From Olivia L. and Samuel L. Clemens to Alice Hooker Day
25 January 1871 • Buffalo, N.Y.
(MS: CtHSD, UCCL 00564)

c

Buffalo Jan 25th 1871

Allice dear

You were so very good to write me again when I have been so remiss about writing you—but you must know that I have had very much to keep me from writing— 1

I often feel since Father left us, that he was my back bone, that what energy I had came from him, that he was the moving spring— It seems to me that all who have lived by the side of so noble and self sustained a life as his was must feel so—and you know how he carried us all along, by his strength and cheer— Truly a great light went out of our home— Father used to speak often of you during his sickness—particularly of the letter to him, in which you spoke of his being your [babies ]Grandfather, he wanted me to answer that letter and tell you that he should have written himself if he had been able— 2

I dread very much my first visit at home— I know that I shall realize more than I possibly can away from there that Father has left us never to return any more—

The picture of baby and Mother which you sent me was so very sweet and prettie. I do [pris prize ]it very highly— 3

Shall I explain to you how I come to be writing you with a pencil? I am at this present time seated in a private room of the General Hospital in Buffalo— I with my baby near me— I had not food enough for the little one, we tried feeding him but that did not do at all, so we were obliged to look for a wet nurse— At last we found one here at the Hospital, she is a nice person and is well reccommended—she is not yet able to be moved, so every day, baby, nurse, and I come up here and spend the day returning home at night—

It is about the forlornest place that ever you saw, but you know [we ]can do almost anything for the dear little ones—

I have had a great aversion always to wet nurses, but all told me that I could not nurish him myself, and the Dr. said that it would be very unsafe for me to ‸let him‸ go into the Summer on the bottle— So after much battleing I yielded— 4

How delighted I shall be when we can bring our two little one[s] together, and exhibit shall we not both be proud Mothers—

Sue is not with me now— Mother was with [t]me for about two months, but she has now returned home,5 so Mr Clemens baby and I are alone again, our lives are very quiet happy lives, even in spited of the great sorrow that is almost constantly present to us—

I did hope to study some this Winter and I may possibly still, but I find hands and heart so full that I seem to have little leisure— Are you studying any?— 6

Mr Clemens and I read with a great deal of pleasure Mr Warners book— I came very near writing Mrs Warner and telling her of the two or three exceeding‸ly‸ pleasant evenings that the book gave us— 7

Write me again and tell me more== I was so very sorry‸much disapointed‸ that I was not able to have your Mother 8 make her intended visit to me— Will she not be coming this way again before very long?— Can

I am so very sorry for Mary— It seems too bad that all her exquisite little things are gone— I can hardly believe it—her home was so full of exqu delicate, dainty bits, of all kinds— 9 Give my love to her please, and tell her that if it were possible I would wish her a home that should seem twice as [car charming, ]and twice as much like some [fairy ]palace—

Can you realize that dear Emma Nye has gone from us? I feel often, in thinking of both Father and Emma, as if I would write them of this and that—

I hope that you will come to me with Husband and baby next Spring—can you not?—

I must not write more— I wish you could see my baby— I consider him such a sweet little baby‸boy‸—

With kind regards to Mr Day, and a loving kiss for little Alice 10 I am as always your loving friend

Livy Langdon [Clemens]

The very first time I get a chance, I am coming to Hartford to beg Mrs. Hooker’s pardon for sending her such an absurdly curt dispatch—for I did not want to send such a message to her. The hurry was very great—not a single instant to spare—& so I started the messenger off with a telegram of a single sentence when I could have been much politer if I had had another half minute to write more in.11

Yr friend

Samℓ. L. Clemens

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

Editorial Signs

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1 Olivia may not have written since 6 June 1870, when she congratulated Day on the 8 May birth of her first child, Katharine Seymour Day (CtHSD; “Hartford Residents,” Day Family, 3).

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2 Olivia had written Day about Jervis Langdon’s illness on 31? May 1870 (CtHSD), undoubtedly prompting the letter to him, now lost. Langdon died a little more than two months later.

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3 The photograph has not been found.

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4 The Buffalo General Hospital was on High Street between Elm and Oak, about half a mile from the Clemenses’ house. The unidentified woman, recovering from the birth, or possibly the loss, of her baby, was Langdon Clemens’s second wet nurse; his first, Mrs. Brown, had apparently been let go when Olivia put him “on the bottle.” The doctor was Andrew R. Wright (Severance, 200; Buffalo Directory: 1870, map; 1871, 50, 285; 11 Nov 70 to Ford, n. 5).

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5 Susan Crane had spent the first two weeks of November 1870 in Buffalo and returned by 31 January; Olivia Lewis Langdon had arrived just before Thanks-giving (12 Nov 70 to the Twichells; p. 325; 19 Nov 70 to Langdon; 17 Dec 70 to Fairbanks).

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6 Before their marriages, Olivia and Alice had used their correspondence to stay informed about each other’s studies. In addition to readings in history and literature, Olivia had studied French “with the nuns” in 1868, and that year and the next she studied “Natural Philosophy” and chemistry under Professor Darius R. Ford (OLL to Alice Hooker, 29 Sept 68, CtHSD). Alice had studied music and French, and on 8 March 1868, after a hiatus in their correspondence, Olivia had written jokingly, “I want to . . . learn whether you have mastered the Greek alphabet! Whether you read German fluently, and draw superbly. Paint in watters collors with origanality— Whether you expect to exhibit in the next annual exhibition at the Academy or if not what your plans are?” (CtHSD; OLL to Alice Hooker, 26 May 67, 7 June 67, 17 June 67, 30 Oct 67, 8 Aug 68, 3 Mar 69, all in CtHSD; L3, 4, 6–7 n. 6, 181, 182–83 n. 6).

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7 Charles Dudley Warner’s My Summer in a Garden. Olivia knew his wife, the former Susan Lee, a Nook Farm neighbor and friend of the Hooker family’s, and had doubtless seen her at the wedding of Alice Hooker and John Day in June 1869 (3 Jan 71 to Twichell, n. 1; L3, 270, 404, 407 n. 3).

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8 Isabella Beecher Hooker, the spiritualist and women’s rights advocate (L2, 146 n. 4).

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9 Alice’s older sister, Mary, was married to Henry Eugene Burton, a Hartford lawyer. On 27 December 1870, a fire had destroyed their cottage on Forest Street. “The furniture in the dining room and parlor was nearly all lost, together with the pictures, bronzes, books and ornaments—in short nearly everything that makes ‘home.’ A portion of the silver that had been upon the breakfast table was saved; the rest of it was melted. The furniture from one chamber was saved, together with some clothing, but the most expensive portion of female wearing apparel was burned” (“Fire on Forest Street,” Hartford Courant, 28 Dec 70, 2; L3, 143 n. 11).

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10 A second child, named Alice, was not born to the Days until 3 January 1872. Olivia may have meant to suggest that eight-month-old Katharine was her mother in miniature (“Hartford Residents,” Day Family, 3).

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11 The telegram, probably cancelling Isabella Beecher Hooker’s visit, is not known to survive.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Katherine Seymour Day Collection, Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, Hartford (CtHSD).

Previous publication: L4, 311–314.

Emendations and textual notes:

babies • babies babies [corrected miswriting]

pris prize • prisze

we • we we [corrected miswriting]

t • [partly formed; possibly ‘b’]

car charming • carharming

fairy • [possibly ‘faiery’]

Clemens • [‘s’ over miswritten ‘ns’]