6 January 1870 • New York, N.Y. (MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 00402)
Thursday, 9 A.M.
The Amenia train has been changed to 3.30 instead of 4, PM., & so it is just right. I can arrive there at 7.21, whoop my lecture & clear out again.1explanatory note
I was so tired last night that I slept soundly in the cars & really feel refreshed this morning—a rare experience in Railway travel. I read 3 pages of Robinson Crusoe, lost & found the book some twelve or fifteen times, & finally lost it for good a couple of hours ago. It is just like me. I must have a nurse.
Dan has just come in, & says he has already selected a Doré for me (for you) & ordered it expr Ⓐemendation to be expressed to Elmira to-day.2explanatory note Tell Mrs. Susie that I leave my Don Quixote in her keeping till I come, & I hold her strictly responsible for it. And she might as well abuse Livy as abuse that book. Which she is not likely to abuse Livy, & so she will take care of the Don.3explanatory note
Livy dear, suppose you take a Philadelphia Bulletin notice & part of a Boston Advertiser notice (cutting out & destroying the paragraph of synopsis in the latter,) & mail them to the Oswego man—you need not write anything, but just put them in an envelop & mail them to him. Will she?—she’s a good girl.4explanatory note
I feel right well this morning.
I can’t write worth a cent, now, because a friend5explanatory note whom I do not like particularly well is standing around talking to me, & I am getting irritated with his gabble.
Give my warm love to all the loved ones at home, & be you at peace & happy, my own little darling.
Miss Olivia L. Langdon | Elmira | N. Y. return address: slote, woodman & co. blank book manufacturers, 119 & 121 william st., bee. fulton and john, new york. postmarked: new york jan 6 2 p.m Ⓐemendation. docketed by OLL: 168th
Clemens had just reached New York City after traveling overnight from Elmira (about 165 miles) on his way to Amenia, New York, 70 miles to the north.
At least four editions of Paradise Lost illustrated by Gustave Doré had been published since 1866. Clemens paid fifty-seven dollars for the one Slote chose, which has not been further identified (SLC’s account statement from Slote, Woodman and Company for 1 Jan 70, CU-MARK; NUC , 385:309).
Clemens presumably entrusted Don Quixote to Susan Crane instead of Olivia because he regarded it as unfit “for virgins to read” until culled of its “grossness” ( L3 , 132–33).
For the Boston Advertiser’s review of “Our Fellow Savages of the Sandwich Islands,” see L3 , 392. Olivia evidently had multiple copies of it, and of the following review in the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin:
Mark Twain, the celebrated humorist, was honored last night with one of the largest audiences ever assembled in the Academy of Music. He lectured upon “The Sandwich Islands,” and mingled with much very interesting information a vast amount of humorous anecdote, witty allusion, and of that odd, incongruous, surprising divergence from his theme, which is his charming characteristic. Mr. Clemens deserved the compliment bestowed upon him. We regard him as the very best of the humorists of his class. He is more extravagant and preposterous than John Phoenix; he is superior to Artemus Ward, not only in the delicate quality of his humor, but because he has a decent regard for the English language, and does not depend for his effects upon barbarous orthography. Josh Billings is not to be compared with him. Billings is merely a proverbial philosopher who has some wit, plenty of hard common sense, a shrewd knowledge of human nature, but not one particle of genuine, irrepressible fun. He has said some good things, but they are all marred by the wretched spelling which the author considers necessary to his success. Mark Twain indulges in humor because it is his nature to do so. It is impossible to read his productions or to hear him speak without being impressed with the conviction that his cleverest utterances are spontaneous, natural, unpremeditated. Like all men of his temperament he has a hearty hatred of sham, hypocrisy and cant, whether in religion, social life or politics. Some of his sturdiest blows have been aimed at the follies of the times; and we believe that he may, if he chooses, exercise a very considerable influence as a reformer. Ridicule, cleverly used, is one of the most powerful weapons against pretension and humbug; for it not only robs them of their false dignity, but it appeals strongly to the popular reader, and finds ready acceptance where serious discussion would not be permitted. We do not suppose that Mr. Clemens has any notion of starting out upon a mission of reformation; but unconsciously he may do a good work in this direction, while at the same time he furnishes the nation with the purest and best entertainment in his lectures and his screeds. There may be some who will regard his calling as of smaller dignity than that of other men. Perhaps this is the class with which he is at war. The mass of intelligent people will agree with us that genuine humor is as rare and excellent a quality as any other, and that it is as respectable to amuse mankind as to stupefy them. The number of persons engaged in the former work is small; those who attempt the latter abound in quantities. (“Mark Twain,” 8 Dec 69, 4, clippings in Scrapbook 8: 61, 63, CU-MARK)
Clemens emphasized “Oswego” to distinguish it from Owego, New York. For Olivia’s response, see 10 Jan 70 to OLL (2nd), n. 8click to open letter.
Unidentified.
MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK).
L4 , 1–2; LLMT , 361, brief paraphrase.
see Samossoud Collection in Description of Provenance.