To Jane Lampton Clemens and Family
27 February 1869 • Lockport, N.Y.
(MS, damage emended: NPV, UCCL 00262)

Lockport, N. Y., Feb. 27.

Dear Folks—

I enclose $20 for Ma (No. 10,.) I thought I was getting a little ahead of her little assessment of $35 a month, [but find ] I am falling [behindhand instead ], & have let [her go without ] money.1 Well, I [did not mean ] to do it. But you [see when ] people have been [getting ready ] for months, in a [quiet way to ] get married, they are bound to grow stingy, & go to saving up money against the awful day when it is sure to be needed. I am particularly anxious to place myself in a [position ] where I can carry on my married life in good shape on my own hook, because I have paddled my own canoe so long that I could not be satisfied, now, to let anybody help me—& my proposed father-in-law is naturally so liberal that it would be just like him to want to give us a start in life. But I don’t want it that way. I can start myself. I don’t want any help. I can run the institution without any outside assistance; & I shall have a wife who will stand by me like a [soldier ] through thick & thin, & never complain. She is only a little body, but she hasn’t her peer in Christendom. I gave her only a plain gold engagement ring, when fashion imperatively demands a two- hundred dollar diamond one—& told her it was typical of her future lot—namely, that she would have to flourish on substantials rather than luxuries. {But you see I know the girl—she don’t care anything about luxuries, for ‸and‸ although she has a respectable fortune in jewels, she wears none of any consequence. One seldom sees a diamond about her.} She is a splendid girl. She spends no money but her usual year’s allowance, & she spends nearly every cent of that on other people. She will be a good [sensible ] little wife, without any airs about her. I don’t make intercession for her beforehand & ask you to love her, for there isn’t any use in that—you couldn’t help it if you were to [try. In ] fact, you had better, in self-defence, take warning by Mrs. Brooks & all of Livy’s other friends, & try to learn to hate her—for I warn you that whosoever comes within the fatal influence of her beautiful nature is her willing slave forevermore. I take my affidavit on that statement. Her father & mother & brother [embrace ] her & kiss her & [pet her ] constantly, precisely as if [she ] were a [ sweetheart, instead of ] a blood relation. She [has unlimited ] power over her [father, ] & yet she never uses it [except ] to make him help people [who ] stand in need of help, & [lavishes ]

[seven lines (about 40 words) missing] 2

[allowance. ]

But if I get fairly [started ] on the subject of my bride, I never shall get through—& so I will [quit ] right here. I went to Elmira a little over a week ago, & staid four days & then had to go to New York on business. [Now Lockport wants a ] lecture—[shall talk to-night & ] Monday night,3 [& then I shall go ] to Hartford, [avoiding New ] York city if [possible so as to ] save time. I will

[thirteen lines (about 75 words) missing 4]

Letter of 27 February 1869 to Jane Lampton Clemens and family. Surviving portion of MS page 1, with missing words editorially reconstructed (CU-MARK).

Letter of 27 February 1869 to Jane Lampton Clemens and family. Surviving portion of MS page 5, with missing words editorially reconstructed (CU-MARK).

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 Since March 1868 Clemens had been sending his mother an average of forty dollars per month, slightly more than she had requested, and therefore he was in fact “a little ahead” on his commitment to her. Since early December 1868 he had sent the money in twenty-dollar increments, which she recorded and numbered consecutively on the blank pages of one of his old piloting notebooks. Most of the letters enclosing these payments have not survived, but her record, kept in Clemens’s 1860–61 notebook, shows that she received twenty dollars from Clemens on 18 and 26 January 1869 (payments she numbered 7 and 8), on 3 February (numbered 9), and on 3, 6, and 30 March (numbered 10, 11, and 12) (JLC, 4).

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2 If, as seems likely, the missing passage included some further remarks about Olivia which Clemens asked be kept private, it was probably excised by his immediate family before the remaining text was passed on to other, less intimate, relatives and friends. Whatever the motive, Clemens’s family were much the most likely persons to have removed both this and the later passage as well, for by the time Albert Bigelow Paine first published the letter (MTB, 1:378–79), the damage had already been done.

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3 That is, Saturday, 27 February, in Lockport, and Monday, 1 March, in Geneseo, New York—but the Lockport lecture had to be postponed (see 28 Feb 69 to OLL).

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4 Although paper sufficient for only thirteen lines is demonstrably missing (the bottom two-thirds of manuscript page number 6), it is likely that more of the original letter was destroyed or removed. For on the evening of 28 February, Clemens told Olivia that he had written “quite a long letters home & to Mrs. Fairbanks last night & this morning.” If he had concluded this letter home at the bottom of page 6, it would have been only two-thirds as long as the letter to Fairbanks.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, damage emended, Jean Webster McKinney Family Papers, Vassar College Library (NPV).

Previous publication: L3, 120–122; MTB, 1:378–79, MTL, 156–57, with omissions; MTMF, 101, brief quotations; Harnsberger, 56, excerpts.

Provenance:see McKinney Family Papers, pp. 583–85.

Emendations and textual notes:

but find (ABP) • but [i] [torn]

behindhand instead • behindh[ ] |stead [torn]; behind with her in-|stead (ABP); behind with her instead (MTL) [Paine altered Clemens’s ‘h’ to a ‘w’]

her go without (ABP) • her [ ] [torn]

did not mean (ABP) • di[d ] [torn]

see when (ABP) • s[ ] [torn]

getting ready (ABP) • g[ ] [torn]

quiet way to (ABP) • qui[ ] [torn]

position • po-|sit[]on [torn]

soldier • soldie[r] [torn]

sensible • s[e]sible [torn]

try. In • try.—|In

embrace • em[] |brace [torn]

pet her • pet h[] [torn]

she • s[h] [torn]

sweetheart, instead of • sweetheart, []ste[ ] [torn]

has unlimited • has [] |limited [torn]

father, • fath[] [torn]

except • exc[] [torn]

who • w[h] [torn]

lavishes • lavi[] [torn]

allowance. • a[llo]wa[nce] [torn]

started • s[tt]ed [torn]

quit • quit quit [corrected miswriting]

Now Lockport wants a • Now [L ] [torn; follows ‘X’ in pencil in an unidentified hand]

shall talk to-night & • shall [t ] [torn]

& then I shall go • & [ ] [torn]

avoiding New • avoi [ ] [torn]

possible so as to • possi[ ] [torn]