31 December 1873 • London, England (MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 01022)
Livy my darling, I re-enclosed to you, today, the note of some Boston autograph hunter1explanatory note—because I was in an ill humor. It Ⓐemendationoccurs to me, now, that I have vented the ill humor on you, not on the autograph seeker. Well, never mind, I forgive you.
Thirteen more days in England, & then I sail! If I only do get home safe, & find my darling & the Modoc well, I shall be a grateful soul. And if ever I do have another longing to leave home, even for a week, please dissipate it with a club. Sometimes I get so homesick I don’t know what to do.
Well, by & by it will all come right, no doubt. In the meantime I love you & honor you most sincerely
Mrs. Samℓ. L. Clemens | Hartford | Conn.Ⓐemendation in upper left corner: America. | rule on flap: slc postmarked: london-w zb de 30 73 2explanatory note and li and boston jan 14 paid Ⓐemendation
The note is not known to survive, nor has the autograph hunter been identified.
This postmark is probably erroneous; the possibility remains, however, that Clemens misdated his letter.
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
- 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
- Wecter, Dixon. The Love Letters of Mark Twain. Edited by Dixon Wecter. New York: Harper and Brothers. 1949
MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK).
L5 , 542–543; LLMT , 364, brief paraphrase.
see Samossoud Collection in Description of Provenance.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.