To William Bowen
17 January 1873 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS: TxU-Hu, UCCL 00858)

Hartford, Jan. 17.

Dear Will:

I am deeply grieved to hear of the death of our ‸my‸ little namesake; & our own great loss makes me able to sympathise with you & Mollie & know what you [feel.1 Otherwise] I would not speak, but hold my peace—for words are empty at such times; they are but the shadow of consolation without the substance; they bring no relief, they can suggest no comfort.

So we can only say, we feel for you & with you—& so saying, we leave you to the healing charity of Time, that in its own good season takes the pain from all wounds & leaves only the scar to remind us rather of the kindly mercy wrought in our behoof than the pain we suffered.

With the love of other days,

Your friend

Samℓ. L. Clemens.

Explanatory Notes | Textual Commentary

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1 William Bowen of St. Louis was Clemens’s closest boyhood friend and fellow Mississippi River pilot. The reference to the death of “my little namesake” seems to suggest that the letter was written in January 1872, since Bowen family records indicate that Mary Clemens Bowen, the Bowens’ youngest child, was born in July 1871 and died in January 1872 (L4, 53 n. 1; Hornberger, 7 n. 11). Clemens was not in Hartford on 17 January 1872, however, and his mention of “our own great loss” seems a clear reference to the death of Langdon Clemens on 2 June 1872.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, University of Texas, Austin (TxU-Hu).

Previous publication: L5, 273–274; Hornberger, 21.

Provenance:purchased by TxU in 1940 from Eva Laura Bowen (Mrs. Louis Knox), daughter of William Bowen.

Emendations and textual notes:

feel. Otherwise • feel.— |Otherwise