12? September 1861 • Carson City, Nev. Terr. (MS, damage emended: NPV, UCCL 02715)
well, although I believe I never had the pleasure of her Ⓐemendationacquaintance,) and left for California the same day; Ⓐemendation and I told him plainly that I did not believe Ⓐemendation it, and wouldn’t, if he w swore Ⓐemendationit— for I didn’t, Mollie Ⓐemendation, and didn’t think Billy could be as stupid as Ⓐemendation that. On the contrary, I thought he was the most Ⓐemendation talented boy that Keokuk had ever produced Ⓐemendation. But when I got back, Orion confirmed Billy’s statement—so, you see, I am forced to believe that—(that they are both liars.) If I ever were to Ⓐemendation marry, I should Ⓐemendation would certainly stay at home a week, even if the Devil were in town with a writ for my arrest.1explanatory note
Why don’t Ma and Pamela write? Please kiss Jennie for me2explanatory note——
(P. S.—And tell her when she is fifteen years old, I will kiss her myself——)
(P. S.—If she is good-looking.)
P. S.—Don’t get “huffy.”
P. S.—Write.
Clemens knew William Horace Clagett (1838–1901) while Clagett was studying law in Keokuk in 1856 and 1857. Admitted to the bar in September 1858, Clagett “practiced law in Keokuk and made his first political speeches for [Stephen] Douglas in the campaign of 1860. In the spring of 1861 he was married to Miss Mary E. Hart. . . . On the day of his marriage he, with his brother George, started across the plains for California. . . . He had a hard trip across the plains, and finding nothing better to do, went to work cutting and hauling wood near Dayton, Nevada” (Dixon, 249–50; see also Andrew J. Marsh, 698). Clagett briefly practiced law in Carson City before accompanying Clemens to the Humboldt district in December 1861, eventually settling in Unionville. Mary Clagett (b. 1840 or 1841) was the daughter of a Keokuk merchant. In the fall of 1862 she accompanied Mollie Clemens to Nevada when both women came to rejoin their husbands (Keokuk Census [1860], 48; MEC to OC, 1 Sept 62, CU-MARK). Clemens’s remarks on marriage may have been evoked in part by a 2 August letter in which Mollie informed Orion of her sister’s imminent wedding (see the next letter, n. 6). Mollie’s letter reached Carson City on 9 September, and Clemens could have seen it on the twelfth, the estimated date of his return from Aurora.
Jennie Clemens’s sixth birthday, on 14 September 1861, presumably was the occasion for Clemens’s “kiss” and the joking that follows.
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
- SLC (Samuel Langhorne Clemens). Mark Twain’s Letters, Volume 1: 1853–1866. Edited by Edgar Marquess Branch, Michael B. Frank, and Kenneth M. Sanderson. The Mark Twain Papers. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Also online at MTPO[bib32371]. 1988
- Dixon, W. W. Sketch of the Life and Character of William H. Clagett. Contributions to the Historical Society of Montana 4: 249–57. 1903
- Marsh, Andrew J., Samuel L. Clemens, and Amos Bowman. Reports of the 1863 Constitutional Convention of the Territory of Nevada. Edited by William C. Miller, Eleanore Bushnell, Russell W. McDonald, and Ann Rollins. Reno: Legislative Counsel Bureau, State of Nevada 1972
- Keokuk Census. “Free Inhabitants in Keokuk.” National Archives Microfilm Publications, Microcopy no. 653. Washington, D.C.: General Services Administration. [1860] 1967
- University of California, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, Berkeley
MS, Jean Webster McKinney Family Papers, Vassar College Library (NPV). Only the last leaf of the MS survives. As the illustration shows, a piece has been torn out of the leaf at the upper right corner, affecting seven lines; the missing text has been conjecturally supplied by emendation. Accompanying the MS facsimile is a type facsimile of the same lines with the emended readings in place.
Transcript:
well, although I believe I never had the ple[asure of]
her acquaintance,) and left for California[ the same]
day, and I told him plainly that I did [not be-]
lieve it, and wouldn’t, if he swore it—fo[r I didn’t,]
Mollie, and did think Billy could be as [stupid]
as that. On the contrary, I thought he wa[s the]
most talented boy that Keokuk had ever [pro-]
duced. But when I got back, Orion confirmed
L1 , 123–124.
See McKinney Family Papers, pp. 459–61.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.