26 August 1878 • St. Niklaus, Switzerland (MS, in pencil: CLjC, UCCL 01590)
Livy darling, we came through a-whoopingⒶemendation, to-day, 6 hours tramp up steep hills & down steep hills, in mud & water shoe-deep, & in a steady pouring rain which never moderated a moment. I beⒶemendation was as chipper & fresh as a lark all the way & arrived without the slightest sense of fatigue. But we were soaked, & my shoes full of water, so we at once stripped & went to bed for 2½ hours while our traps were thoroughly dried, & our boots greased in addition. Then we put our clothes on hot & went to table d’hote.
Made some nice English friends, and shall see them at Zermat tomorrow. Gathered a small bouquet of new flowers, but they got spoiled. I sent you a safety-match box full of flowers last night from Leŭcherbad. The great mountain profile. 1explanatory note
I have just tle telegraphed you to wire the family news to me at Riffle tomorrow. I do hope you are all well & having as jolly a time as we are.—for I love you, sweetheart, & also, in a measure, the Bays. Give my love to Clara & also to the cubs. Lovingly always,
in ink: Mrs S. L. Clemens | Hotel Jungfrau | Room 60 Interlaken in another hand: Beaurivage | Ouchy postmarked: st nicolaus 27 viii 78 and interlaken 29 viii 78–3 and ouchy 30 viii 78k1– and viege remainder illegible
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
- N&J2. Mark Twain’s Notebooks & Journals, Volume II (1877–1883). Edited by Frederick Anderson, Lin Salamo, and Bernard L. Stein. The Mark Twain Papers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. 1975
- Paine, Albert Bigelow, ed. Mark Twain’s Letters. Edited by Albert Bigelow Paine. 2 vols. New York: Harper and Brothers. 1917
MS, in pencil, CLjC. This letter to Olivia Clemens, like those of 23click to open link and 24 Augustclick to open link, is written on pages torn from a notebook (evidently Notebook 15—see N&J2, 113–52).
MTL , 1:335–36; Christie’s catalog, 9 June 1992, no. 7498, lot 36, partial publication.
Chester L. Davis, Sr., probably acquired the MS from Clara Clemens Samossoud sometime between 1949 and 1962 (see Samossoud Collection in Description of Provenance). After his death in 1987, the MS was owned by Chester L. Davis, Jr., who sold it through Christie’s in June 1992. Then or thereafter it was purchased by CLjC.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.