10 November 1869 • Boston, Mass. (MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 00366)
I shall spend New Year’s day at home, if spared—& then I’ll see the dear old face again.1explanatory note
Got Ⓐemendationyour letter of 7th today—thank you with all my heart, dearie. Just Ⓐemendationsee how Theodore threatens an orphan.2explanatory note
Talked last night in Providence, R.I., to 1800 people in a house which has regular seats for only 1500. Gave good satisfaction.3explanatory note But tonight, my darling—tonight is the rub. Can’t possibly tell how I shall come out.
They want me to talk again in Providence this season—told them had no spare time.
Must hurry, sweetheart, Ⓐemendation& so, God bless & keep you. Good-bye.
Bless your dear heart, my worshipped Livy, I was too much “crowded” to write, during that four days’ hiatus (hiatus is a good word.)4explanatory note
enclosure:
Brother Clemens
If you dont write me oftner (for Livie), I’ll have you “for breakfast” and give her the breast—and use your feathers to reseat her Rocking Chair.
Nov 7. 2 PM.
in ink: Miss Olivia L. Langdon | Elmira | N. Y. postmarked: boston mass. nov 10 2 p.m. Ⓐemendation docketed by OLL: 133rd
Clemens was spared a lecture engagement on 1 January 1870. After an appearance in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, on New Year’s Eve, he traveled to Elmira where, except for a 4 January lecture in Owego, New York, about thirty miles to the east, he remained until the evening of 5 January, when he resumed his tour.
Clemens alludes to his enclosure, from Theodore Crane.
See the Providence review enclosed in Clemens’s next letter to Olivia.
The hiatus, which Olivia had questioned in her 7 November letter, was 2–5 November. For a reconstruction of the events that “crowded” Clemens then, see pp. 385–86. The four letters he wrote to Olivia between 6 and 9 November (docket numbers 129–32) are lost.
References
- University of California, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, Berkeley
- Machlis, Paul, ed. Union Catalog of Clemens Letters. Edited by Paul Machlis. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press. [In some cases, UCCL catalog numbers cited in this volume supersede those assigned in 1986 and reflect corrections or additions to the catalog since publication. An updated version of the catalog can be consulted via the Letters Search page at MTPO.] 1986
- Wecter, Dixon. The Love Letters of Mark Twain. Edited by Dixon Wecter. New York: Harper and Brothers. 1949
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). Mark Twain’s Letters, Volume 3: 1869. Edited by Victor Fischer, Michael B. Frank, and Dahlia Armon. The Mark Twain Papers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Also online at MTPO[bib32371]. 1992
MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK); written on three leaves of the same notebook paper as 30, 31 October, 1 November to Olivia Langdon.
LLMT , 360, brief paraphrase; L3 , 390–391.
see Samossoud Collection, p. 586.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.