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Photographs and Manuscript Facsimiles, 1869

Reproduced here are thirty-eight contemporary images of Samuel Clemens’s and Olivia Langdon’s families, friends, and associates during the period of these letters, many of them never before published. Immediately following these documents is a representative selection of seven letters in Clemens’s holograph, reproduced in photofacsimile. We provide these documents partly for their inherent interest, and partly to afford readers a chance to see for themselves what details of the manuscript the transcription includes, as well as what it omits. Because of the imperfect nature of these facsimiles, close comparison with the transcription may turn up apparent discrepancies between the two.

Samuel L. Clemens, 1869. One of several poses from a sitting photographed by Gurney and Son, New York (see p. 113 for another). Copy in the Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library (CU-MARK), courtesy of John L. Feldman.

Olivia L. Langdon and Harriet Lewis, 1869. Tintype. Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library (CU-MARK).

Olivia L. Langdon. Dated “Oct 29 1869” inside the case in an unidentified hand. Porcelaintype. Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library (CU-MARK).

Langdon house, Elmira, 1870s. Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library (CU-MARK).

Julia Jones Beecher and her Congregational Church (later Park Church) Sunday School class, 1858–60. Olivia Langdon is at the top and her friend Emma Nye at the bottom. The composite photograph may also include Alice and Clara Spaulding, Fidelia Bridges, Ella (later Corey), Emma Sayles, and Mary Nye, most of whom remained in Beecher’s class for up to seven years (Wolcott, 6–7; Julia Jones Beecher, 13; Wisbey, 1–2).

Theodore W. Crane, c. 1869. Mark Twain Archives, Center for Mark Twain Studies at Quarry Farm, Elmira College (NElmC).

Ida B. Clark, c. 1869. Mark Twain Memorial, Hartford, Connecticut (CtHMTH).

Thomas K. Beecher, c. 1870. Stowe-Day Foundation, Hartford, Connecticut (CtHSD).

Alice Spaulding, 1860–61. Mark Twain Archives, Center for Mark Twain Studies at Quarry Farm, Elmira College (NElmC).

Clara L. Spaulding, early 1870s. Mark Twain Memorial, Hartford, Connecticut (CtHMTH).

Darius R. Ford, c. 1865. Mark Twain Archives, Center for Mark Twain Studies at Quarry Farm, Elmira College (NElmC).

Ella J. Corey and child, c. 1866. Mark Twain Archives, Center for Mark Twain Studies at Quarry Farm, Elmira College (NElmC).

Samuel E. Moffett, c. 1866. Courtesy of Vassar College Library (NPV).

Annie E. Moffett, c. 1869. Courtesy of Vassar College Library (NPV).

Mary Mason Fairbanks, 1868. Mark Twain Memorial, Hartford, Connecticut (CtHMTH).

Abel W. Fairbanks, 1880s (Fairbanks, facing 551).

Isabella Beecher Hooker, c. 1872. Stowe-Day Foundation, Hartford, Connecticut (CtHSD).

John Hooker, c. 1869. Stowe-Day Foundation, Hartford, Connecticut (CtHSD).

Edward B. Hooker, c. 1867. Stowe-Day Foundation, Hartford, Connecticut (CtHSD).

Alice B. Hooker, 1868. Stowe-Day Foundation, Hartford, Connecticut (CtHSD).

Henry Clay Trumbull, c. 1864, as chaplain of the Tenth Regiment Connecticut Volunteers. Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford (CtHi).

Harriet Beecher Stowe, c. 1870. Stowe-Day Foundation, Hartford, Connecticut (CtHSD).

John C. Day, 1861–65. Stowe-Day Foundation, Hartford, Connecticut (CtHSD).

Anna E. Dickinson, 1860. Stowe-Day Foundation, Hartford, Connecticut (CtHSD).

Oliver Wendell Holmes, 1868. Huntington Library, San Marino, California (CSmH).

James C. Redpath, c. 1870 (Pond, 533).

James K. Medbery, c. 1869, from a portrait by Frank B. Carpenter (Mackaye, 1: plate 21).

Frederick Douglass, 1860s. Huntington Library, San Marino, California (CSmH).

Charles Dudley Warner, 1870s. Stowe-Day Foundation, Hartford, Connecticut (CtHSD).

Whitelaw Reid, 1861–65. Huntington Library, San Marino, California (CSmH).

Samuel Bowles, c. 1869 (Bowles, frontispiece).

Joseph R. Hawley, 1861–65. Stowe-Day Foundation, Hartford, Connecticut (CtHSD).

Stephen Massett, 1877. California State Library (C).

Henry George, 1865 (Walker, facing 302).

Lillie Hitchcock, 1862. The Bancroft Library (CU-BANC).

John D. F. Slee, 1870s. Courtesy of Charles S. Underhill.

Schuyler Colfax, c. 1869. Library of Congress (DLC).

Josephus N. Larned, 1880s. Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society (NBuHi).

Clemens to Olivia L. Langdon, 7 January 1869, Chicago, Ill. Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library (CU-MARK). The first five pages of the letter are written on the rectos of five leaves torn from folders; the sixth page is on the recto of an enclosed leaf written to Clemens by Mary Mason Fairbanks; the verso of the enclosure served as a wrapper for the letter. Transcribed on pp. 18–19.

Manuscript page 2, to Olivia L. Langdon, 7 January 1869. Recto of the second leaf.

Manuscript page 3, to Olivia L. Langdon, 7 January 1869. Recto of the third leaf.

Manuscript page 4, to Olivia L. Langdon, 7 January 1869. Recto of the fourth leaf.

