4 January 1874 • (1st of 2) • London, England (MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 01031)
P. S. I am most impatiently waiting for letters—but they’ll come tomorrow Ⓐemendation .
One more day nearly gone, my darling! How the time does drag along! Nine more days & then I sail.1explanatory note But I have a plan born of this separation. It is this. I mean to leave home for 48 hours, every month, so as to have the rich joy of getting back again constantly repeated. How does that strike you? However, I don’t mean to begin it until after next May. I want to be with you & take care of you up to that time.2explanatory note It is a dreary day—drilzzling Ⓐemendationrain—but I do love you. Don’t you ever stir out alone, day or night, my child, & don’t you ever allow Downey3explanatory note to be out of the house later than 10 at night. I would rather he were in earlier than that. I do love you, my darling.
Mrs. Samℓ. L. Clemens | Hartford | Conn. in upper left corner America | rule on flap: slc postmarked: london-w x ja 5 74 and new york jan ◇◇ paid all. Ⓐemendation
Clemens sailed from Liverpool on the Cunard steamer Parthia on 13 January (12 Jan 74 to Finlayclick to open link).
The Clemenses’ second daughter, Clara, evidently expected in May, was born on 8 June.
John or Patrick Downey, the Clemenses’ coachman and handyman since mid-1872 ( L5 , 89 n. 7, 127 n. 1).
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
- 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 , 7.
see Samossoud Collection in Description of Provenance.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.