From Samuel L. and Olivia L. Clemens to Mary E. (Mollie) Clemens
20 or 21 July 1872 • New Saybrook, Conn.
(MS and transcript: Davis, and Davis 1977, 3, UCCL 00775)

Dear Mollie:

Send to Moore, Weeks & Co. 12 & 14 Market street & buy a lot of their Swiss condensed milk for babes. You will have to take a sort of wholesale quantity, for they will not retail. You can keep most of it at the house & send us 3 or 4 cans a week with the clothes. Did you get the hat trunk 1

Yrs

Sam

OVER

Dear Mollie

Mr Clemens is determined that I shall bathe so I shall have to ask you to get me a bathing suit—they advertize them ready made caps & all— I would like quite a pretty one then I can keep it for this purpose for all time— [about 10 or 12 unrecovered words deleted][— Mr ]Clemens is [going ] to make me take sitz baths too so I shall have to [trouble ] you for that [black ] and white wrapper that [hangs ] on the left in my closet I use it for sitz baths— My back is troubling me some is the reason that Mr C. is taking these vigorous measures—

Susie is quite well

Lovingly Livy—

[on new page:]

Dear Mollie

More things I shall have to trouble you for— You will think there is no end to my commissions and I do not know as there will be I do not know whether I wrote you that the piece [of ] flannel that you sent is not the one that I need; I ought to have written that there were three pieces there instead of two I would now like the coarsest of the two that are left—and I wish when you are down town some day you would send get me four yards of white flannel I want good but I don’t [care ] to have it of the finest— I would like my worsted work that is in the book case drawer. I would like the two ski short flannel skirts that are cut out and are in the same drawer with the squares of flannel in the sewing room— I would like you to see the size silk that the work is done with ‸on the short skirts,‸ and send me the same size—I w I want my best black silk and my white polonaise if it is done up— The black silk is in the trunk at the left hand of my closet door, you might put things in the [bottom ] of the trunk and send [it, ] the dress could not be packed very tight as it would crush the crape—but please send the hat trunk too so that we can return our dirty clothes in it— Mollie I am so sorry to bother you with all these things but I do not know what else to do— There is no hurry about any of them so take your own time, do not go down town when it is hot and uncomfortable—

Of course you did right about Emily 2 I want to answer your letter at length but this must [go ] to the mail—I shall not want her back [with ][se such ] a [hap habit ] as that—how dreadful for an old woman like her—

Will you put in the trunk the jet pin that is on the cushion in the guest room—if I should break this one I [should have ] none to wear while geting it mended—

Susie is well—I do not know when we shall be at home it is cool & comfortable here—Love to Orion—

Lovingly Livy—

Will you send some of the crape that is on the shelf in my closet?——

[O.K. at Clemens 3 | Cor. Forest & Hawthorne | Hartford, Conn. ] [postmarked:] [new saybrook conn. jul 1872 ]

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 A bill dated 22 July from the Hartford grocers Moore, Weeks and Company records the purchase of a case of condensed milk for $12.50 and establishes the probable date of Clemens’s letter (CU-MARK). The “hat trunk” was used to send the Clemenses’ dirty laundry from Fenwick Hall to Mollie at the Hartford house.

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2 A seamstress employed at the Hartford house, not further identified (OLC to MEC, 10? July 72, CtHMTH, and 12 July 72, CU-MARK).

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3 Clemens addressed almost all of the envelopes he sent to the Hartford house during the summer in this manner—referring, presumably, to Orion Clemens—even though the enclosed notes were invariably written to Mollie. Olivia addressed her notes more conventionally to “Mrs Orion C.” or “Mrs Orion.”

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS facsimile is copy-text for the letter. The editors have not seen the MS, which was owned in 1977 by Chester L. Davis, Sr. (1903–87), who provided a photocopy to the Mark Twain Papers. The photocopy is of poor quality; many of the characters in Olivia’s portion of the letter are illegible. Davis 1977, 3, is copy-text for the envelope.

Previous publication: L5, 125–126; Davis 1977,3;Christie 1993, lot 24, Clemens’s portion only.

Provenance:Chester L. Davis, Sr., probably acquired the MS from Clara Clemens Samossoud between 1949 and 1962 (see Samossoud Collection in Description of Provenance). After Davis’s death in 1987, the MS was owned by Chester L. Davis, Jr., who sold it through Christie’s in June 1993.

Emendations and textual notes:

— Mr • [deletion implied]

going • []oing [illegible]

trouble • t[]ouble [illegible]

black • []lack [illegible]

hangs • []ngs [illegible]

of • [] f [illegible]

care • []are [illegible]

bottom • b[]tom [illegible]

it, • it[,] [illegible]

go • []o [illegible]

with • []th [illegible]

se such • seuch

hap habit • hapbit

should have • []hould h[] e [illegible]

[Davis 1977 is copy-text for ‘O.K. ... 1872’ (126.25–26)]

O.K. ... Conn. • O.K. at Clemens, Cor. Forest & Hawthorne, Hartford, Conn.

new ... 1872 • “New Saybrook, Conn.” and “Jul.” [text of postmark adopted in part from 30 July 72 to MEC; since Davis 1977 reported that the postmark was ‘very dim,’ with ‘no day or year,’ it was probably badly inked]