To Olivia L. Langdon
29 and 30 January 1869 • Galena, Ill.
(MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 00243)

Galena, Jan. 29, 1869.

Livy darling, I have received your letter, & am perfectly delighted with it. I have finished my lecture tonight, the people are satisfied, your kiss has comforted me, & I am as happy & contented as anybody in the world [to-night.1 And] I am not sick yet, & even believe I shall not be—though for many days I have believed that only the will to finish my allotted task was really keeping me up, & &—& have felt sometimes that if I were delivering the last lecture of the list, & knew all responsibility was at last removed, that with the passing away of the tense strain, I would surely drop to the floor without strength enough to rise again for weeks. But last night’s good rest & your cheery letter have made me strong, & I feel lively & hearty now. And in the morning I shall send a telegram to New York notifying Mr. Brooks that I shall start for Elmira next Wednesday morning (or Tuesday night,) without fail, God willing, so that he can ship my honored Livy straight home at once 2—for I notified the Dubuque man3 several days ago not to make any more appointments for me in the West. I think I shall reach Elmira very early in the morning Thursday (at the furthest—maybe sooner) & then I shall make a racket in the closet of my room at your house, & you must get up immediately,! Livy, & dress suddenly & come out & give me the Good-morning kiss I shall have traveled a thousand miles to get—won’t you, Livy? And if I get there at any [other ] hour of the day, you must meet me in the hall or the drawing-room—please, Livy—because I want to see you & I can’t sit an hour or two in the library first. Now remember, Livy dear.

I almost wanted to be dangerously ill, because I knew you would come, & I wouldn’t care so very much for being sick provided it brought me a sight of you. You are a good girl, Livy—you are the best & the truest girl that I know. Bless your heart, too, for sending me “The Hidden Christ” sermon.4 I see it is marked, by the hand I so love, & the fact that it is midnight now & I must take the cars at 4 oclock in the morning shall not deter me from wri reading it before I sleep, I don’t care if you do scold. I read—I devour religious literature, now, with a genuine interest & pleasure that I am so glad to see growing—& I hope it may always grow—& I do believe it will.

This is the last letter I shall write before I see you, my best beloved, my most honored Livy, & I am sorry it must be so short—but then I must read the sermon, & I must sleep a little. And so, with a loving kiss I bid you good night & wish you peace & contentment & a happy spirit, you core of my heart, Livy!

Always, devotedly

Samℓ. L. C.

P.S. Shan’t read it over—you must correct it.

Miss Olivia L. Langdon

Present.

Care of the Infant Prodigy.

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 Clemens lectured in Galena’s Bench Street Methodist Church. He was a late substitute for William Henry Milburn (1823–1903), the blind Methodist Episcopal and Protestant Episcopal preacher and former chaplain of the United States Congress (1845, 1853), who had gone to Berlin for an eye operation (“W. H. Milburn . . . ,” Muscatine [Iowa] Courier, 11 Feb 69, 2). In announcing the substitution, the Galena Gazette of 26 January called “the change of programme a good one, as it is well to have one humorist” (“The Lectures,” 3). And on 2 February the paper expressed its satisfaction with the result:

“Mark Twain” lectured to the largest audience of the course, in this city, Friday evening. He was introduced in a few neat and appropriate remarks by Mr. A. S. Campbell. The Lecturer held his audience for an hour and a half vibrating between hysterical fits of laughter, occasioned by his inimitable drolleries[,] and feelings of admiration produced by his wonderful descriptive powers. We were agreeably surprised in the lecture delivered by “Mark Twain.” It has become the fashion of late for men whose names have become familiar to the people to present themselves before the public as lecturers[.] Perhaps they have walked a thousand miles in a thousand consecutive hours, or it may be they have gained the sympathies of the public by their just and conscientious administrative abilities. Such men, however much they may have distinguished themselves in their respective callings, are in the lecture field what quacks are to the medical fraternity: “Mark Twain” does not belong to this class. His ability as a lecturer is not excelled by his fame as a writer. (“The Lecture,” 3)

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2 Probably on 26 or 27 January Olivia had begun a visit with the Langdons’ friends Fidele Brooks and her husband Henry, a leather merchant, who lived at 675 Fifth Avenue in New York City (L2, 276 n. 10, 278 n. 2). She returned to Elmira no later than Wednesday, 3 February, the day before she and Clemens became formally engaged.

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3 G. L. Torbert, Clemens’s lecture agent.

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4 Olivia must have sent the 23 January 1869 issue of the Plymouth Pulpit, which first published Henry Ward Beecher’s sermon, delivered at Plymouth Church on 10 January. Beecher expanded upon “two thoughts, . . . first, The Lord’s presence in unperceived ways in the daily wants of his people; and second, The full privilege of the soul in God’s presence and providence discerned when the gift is vanishing away” (Henry Ward Beecher 1869, 277).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK)

Previous publication: L3, 81–83; LLMT, 357, brief paraphrase.

Provenance:see Samossoud Collection, p. 586.

Emendations and textual notes:

to-night. And • to-night.—|And

other • [‘o’ malformed; possibly mended from partly formed ‘h’ or ‘t’]