Hartford, Dec. 18.
My Dear Howells:
D◇ I left No. 31 in my eldest’s reach, & it may have gone to the postman & it likewise may have gone into the fire. I confess to a dread that the latter is the case & that that stack of MS. will have to be written over again. If so, O for the return of the L lamented Herod!
You & Aldrich have made one woman deeply & sincerely grateful —Mrs. Clemens. For months—I may even say years—she has shown an unaccountable animosity toward my neck-tie, even getting up in the night to take it with the tongs & blackguard it—sometimes also going so far as to threaten it.
When I said you & Aldrich had given me two new neck-ties, & that they were in a paper in my overcoat pocket, she was in a fever of unhappiness until she found I was going to frame them; then all the venom in her nature gathered itself together,—insomuch that I, being near to a door, went without, perceiving danger.
Now I wear one of the new neck-ties, nothing being sacred in my Mrs. Clemens’s eyes that can be perverted to ◇◇◇ a gaud that shall make the person of her husband more alluring than it was aforetime.
Jo Twichell was the delightedest old boy I ever saw, when th he read the words you had written in that book. He & I went to the Concert of the Yale students last night & had a good time.2
Mrs. Clemens dreads our going to New Orleans, but I tell her she’ll have to give her consent this time.3
With kindest regards unto ye both—
Ys Ever
S. L. Clemens
P. S.—John Hay of his own free will & accord, volunteers me a letter which is so gratifying in its nature that I am obliged to copy it for you to read. I was born & reared at Hannibal, & John Hay at Warsaw, 40 miles higher up, on the river (one of the Keokuk packet ports):4
“Dear Clemens—I have just read with delight your article in the Atlantic. It is perfect—no more nor less. I don’t see how you do it. I knew all that, every word of it—passed as much time on the levee as you ever did, knew the same crowd & saw the same scenes,—but I could not have remembered one word of it all. You have the two greatest gifts of the writer, memory & imagination. I congratulate you.”
Now isn’t that [outspoken] & hearty, & just like that splendid John Hay?5
S. L. C.
Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary
On the envelope of Hay’s letter, Clemens wrote: “John Hay—complimentary of first
river article in ‘Atlantic Monthly’” (CU-MARK).
Source text(s):
Previous publication:
L6, 324–26; Paine 1912, 251, and MTB, 1:537, excerpt; Paine 1917, 784, and MTL, 1:241, with omission; Harnsberger, 39, excerpt; MTHL, 1:54–56.
Provenance:see Howells Letters in Description of Provenance.
Emendations and textual notes:
outspoken • out-|spoken