer has received more Fulbright Fellowships than any other college or university in the US (per thousand students). Pitzer's residential life program was radically transformed with the construction of three new Gold LEED-certified, award-winning residence halls and the existing buildings and grounds were thoroughly revitalized. Pitzer is a national leader in study abroad, with 74% of its students studying abroad, compared to under 2% nationally. Laura also secured the largest single-donor gift since the institution's founding and, as a result, the College was able to complete its first comprehensive capital campaign over its goal and ahead of schedule.
