Mark Twain Project :: Letters :: : an electronic text

Calendar of Courtship Letters, 1868–1870

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This calendar, spanning volumes 2–4 of Mark Twain’s Letters, lists every letter Clemens is believed to have sent Olivia Langdon—whether or not any text for it has survived—between 7 September 1868 and 20 January 1870, shortly before their marriage on 2 February. Nearly half the courtship letters are now lost. Nevertheless, missing letters have been assigned specific dates and places, or at least a specific range of dates and places, as the evidence warrants. The docket numbers of missing letters (Olivia usually numbered each envelope) have been inferred from the letters that do survive and are supplied within square brackets. Bracketed numbers are also supplied whenever an envelope is missing and no docket appears on the letter, and, in one case [81½], when Olivia may not have numbered a letter at all.

docket	date	place
1	7 and 8 Sept 68	Elmira
2	21 Sept 68	St. Louis
[3]	4–5 Oct 68	Hartford
4	18 Oct 68	Hartford
5	30 Oct 68	Hartford
6	28 Nov 68	New York
[7]	missing, 28 Nov–3 Dec 68	New York
8	4 Dec 68 (1st of 2)	New York
9	4 Dec 68 (2nd of 2)	New York
10	5 and 7 Dec 68	New York
11	9 and 10 Dec 68	New York
12	12 Dec 68	Norwich, N.Y.
13	19 and 20 Dec 68	Fort Plain, N.Y.
14	21 and 23 Dec 68	Detroit
15	23 and 24 Dec 68	Lansing, Mich.
16	25 Dec 68	Lansing
17	27 Dec 68	Tecumseh, Mich.
18	30 Dec 68	Cleveland
19	31 Dec 68	Cleveland
20	2 Jan 69	Fort Wayne, Ind.
[21]	missing, 4 or 5 Jan 69 1	Indianapolis or Chicago
22	7 Jan 69	Rockford, Ill.
23	7 Jan 69	Chicago
[24]	missing, 10 Jan 69 2	Galesburg, Ill.
25	12 Jan 69	El Paso, Ill.
26	13 and 14 Jan 69	Ottawa, Ill.
27	14 Jan 69	Davenport, Iowa
28	17 Jan 69	Chicago
29	19 Jan 69	Cleveland
30	20 and 21 Jan 69	Toledo
31	21 and 22 Jan 69	Norwalk, Ohio
32	22 Jan 69	Cleveland
33	23 and 24 Jan 69	Cleveland
34	24 Jan 69	Cleveland
35	26 and 27 Jan 69	Batavia, Ill.
[36]	missing, 27? or 28? Jan 69	Freeport, Ill., or Waterloo, Iowa
37	29 and 30 Jan 69	Galena, Ill.
38	13 Feb 69	Cleveland
[39]	13 and 14 Feb 69	Ravenna, Ohio
[40]	15 Feb 69	Ravenna
41	17 Feb 69	Titusville, Pa.
[42]	missing, 23 Feb 69 3	Trenton, N.J.
43	26 Feb 69	Stuyvesant, N.Y.
44	27 Feb 69	Lockport, N.Y.
42 45	28 Feb 69	Rochester
46	2 Mar 69	Rochester
47	4 Mar 69	Lockport
47 48	5 Mar 69	Hartford
48 49	6 Mar 69 (1st of 2)4	Hartford
50	6 Mar 69 (2nd of 2)	Hartford
51	8 Mar 69	Hartford
52	8 and 9 Mar 69	Hartford
53	10 Mar 69	Hartford
54	12 Mar 69	Hartford
[55]	12–13 Mar 69	Hartford
56	13 Mar 69	Hartford
[57]	missing 13–16 Mar 69	Boston; New York; Newtown, N.Y.
[58]	missing
[59]	missing 19–20 Mar 69 5	Sharon, Pa.
[60]	missing
61	8 May 69	New York
62	8 May 69	Hartford
[63]	missing, 9? May 69	Hartford
64	9 May 696	Hartford
[65]	missing, 10 May 69	Hartford
[66]	missing, 10–12 May 69	Hartford
67	12 May 69	Hartford
68	13 May 69	Hartford
69	14 May 69	Hartford
70	15 May 69 (1st of 2)	Hartford
[71]	15 May 69 (2nd of 2)	Hartford
72	15 and 16 May 69	Hartford
73	17 and 18 May 69	Hartford
[74]	missing, 18? May 69	Hartford
75	19 and 20 May 69	Hartford
[76]	missing 20–23 May 69 7	Hartford and New York?
[77]	missing
[78]	missing
[79]	missing
[80]	missing
81	24 May 69	So. Windsor, Conn.
[81½]	29 May 698	Elmira
82	8 June 69	Elmira
83	21 June 69	Hartford
84	23 June 69	New York
