From Olivia L. and Samuel L. Clemens to Mary E. (Mollie) Clemens
27 December 1874 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 01169)

Hartford Dec 27th

Dear Mollie

I wish that you and Orion could have looked in on us last night and seen how much we were enjoying your nuts and how many exclamations there were about their size— Mother and Mr & Mrs Crane, Mr & Mrs Twichell, Mr George Warner and Mr Hooker and Annie were all here—(Annie came Christmas morning)— 1 Of course I todld them where the great big nuts came from that they were enjoying.

I was so sorry not to send you a box this year but Mollie I have been quite miserable and we have not felt like doing a great deal for Christmas. Mr Clemens thought it better to send the fifty dollars for Orion’s Christmas and I am going to send you the Atlantic for the year— Mr Clemens will write for it part of the year at any rate and I thought you would like to see what he is doing—

I am ashamed not to have written you before but you know of old how remis I am in those ways— I commenced a letter to you imediately after your letter came— I wish you would write me when you can without waiting for me— Did I send you a picture of the baby?

We are so much obliged for and shall enjoy so very much the marmalade and peaches‸cheries‸—

Susie and the baby are ailing just now with colds, nothing serious. Susie thoroughly enjoyed the shell with the whistle and baby will enjoy her’s when she is a little older. The toilet set is so pretty and the sofa pillow I do thank you for them—

Susie has said many times “Santa Claus was good to Susy”— She is a dear little [thinkg]I wish that you might see them both—

I will enclose a picture of myself that I have had taken lately—

Give my love to Orion and write m us when you can—

Annie is not looking at all well—

The hassock Mollie will be real useful and pretty under the dining room table at first I thought it a sofa pillow—

Good bye l

Lovingly

Livy L. C.

P. S. Orion’s letter just rec’d, in which he h says he is ordering the Atlantic. Has he already ordered it?2

Sam.

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 Although Mrs. Langdon and the Cranes returned to Elmira shortly after Christmas, Annie Moffett stayed in Hartford for several months, possibly until mid-April 1875 (25 Apr 75 to JLC and PAM, n. 1).

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2 The letters the Clemenses answered are not known to survive. The photograph of Olivia, possibly taken in November, when Clara was first photographed, has not been identified (19 or 20 Nov 74 to Parish, n. 2; see also 26 Jan 75 to Howells).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

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

Previous publication: L6, 332–333.

Emendations and textual notes:

olc • [OLC rotated the stationery clockwise 90 degrees, so that the monogram appears on its side in the upper right corner]

think g • [probably corrected by SLC]