To Olivia L. Clemens
18 August 1871 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 00646)

Friday night.

Livy darling, one of these days I propose to write an Autobiography of Old Parr, the gentleman who lived to be 153 years old & saw the [reigns] of 8 English kings. I must go to England to get history, materials, manners & customs of the time, &c. Will you go? It will be wonderfully fascinating work, I tell you.1

I am a little uneasy about you—having had no word from you for 2 days my darling wife. I only imagine that the letters are delayed, for Sue has orders to telegraph if you get sick. So I am not frightened, but a little uneasy. I guess somebody will get a dispatch if I don’t hear tomorrow.

Good night, my precious, & God keep you & our child.

Samℓ.

Mrs. Samℓ. L. Clemens | Care Langdon & Co | Elmira | N. Y. [return address:] if not delivered within 10 days, to be returned to [postmarked:] hartford [ct]. aug 1911am [docketed by OLC:] 2 21st [and] 6.00 | 3

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

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1 Clemens may have been reading Henry Wilson’s Wonderful Characters; Comprising Memoirs and Anecdotes of the Most Remarkable Persons of Every Age and Nation (1854), a copy of which he had owned since 1870. One of the book’s subjects was Thomas Parr, or “Old Parr,” who was reputedly born in 1483 and lived until 1635. No indication has been found that Clemens ever pursued this early plan for a work set in old England (Gribben, 2:777; Wilson and Caulfield, 364–69).

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2 Olivia had evidently received thirteen letters (twelve of which are now lost) in eight days. Among them were probably some of the delayed letters Clemens wrote in New York and during his first days in Hartford (10 Aug 71 to OLC).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

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

Previous publication: L4, 446–447; LLMT, 361, brief paraphrase.

Provenance:see Samossoud Collection in Description of Provenance.

Emendations and textual notes:

reigns • reighns [‘h’ partly formed]

ct. • [ct]. [badly inked]