7 January 1880 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: NPV, UCCL 01751)
I have been so busy I could not well write, & Livy has been too sick too write. We are very sorry to hear you have been suffering so. We supposed you were much better. I would have written long ago if I had not supposed you were getting along well. I have been buried in my book all this time, doing my best to get it done, & meantime Livy has been running down & getting weak, in consequence of overwork in re-arranging the house. I finished the book to-day, & just then Mrs. Perkins came in & said Livy must be taken away from household cares at once. I had been trying to persuade Livy to go home, before—but now I ceased to persuade, & tomorrow we leave for Elmira, very much against Livy’s desire. The children are well. We leave them here, & shall hope to be back with them in a fortnight.
We got the things safely that came from Fredonia, & they happened to be just the articles the children were longing for. I thought we had written about it, but I suppose that in the press of worries & bothers the matter was overlooked.
We have heard from Sam, & he sent me a book I very much wanted.
I shall be head over heels with proof-reading in Elmira, but I had rather do that than be the slave I have so long been in writing the book. But I hope I shan’t be so remiss again in the matter of writing to you, Ma, & I also hope that the next news we get from you will tell us you are free from the ills that have cost you so many distressing nights & days.
With love to all, from Livy & me—
References
- Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
- 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
- Webster, Samuel Charles. Mark Twain, Business Man. Edited by Samuel Charles Webster. Boston: Little, Brown and Co. 1946
- Microfilm Edition of Mark Twain’s Previously Unpublished Letters. Prepared by Anh Quynh Bui, Victor Fischer, Michael B. Frank, Robert H. Hirst, Lin Salamo, and Harriet Elinor Smith. 8 vols. Berkeley: The Bancroft Library. 2001
MS, Jean Webster McKinney Papers, Special Collections, NPV.
MTBus , 140–41, partial publication; MicroPUL, reel 1.
See McKinney Family Papers in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.