From Samuel L. and
Olivia L. Clemens
to Pamela A. Moffett
12 June 1870 • Buffalo, N.Y.
(MS: NPV, UCCL 00479)
lc
Buffalo, June 12.
My Dear Sister:
We were snatched away suddenly by an urgent call to come to Elmira & help nurse Mr Langdon for a couple of weeks at some Pennsylvania springs he was going to visit. But he decided not to go, & so we simply rested a moment & then hurried back here.1 I have thus lost valuable time, & must make it up by steady work. I shall not have a chance to stir out again till we leave for the woods or sail for France—for the latter is urged upon us by Mr Langdon, who wants us to stay with Charley 3 or 4 months in Paris & keep him out of bad company & hold his nose steadily to the grindstone of study until he acquires some knowledge of the French L language. (The Professor has to come home in August & resume his charge chair in the College.) We may not leave home at all—but still, in view of the possibilities, [ is it ] is wisest for me to rush my work along & get ready for emergencies.2
The Galaxy ought to go to you. I so ordered it. Will try to think to speak of it to the publishers. I ordered it addressed to Mrs. William A. Moffett.
Good-bye. I will leave Livy room to write a [line. I ] am exceedingly glad to hear that Orion’s littlemachine is so favorably thought of by Munn & Co.3 An inventor is a poet—a true poet—and nothing in any degree less than a high order of poet—& c◇ ‸wherefore‸ his noblest pleasure dies with the stroke that completes the creature of his genius, just as the painter’s & the sculptor’s & other poets’ highest pleasure ceases with the touch that finishes their work—& so only he can understand or appreciate the legitimate “success” of his achievement, littler minds being able to get no higher than a comprehension of a vulgar moneyed success. We would all rejoice to see Orion achieve a moneyed [success. We ]with his inventions, of course—but if he can do ‸eventually do‸ something great, something imperial, it were better to do that & starve than not to do it [ al at ]all. To be Governor of Nevada is to be a poor little creeping thing [ than that ] a man may create—a very pitiful little office-holding accident, with some better man’s brass collar on4—but to invent even this modest little drilling machine shows the presence of the patrician blood of intellect—that “round & top of sovereignty”5 in whose presence whose source which separates its possessor from the common multitude & marks him as one not beholden to the caprices of politics but endowed with greatness in his own right.6
Dear Sister—
Unless Mr Clemens’ ‸work‸ presses him up to the very last minute, we shall go to Fredonia there is no doubt about that— 7 I think that he will be able to go at the last, and I do not mean to be disapointed of my visit there—
How is Ma? I hope well— When does Annie come? 8 I think that our going to Paris is very improbable—but, of course we cannot tell how things may shape themselves.
You know that I do not like travelling particularly, and dislike to leave home—
Father is gaining a little but very slowly, he and Mother are coming here just as soon as he can bear it—
Mother keeps up remarkably— The rest at home are in usual health. With love to all, I am lovingly your sister
Livy Langdon Clemens
Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary
Source text(s):Previous publication:
L4, 151–153; MTBus, 114–15, omitting OLC’s portion.
Provenance:see McKinney Family Papers in Description of Provenance.
Emendations and textual notes:
is it • [ist]
line. I • line.— | I
success. We • success.— | We
al at • alt
than that • thant