[85]	missing 12–22 July 69	Buffalo and Cleveland
[86]	missing 1–7 Aug 69 9	Buffalo
[87]	missing
[88]	missing
[89]	missing
90	8 Aug 69	Buffalo
[91]	missing, 9? Aug 69	Buffalo
[92]	missing, 10? Aug 69	Buffalo
[93]	missing, 11? Aug 69	Buffalo
[94]	missing, 12? Aug 69	Buffalo
[95]	missing, 13? Aug 69	Buffalo
[96]	missing, 14? Aug 69	Buffalo
[97]	missing, 15? Aug 69	Buffalo
[98]	missing, 16? Aug 69	Buffalo
[99]	missing, 17? Aug 69	Buffalo
[100]	missing, 18? Aug 69	Buffalo
101	19 Aug 69	Buffalo
[102]	missing, 19 or 20 Aug 69	Buffalo
[103]	missing, 20 Aug 69 10	Buffalo
104	21 Aug 69	Buffalo
[105]	missing, 22? Aug 69	Buffalo
[106]	missing, 23? Aug 69	Buffalo
[107]	missing, 24? Aug 69	Buffalo
108	25 and 26 Aug 69	Buffalo
[109]	missing, 30 or 31 Aug or 1 Sept 69 11	Buffalo
110	1 Sept 69	Buffalo
[111]	missing, 2? Sept 69	Buffalo
[112]	missing, 3? Sept 69	Buffalo
113	3 Sept 69	Buffalo
[114]	missing, 4? Sept 69	Buffalo
[115]	missing, 5? Sept 69	Buffalo
115½	6 and 7 Sept 6912	Buffalo
116	7 Sept 69	Buffalo
117	8 and 9 Sept 69	Buffalo
[118]	missing 14–29 Sept 69	Buffalo
[119]	missing
[120]	missing
[121]	missing
[122]	missing
[123]	missing
[124]	missing
[125]	missing
[126]	missing
[127]	missing, 28? or 29? Oct 69 13	en route to Pittsburgh?
128	30, 31 Oct, 1 Nov 69	Pittsburgh
[129]	missing, 6? Nov 69	Boston
[130]	missing, 7? Nov 69	Boston?
[131]	missing, 8? Nov 69	Worcester? or Boston, Mass.
[132]	missing, 9? Nov 69 14	Boston or Providence, R.I.
133	10 Nov 69	Boston
134	10 and 11 Nov 69	Boston
[135]	missing, 12? Nov 69	Boston?
[136]	missing, 13? Nov 69	Norwich, Conn.
[137]	missing, 14? Nov 69 15	Norwich, Conn.
138	15 and 16 Nov 69	Clinton and Holyoke, Mass.
[139]	missing, 17? Nov 69	Danvers or Boston, Mass.
[140]	missing, 18? Nov 69	Boston?
141	19 Nov 69	Boston
[142]	missing, 20? Nov 69	Boston
[143]	missing, 21? Nov 69	Boston
[144]	missing, 22? Nov 69	Boston
[145]	missing, 23? Nov 69	Boston or Hartford
[146]	missing, 24? Nov 69	Hartford
147	24 and 25 Nov 69	Hartford and Boston
148	25 Nov 69	Boston
149	27 Nov 69	Boston
150	28 Nov 69	Boston
[151]	29 Nov 69	Boston
[152]	missing 7–13 Dec 69 16	Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; Germantown, Pa.; West Meriden, Conn.; New Britain, Conn.; or Springfield, Mass.
[153]	missing
[154]	missing
[155]	14 Dec 69	Springfield, Mass.
156	15 and 16 Dec 69	Pawtucket, R.I., and Boston
[157]	missing, 17 Dec 69	Boston
[158]	missing, 18 Dec 69 17	Boston
158 159	18 and 19 Dec 6918	Boston
160	21 Dec 69	Boston
[161]	missing, 21? Dec 69	Hudson, Mass.
[162]	missing, 22? Dec 69 19	Portland, Me.
163	25 Dec 69	Boston
[164]	missing, 25? Dec 69 20	Boston
[165]	missing, 26? Dec 69	Boston
166	27 Dec 69	New Haven
[167]	missing, 27–31 Dec 69 21	New Haven; Trenton, N.J.; Newark; Wilkes-Barre, Pa.; or Williamsport, Pa.
168	6 Jan 70	New York
169	8 Jan 70 (1st of 2)	Troy, N.Y.
170	8 Jan 70 (2nd of 2)	Troy
[171]	missing, 9? Jan 70	Troy
172	10 Jan 70 (1st of 2)	Albany
173	10 Jan 70 (2nd of 2)	Albany
[174]	missing, 11? Jan 70 22	West Troy, Troy, or Albany, N.Y.
[175]	missing, 12? Jan 70	Rondout, N.Y.
176	13 Jan 70	Cambridge, N.Y.
177	14 Jan 70	Troy
178	14 Jan 70	Utica, N.Y.
[179]	missing, 15? Jan 70	Oswego, N.Y.
[180]	missing, 16? Jan 70	Oswego?
[181]	missing, 17? Jan 70	Baldwinsville, N.Y.
[182]	missing, 18? Jan 70 23	Syracuse or Ogdensburg, N.Y.?
[183]	missing, 19? Jan 70 24	Buffalo?
184	20 Jan 70	Hornellsville, N.Y.

