From Samuel L. and Olivia L. Clemens
to Olivia Lewis Langdon
2 and 4 February 1877 • Hartford, Conn.
(MS: CtHMTH and CU-MARK, UCCL 01405)

slc/mt farmington avenue, hartford.

Feb. 2nd 1877

My dear darling Mother

Your lovely, beautiful exquisite gift came today! I never was more surprized or more delighted in my life— Mother how did you come to do it? I never dreamed of your giving me a gift on my wedding day, and then such a wonderfully beautiful gift.

I have seen beautiful glass before but I never saw any so daintily artistic as this— They did not send the entire set as it was not ready, but samples of each— Mr Clemens and I drank a little wine out of the glasses for dinner, he using the sherry claret glass I the sherry— Then I had the finger bowl f and Susie and Clara both had their dear little fingers washed in it too—even as I write the finger bowl is standing on the Library table by me.

This morning when I went into the nursery I said to Susie, “This is my is wedding day Susie, seven years ago today I was married!” “Why are you married mamma” “Yes I am married”— [“]Who to, to me”? “No, to Papa”— “Oh to Papa,” indicating by the tone of voice that it was all right if it was Papa, that there would be no breaking up of the family—

Feb 4th

Mothers dear it is Sunday night—eight years ago today Samℓ and I were engaged— I am wonderfully happy, but these days are sad because I am so full of Father— Seven years ago today you left the Buffalo house and all returned to Elmira1—

The glass all came yesterday. I had the table brought down from the billiard room a table cloth put on it and all the glass put on it, so all the friends that have been in since have seen it— Oh Mother it is so lovely and so what I needed but how did you come to do it— What did make you think of it— What One more thing added to the long long list that I have to be thankful to you for— I love you so much we all love you so much and are so very sorry when you go away from us—

Mr Clemens grows more and more determined to go to Germany next Summer— I combat it and say the farm next ‸Summer‸ and Germany a year from next Summer if we have money enough— I don’t know who will come out ahead but I think I shall—

Sammy Moffett came last night, I do not know how long he will stay but I suppose two or three weeks— The children are very well & so sweet & happy—

Good night mother dear how I wish that I could see you and Sue and Theodore— I suppose Charlie & Ida are in New York, I was sorry to trouble Ida again about the shoes2—

With deepest love Livy—

Mother Dear, it is the loveliest glassware I ever saw. It was a happy thought in you to b get it for us, & a happy thing in us to deserve it. Long may we continue to deserve & receive! Long may we receive more than we deserve! And long may it be left to us to estimate how much our deserving, & to you the ability & the inclination to square the rewards with it!

It was lovely in you, mother, whether we deserved it or not. And so we send you our loving thanks,

Samℓ.

Explanatory Notes

Editorial Signs

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1After the Clemenses’ wedding in Elmira, Olivia’s family and other wedding guests traveled to Buffalo, where Jervis Langdon had bought and furnished a house for the newlyweds (link note following 28–31 Jan 1870 to Twichell, L4, 42–49). Jervis died six months later, on 6 August, of stomach cancer.

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2Olivia’s foster sister and her husband, Susan and Theodore Crane; and her brother, Charles J. Langdon, and his wife, Ida.

Description of Texts and Provenance

Source text(s):

MS, Jervis Langdon Collection, CtHMTH, is source text for Olivia Clemens’s letter; MS, CU-MARK, is source text for Samuel Clemens’s letter.

Previous publication:

MicroML, reel 4.

Provenance:

The Jervis Langdon Collection, which apparently included Olivia Clemens’s letter, was donated to CtHMTH in 1963 by Ida Langdon. Samuel Clemens’s letter was donated to CU-MARK in 1972 by Mrs. Eugene Lada-Mocarski, Jervis Langdon, Jr., Mrs. Robert S. Pennock, and Mrs. Bayard Schieffelin.