30 October 1873 • SS Batavia en route from Liverpool, England, to New York, N.Y. (MS: CLjC, UCCL 00978)
We have plowed a long way over the water, sea, & there’s twenty-two hundred miles of restless water between us, now, beside the railway stretch. And yet you are so
(run to fourth page) 1explanatory note
present with us, so close to us that a span & a whisper would bridge the distance.2explanatory note
The first three days were stormy, & wife, child, maid & Mrs. & Miss Spaulding were all sea-sick 25. hours out of the 24, & I was sorry I ever started. However, it has been smoothe,Ⓐemendation & balmy, & sunny & altogether lovely for a day or two now, & at night there is a broad luminous highway stretching over the sea to the moon, over which the spirits of the sea are traveling up & down all through the secret night & having a genuine good time, I make no doubt.
To-day they discovered a “collie” on board! I find (as per advertisement which I sent you) that they won’t carry dogs in these ships at any price. This one has been concealed up to this time. Now his owner has to pay £10 or heave him overboard.Ⓐemendation Fortunately the doggie is a performing doggie & the money will be paid. So y Ⓐemendation after all it was just as well you didn’t c entrust your collie to us.3explanatory note
A poor little child died at midnight & was buried at dawn this morning—sheetted & shotted & sunk in the middle of the lonely ocean in water 3,000 three thousand fathoms deep. Pity the poor mother.
Clemens began this letter on the front of a four-page folder, then turned it over and continued on the back before writing the last two pages on the inside.
Possibly a quotation, although no source has been found.
References
- The James S. Copley Library, La Jolla, California. The collection of the Copley Library was sold in a series of auctions at Sotheby’s, New York, in 2010 and 2011.
- 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
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). Mark Twain’s Letters, Volume 5: 1872–1873. Edited by Lin Salamo and Harriet Elinor Smith. The Mark Twain Papers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Also online at MTPO[bib32371]. 1997
- Paine, Albert Bigelow. “Mark Twain: Some Chapters from an Extraordinary Life. Eighth Paper.” Harper’s Monthly Magazine 125 (June): 104–19. 1912
- Paine, Albert Bigelow. Mark Twain: A Biography. By Albert Bigelow Paine. 3 vols. New York: Harper and Brothers. [Volume numbers in citations are to this edition; page numbers are the same in all editions.] 1912
- Paine, Albert Bigelow, ed. Mark Twain’s Letters. Edited by Albert Bigelow Paine. 2 vols. New York: Harper and Brothers. 1917
- Christie. Catalog for sale of 22 May. New York: Christie, Manson and Woods International. 1981
- Sotheby. Fine Printed and Manuscript Americana. Sale no. 5031 (26 April). New York: Sotheby Parke Bernet. 1983
MS, James S. Copley Library, La Jolla, California (CLjC).
L5 , 459–460; Paine 1912, 112, brief excerpt; MTB , 1:494, brief excerpt; MTL , 1:209–10; Christie 1981, lot 69, excerpts; Sotheby 1983, lot 4, excerpts.
The MS was sold by Christie in May 1981, by Charles W. Sachs of the Scriptorium (Beverly Hills) after July 1981, and then by Sotheby Parke-Bernet in April 1983. It was purchased by CLjC in May 1983 from an unidentified dealer.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.