2 January 1874 • London, England (MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 01028)
Nothing but Angostura bitters will do.
Livy my darling, I want you to be sure & remember to have, in the bath-room Ⓐemendation, when I arrive, a bottle of Scotch whisky, a lemon, & some crushed sugar, & a bottle of Angostura bitters. Ever since I have been in London I have taken in a wine-glass what is called a cock-tail (made with those ingredients,) before breakfast, before dinner, & just before going to bed.1explanatory note It was recommend mled by the surgeon of the “City of Chester” & was a most happy thought.2explanatory note To it I attribute the fact that up to this day my digestion has been wonderful—simply perfect. It remains day after day & week after week as regular as a clock. Now my dear, if you will give the order now, to have those things put in the bath-room & left there till I come, they will be there when I arrive. Will you? I love to write about arriving—it seems as if it were to be tomorrow. And I love to picture myself ringing the bell, at midnight—then a pause of a second or two—then the turning of the bolt, & “Who is it?”—then ever so many kisses—then you & I in the bath-room, I drinking my cock-tail & undressing, & you standing by—then to bed, and — —everything happy & jolly as it should be. I do love & honor you, my darling.
Mrs. Samℓ. L. Clemens | Hartford | Conn. in upper left corner: America. | rule on flap: slc/mt postmarked: london-w zb ja 2 74 and li and new york jan 15 paid Ⓐemendation all.
See the next letter, n. 3.
The physician on board the City of Chester, the Inman Line steamship that brought Clemens from New York in November 1873, has not been identified ( L5 , 472 n. 1, 474 n. 2).
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 6: 1874–1875. Edited by Michael B. Frank and Harriet Elinor Smith. The Mark Twain Papers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Also online at MTPO[bib32371]. 2002
- Wecter, Dixon. “The Love Letters of Mark Twain.” Atlantic Monthly 181 (January): 83–88. 1948
- 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 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
MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK).
L6 , 3; Wecter 1948, 87; LLMT , 190.
see Samossoud Collection in Description of Provenance.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.