Explanatory Notes

Editorial Signs

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1 Clemens evidently did not write on 3 January from Fort Wayne (see 14 Jan 69 to OLL). nor on 6 January from Rockford until past midnight (letter 22). He lectured in Indianapolis on 4 January and the following day may have stopped in Chicago en route to Rockford.

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2 Very likely Clemens wrote to Olivia on 10 January from Galesburg, the same day he wrote to Harriet Lewis, enclosing both letters in an envelope addressed to Charles J. Langdon (see 10 Jan 69 to Lewis, n. 6).

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3 Because Clemens was in Elmira from 19 through 22 February, and did not write on either 24 or 25 February, this letter was almost certainly written on 23 February from Trenton (17 Feb 69 to Fairbanks, 26 Feb 69 to OLL).

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4 Whereas Olivia renumbered Clemens’s 28 February letter to correct a miswriting, she presumably renumbered these two letters after the late arrival of his letter of 4 March.

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5 Clemens could have written these letters during two intervals when he was absent from Elmira: 13–16 March and 19–20 March. He was in Elmira on 17, 18, and possibly 19 March, and again from about 21 March through early May (see p. 175).

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6 The envelope published with the 9 May letter (docket number 64) may actually belong to a missing letter of 10 May (see 10 May 69 to Redpath, n. 2), which would make the 9 May letter number 63, the 10 May letter number 64, and two letters written 10–12 May numbers 65 and 66 (9 May 69 to OLL, n. 5).

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7 It is not possible to assign these letters to specific days or places. Presumably Clemens sent some of them from Hartford. He was in New York City by 23 May, however, and may have written one or more there before his arrival in South Windsor, Connecticut, by that evening. He did not write from South Windsor until the next day.

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8 Since no docket number is missing between 81 and 82, this undated note, if written on 29 May as its content suggests, was either not assigned a number by Olivia, or, like Clemens’s letter of 6 and 7 September, was assigned the “½” number conjectured here.

