27 November 1875 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 01285)
Livy darling, Six years have gone by since I made my first great success in life & won you,1explanatory note & thirty years have passed since Providence made preparation for that happy success by brin sending you into the world. Every day we live together adds to the security of my confidence that we can never any more wish to be separated than we can imagine a regret that we were ever joined. You are dearer to me todayⒶemendation, my child, than your were upon this l the last anniversary of this birth-day; you were dearer then than you were a year before—you have grown more & more dear from the first of those anniversasriesⒶemendation, & I do not doubt, that, if a this precious progression will continue on to the end—that is, if my strong but sluggishly demonstrative love has not already reached its limitⒶemendation & perfection.
Let us look forward to the coming anniversaries, with their age & their gray hairs without fear & without depression, trusting & believing that the love we bear each other will be sufficient to make them blessed.
So, with abounding affection for you & our babies, I hail this day that brings you the matronly grace & dignity of three decades!
Clemens miscounted: seven years had passed since Olivia had agreed to marry him and her parents had given their consent (see L2 , 283–84).
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
- Paine, Albert Bigelow. “Mark Twain: Some Chapters from an Extraordinary Life. Ninth Paper.” Harper’s Monthly Magazine 125 (July): 249–63. 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
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). Mark Twain’s Letters, Volume 2: 1867–1868. Edited by Harriet Elinor Smith, Richard Bucci, and Lin Salamo. The Mark Twain Papers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Also online at MTPO[bib32371]. 1990
MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK).
L6 , 597; Paine 1912, 254; MTB , 1:562; MTL , 1:268–69, all with omission;
see Samossoud Collection in Description of Provenance.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.