Manuscript page 5, to Olivia L. Langdon, 7 January 1869. Recto of the fifth leaf.

Manuscript page 6, enclosure to Olivia L. Langdon, 7 January 1869. Recto of the sixth leaf.

Manuscript page 7, to Olivia L. Langdon, 7 January 1869. Verso of the sixth leaf, which Clemens used as a wrapper. It bears Olivia Langdon’s contemporary endorsement (“23rd”) and a fragment of rubber band later used in storing the letter.

Clemens to Olivia L. Langdon, 13 February 1869, Cleveland, Ohio. Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library (CU-MARK). The six-page letter is written on the rectos and versos of three leaves. Transcribed on pp. 88–89.

Manuscript page 2, to Olivia L. Langdon, 13 February 1869. Verso of the first leaf.

Manuscript page 3, to Olivia L. Langdon, 13 February 1869. Recto of the second leaf.

Manuscript page 4, to Olivia L. Langdon, 13 February 1869. Verso of the second leaf.

Manuscript page 5, to Olivia L. Langdon, 13 February 1869. Recto of the third leaf.

Manuscript page 6, to Olivia L. Langdon, 13 February 1869. Verso of the third leaf.

The envelope, addressed to Olivia L. Langdon, 13 February 1869, transmitted via Charles J. Langdon. The back of the envelope bears Olivia’s contemporary endorsement (“38th”) as well as Clara Clemens’s later annotation, “missed lecture.”

Clemens to Elisha Bliss, Jr., 30 March 1869, Elmira, N.Y. Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library (CU-MARK). The two-page letter is written on both sides of a single leaf, embossed with the initial “L,” torn from a folder. Both pages bear contemporary endorsements written at the American Publishing Company. Transcribed on pp. 178–79.

Manuscript page 2, Clemens to Elisha Bliss, Jr., 30 March 1869. Verso, showing a strip of paper along the right margin added by a later owner for tipping the letter into a book.

Clemens to Jane Lampton Clemens, 11 May 1869, Hartford, Conn. Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library (CU-MARK). The letter is written on three sides of two leaves torn from a folder. Transcribed on pp. 218–19.

Manuscript page 2, to Jane Lampton Clemens, 11 May 1869. Verso of the first leaf.

Manuscript page 3, to Jane Lampton Clemens, 11 May 1869. Recto of the second leaf.

Clemens to Olivia L. Langdon, 15 May 1869 (1st of 2), Hartford, Conn. Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library (CU-MARK). This five-page letter with several marginal interpolations is written on the rectos of four leaves torn from folded sheets, with a marginal addition on the verso of the first leaf showing through the left margin of the first page. Transcribed on pp. 231–32.

Manuscript page 2, to Olivia L. Langdon, 15 May 1869 (1st of 2). Recto of the second leaf.

Manuscript page 3, to Olivia L. Langdon, 15 May 1869 (1st of 2). Recto of the third leaf.

Manuscript page 4, to Olivia L. Langdon, 15 May 1869 (1st of 2). Recto of the fourth leaf.

Manuscript page 5, to Olivia L. Langdon, 15 May 1869 (1st of 2). Verso of the first leaf.

Clemens to Elisha Bliss, Jr., 27 September 1869, Buffalo, N.Y. Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library (CU-MARK). The letter is written on both sides of a single leaf. Page 1 bears Bliss’s contemporary endorsement, “these books were all ordered to be delivered, & I wrote to each party informing them of the fact
Bliss
Sep 30th/69.” Transcribed on p. 362.

Manuscript page 2, to Elisha Bliss, Jr., 27 September 1869. Verso.

Clemens to Pamela A. Moffett, 17 December 1869, Boston, Mass. Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library (CU-MARK). This six-page letter is written on the rectos and versos of three leaves torn from the notebook in which Clemens wrote his “Diary” letters to Olivia Langdon (see pp. 381–82 n. 1). Transcribed on pp. 429–30.

Manuscript page 2, to Pamela A. Moffett, 17 December 1869. Verso of the first leaf.

Manuscript page 3, to Pamela A. Moffett, 17 December 1869. Recto of the second leaf.

Manuscript page 4, to Pamela A. Moffett, 17 December 1869. Verso of the second leaf.

Manuscript page 5, to Pamela A. Moffett, 17 December 1869. Recto of the third leaf.

Manuscript page 6, to Pamela A. Moffett, 17 December 1869. Verso of the third leaf.

References

  1. University of California, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, Berkeley
  2. Wolcott, Ella. “A Seedling Church.” In Park Church 1896[bib11429], 6–9. 1896
  3. Beecher, Julia Jones. “I Remember, I Remember.” In Park Church 1896[bib11429], 12–15. 1896
  4. Wisbey, Herbert A., Jr. “The Tragic Story of Emma Nye.” Mark Twain Society Bulletin 14 (July): 1–4. 1991
  5. Elmira College, Elmira, N.Y.
  6. Mark Twain House and Museum, Hartford, Conn.
  7. Stowe-Day Memorial Library and Historical Foundation, Hartford, Conn.
  8. Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
  9. Connecticut Historical Society, Hartford, Conn.
  10. Henry E. Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, Calif.
  11. Pond, James B. Eccentricities of Genius: Memories of Famous Men and Women of the Platform and Stage. New York: G. W. Dillingham Company. 1900
  12. MacKaye, Percy. Epoch: The Life of Steele MacKaye, Genius of the Theatre, in Relation to His Times & Contemporaries. 2 vols. New York: Boni and Liveright. 1927
  13. University of California, The Bancroft Library, Berkeley
  14. United States Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
  15. Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society, Buffalo, N.Y.