To Olivia L. Clemens
5 January 1874 • London, England
(MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 01033)

London, Jan. [◇ ] 5.

Got a letter today—the third in a week—which is [doing ] plenty well enough, my darling, considering how many duties you have to absorbd by your time. I have averaged a letter every day to you, since the day I sailed, I believe. I very often write you twice the same day; every now & then 3 times the same day; & once or twice 4 times in a day.1

But all right, my darling, pretty soon we can talk face to face, & then never mind letters. I wrote Twichell [today ]—(I got a letter to ‸from‸ him which I have mailed to you[)]. I kiss you.

Saml.

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

Click to add citation to My Citations.

1 Of the fifty-nine letters Clemens might have written to Olivia (at an average of one per day) since sailing from New York on 8 November 1873, only twenty-nine are known to survive.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

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

Previous publication:L6, 13.

Provenance:see Samossoud Collection in Description of Provenance.

Emendations and textual notes:

◇ • [partly formed character]

doing • [‘in’ conflated]

today • to-|day