To Olivia L. Clemens
12 January 1871 • Cleveland, Ohio
(MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 00557)

[ Wednes ‸Thurs‸day ]
1 A.M.

Livy Darling—

Just a line to say that I have seen our dearest experience duplicated to-night—a gloriously happy bride & bridegroom & two thoroughly satisfied families & a host of friends.1 [ I ]

I was got a piece of wedding candy saved up for Langdon & lost it. Was going to get some wedding flowers to send to you, & presently of her own volition Mrs. Severance got them for me & pressed them in a book. I will try & not forget to enclose them in this letter. We are to take tea with Mrs. S. [tomorrow]—at least I am.2

They were all delighted with our & mother’s [presents. I ]But I am sure they think ours 3 was only a Christmas gift. I shall tell them better.

About four to six or seven hundred people have asked after your & the cub’s health & the latter’s progress.

(The reason your letter4 wasn’t news to me this morning, sweetheart, was because I slipped up into the study & read if it long before I left home!)

Mrs. Fairbanks [ was wants] us to spend the summer with them here at their new & beautiful place (which I am to visit tomorrow.)5

I like all the Gaylords, “Willie” included.6

I wish I could see you & the dear little cubbie to-night, I do.

Give my warm love to our mother & our boy—& unto you I send a world of affection & many, many loving kisses—

And so, with a God bless you, my own darling, I will now to bed—for I am a stranger to sleep, by this time.

Sam.

Mrs. S. L. Clemens | 472 Delaware st | Buffalo | [N. Y.] [postmarked:] [cleveland]o. jan 12

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 On the evening of Wednesday, 11 January, Alice Fairbanks and William H. Gaylord were married by the Reverend W. H. Goodrich at the Fairbanks home. Clemens had arrived in Cleveland at the earliest on 9 January, possibly accompanied by Charles Langdon and Daniel Slote (Cleveland Plain Dealer, 13 Jan 71, 2; 17 Dec 70 to Fairbanks).

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2 The flowers prepared by Emily A. Severance were enclosed.

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3 See 17 Dec 70 to Fairbanks.

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4 Not known to survive.

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5 The Fairbanks house, at 221 St. Clair, had sustained two fires in 1869. The new home, built during 1870 within view of Lake Erie in East Cleveland, was called “Fair Banks” (L3, 86, 168; Mary Mason Fairbanks, 354; Cleveland Directory: 1870, 127; 1871, 162).

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6 In 1879, after Mary Mason Fairbanks had become disillusioned about William Gaylord, Clemens acknowledged that he thought him a fool (15 May 79 to Fairbanks, CSmH, in MTMF, 230).

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

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

Previous publication: L4, 301–302; LLMT, 361, brief paraphrase; MTMF, 143 n. 1, 145, 147 n. 2, brief excerpts.

Provenance:see Samossoud Collection in Description of Provenance.

Emendations and textual notes:

Wednes ‸Thurs‸day • Wednes ‸Thurs-‸day

I • [partly formed]

tomorrow • to-|morrow

presents. I • presents.—| I

was wants • wasnts

N. Y. • N. [Y] [torn]

cleveland • cl [eve] land [badly inked]