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9 Except for his visits to Cleveland in mid-July and Buffalo in early August, Clemens spent most of the time between 23 June and 8 August with Olivia in Hartford, Elmira, and Niagara Falls (26 June 69 to JLC and PAM; 1 Aug 69 to Bliss, n. 2; 8 Aug 69 to OLL, n. 1).

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10 It must have been in this letter or the preceding one that Clemens enclosed the letter he received on 20 August from Pamela Moffett (see 20 and 21 Aug 69 to PAM).

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11 Clemens went to Elmira on Friday, 27 August, and probably returned to Buffalo on Monday, 30 August.

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12 Olivia used Clemens’s standard method of interpolating a number by adding “½,” indicating that she received or docketed this letter after letter 116.

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13 Clemens spent most of the time between 3 and 30 September in Buffalo, with at least one weekend trip to Elmira (from 10 to 13 September). On 30 September, he went to Elmira and remained there for almost a month, until the beginning of his lecture tour. It is therefore probable that he wrote letters 118 through 127 in Buffalo between 14 and 29 September (one of them on the night of 26 September), although he may have written the last of the sequence en route to Pittsburgh, his first lecture stop, on 28 or 29 October (8 and 9 Sept 69 to OLL; 26 and 27 Sept 69 to Fairbanks; 27 Sept 69 to Bliss, n. 2; 27 Oct 69 to Severance).

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14 In his letter of 10 November 69 to Olivia, Clemens confessed to a “four days’ hiatus”—probably 2–5 November—during which he wrote no letters. It is therefore likely that he wrote letters 129–32 during the next four days. His whereabouts in the first part of November remain somewhat uncertain (see pp. 385–86).

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15 In one of these three missing letters, Clemens evidently enclosed a photograph of Josh Billings (see 15 and 16 Nov 69 to OLL, n. 3).

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16 Clemens probably did not write to Olivia on 30 November since he expected to see her early the next day in New York City. He spent the week of 1–7 December with her there, except for a trip to Poughkeepsie to lecture on 3 December. Therefore he probably wrote letters 152–54 after he left New York on 7 December. Of the places where he lectured or stayed between 7 and 14 December, only Mt. Vernon, New York, on 10 December, was an unlikely site for a letter since Clemens evidently saw Olivia in New York City on the day of that performance and again on 11 December (15 and 16 Dec 69 to OLL, n. 1).

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17 Clemens wrote this letter on the morning of 18 December, misdating it 17 December. Since he had been too ill to write a complete letter on 16 December, he must have written letter 157 on 17 December.

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18 Olivia revised the docket of this letter after she belatedly received or docketed Clemens’s letter of 18 December.

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19 Clemens probably wrote letter 161 in Hudson, Massachusetts, where, after lecturing, he seems to have spent the night of 21 December (see 21 Dec 69 to OLL, n. 3). He probably wrote letter 162 the following night, after lecturing in Portland. Since it wasn’t until Christmas Day that he wrote Olivia of the imposition he suffered in Rockport, Massachusetts, on 23 December, he presumably did not write to her then. He definitely wrote no letter on 24 December.

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20 In letter 163 Clemens anticipated writing Olivia another letter that day.

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21 Clemens must have written this letter before going to Elmira, where he “spent Jan. 1, 2, 3 & 5” of 1870 (6 Jan 70 to Fairbanks, CSmH, in MTMF, 112).

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22 After lecturing in West Troy on 11 January 1870, Clemens may have spent the night there or, conceivably, returned to his former lodgings in nearby Troy or Albany.

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23 Clemens registered at a Syracuse hotel on 18 January before he went on to Ogdensburg for his evening lecture (“City Items,” Syracuse Standard, 19 Jan 70, 3).

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24 Clemens lectured in Fredonia, New York, on the evening of 19 January, but it is unlikely that he wrote to Olivia then since his letter of the following day from Hornellsville contains his report of the Fredonia performance. He may, however, have written a 19 January letter from Buffalo, where he spent part of the day, probably visiting his office at the Express, before going to Fredonia.