24 and 25 December 1868 • Lansing, Mich. (Transcripts and MS facsimile: copy by Dixon Wecter, CU-MARK; Cleveland Herald, 16 Jan 69; Sotheby, lot 5; and Sotheby Parke Bernet 1976, lot 42) 02777)
(SUPERSEDED)
I shall arrive at your house Dec. 28—& Ⓐemendationshall leave again Jan. 2.— Ⓐemendationexcept that I shall lecture in Akron Dec. 30. I skip Dayton for the present.
Don’t you know, I just kept on begging & Ⓐemendationworrying Mrs. Langdon by letter, till she had to say come, to get rid of me. And so I broke a lecture engagement & stopped there from 7 p.m. 17th to 7 p.m. 18th. It was splendid. I had a hard time getting permission to come, but after I was there, none of them were anxious to have me go again—so that was a point gained, wasn’t it? I think so. Mr. Langdon is well again, & was perfectly jolly—bothered us & interrupted us all he could—& appeared to enjoy it.
I begin to think that Livy’s letters are going to miscarry wofully on this trip—but I shall fix it as I go along. I have written her to write Cleveland & never mind the other places for the presentⒶemendation—& so you take care of them if any chance to arrive before I do. You say she writes well. I should think so. This paragraph from her letter received yesterday, so touches me with its simple pathos & so stirs my pity for the poor child, withal, that I feel like a monstrous sort of highwayman when I think of tearing her from the home which has so long been her little world, her shelter, her refuge:
“I think that you must have scared me a little, yesterday, talking about the home in Cleveland, because to-day I have been feeling sad at the thought of ever leaving this home of mine, ever going out from among those who have always made a part of my life. To think of having them grow used to my being absent from them, so that Ⓐemendationat last they would cease to miss me, made me feel as if I wanted father to put his arms about me & keep me near him always Ⓐemendation —always.”
It is one’s heart that writes, Madam—mere art could never teach any one Ⓐemendationto put words together like that. Further along,Ⓐemendation she says: “He said last night that if he could live as long as I did, he would never let any man take me away from him; & he said that when I left home he was going to sell out—he is good at making threats.” Ⓐemendation
That girl is one in a million.Ⓐemendation She is fearfully & wonderfully made. Do youⒶemendation know her superior anywhere?Ⓐemendation
My dear good mother, she read me your letter to Mrs. Langdon & re-read & dwelt with particular delight upon the passage wherein you speak of placing full confidence in me—told her mother that that was just what she ought to do.1explanatory note And ⒶemendationI believe she does—& Ⓐemendation it is all owing to your cordial, whole-hearted endorsement of me, my loved & honored mother—& for that, & for your whole saving letter, I shall be always, alwaysⒶemendation grateful to you.Ⓐemendation And when I prove unworthy of the service you have done me in this matter, & the generous trust you have placed in me, even in the slightest degree, I shall be glad to know that that day is the last appointed me to live. There is no way in which I shall not prove your judgment perfect.Ⓐemendation Across the wastes of frozen snow that lie between us, mother, I waft a filial kiss so warm that such idle citizens as be abroad this night shall think the Spirit of the South Wind went by. Amen. And Ⓐemendation thatⒶemendation is honest.Ⓐemendation
Write to Livy, please. I guess she don’t owe you a letter. And maybe she does, too. Sometime ago I shamed her so about not answering your letter to her about our contemplated visit, that she verily thought she had committed something akin to high treason. She was going to hurry off & Ⓐemendationwrite at once—but I saw that what I had said had distressed her so, that I stopped her & told her it was only talk—& that Ⓐemendationher mother’s letter was sufficient. I didn’t exactly think so, but then the girl was in so much trouble, how could I do otherwise? And so maybe she didn’t write.2explanatory note Writing is a great labor to her, & the close application it requires taxes her strength—but I will tell her to skip me, for once, & write you.Ⓐemendation
About this time Ⓐemendation(past midnight, & so,Ⓐemendation Christmas is here,) eighteen Ⓐemendationhundred & sixty nine Ⓐemendationyears ago,Ⓐemendation the stars were shedding a purer lustre above the barren hills of Bethlehem—& Ⓐemendationpossibly flowers were being charmed to life in the dismal plain where the Shepherds Ⓐemendationwatched their flocks—& hovering Ⓐemendationangels were singing Peace Ⓐemendationon earth, goodwill to men. For the Savior Ⓐemendationwas come.Ⓐemendation Don’t you naturally turn, in fancy, now,Ⓐemendation to Ⓐemendation that crumbling wall Ⓐemendation & its venerable olives, & to Ⓐemendationthe mouldy domes & turrets Ⓐemendation Ⓐemendationof BethlehemⒶemendation? And don’t you picture it all out in your mind as we saw it many months ago? And don’t the picture mellow in the distance & take Ⓐemendationto itself again the soft, unreal semblance Ⓐemendationthat Poetry & ⒶemendationTradition give to the things they hallow? And Ⓐemendationnow that the greasy monks, & Ⓐemendationthe noisy mob, & the Ⓐemendationleprous beggars are gone, & all Ⓐemendationthe harsh,Ⓐemendation cold hardness of realⒶemendation stone & Ⓐemendationunsentimental glare of sunlight are banished from the vision, don’t you realize again,Ⓐemendation as in other years, that Jesus was born there, & Ⓐemendationthat the angels did sing in the still air above, & Ⓐemendationthat the wondering Shepherds Ⓐemendation did hold their breath & Ⓐemendationlisten as the mysterious music floated by? I do. It is more real than ever. And ⒶemendationI am glad, a hundred times glad, that I saw Bethlehem, though at the time it seemed that that sight had swept away forever, every pleasant fancy & Ⓐemendationevery cherished memory that ever the City of the Nativity had Ⓐemendationstored away in my mind & Ⓐemendation heart.Ⓐemendation Ⓐemendation
Please give my love to Mollie,3explanatory note & to Old Mr. Fairbanks, & to all the family. I am coming. When you write our most excellent & well-beloved Mrs. Mason, please say to her that I warned you to ORGANIZE! against my coming. I guess she’ll understand. I have just written her to-day.
Good-bye. Peace unto your household—& a very happy Christmas.
Mrs. Fairbanks’s reply to Mrs. Langdon’s 1 December letter (see 26 and 27 Nov 68 to Fairbanks, n. 3) has not been found.
Olivia had written, albeit belatedly. Her visit to Cleveland, in the company of her brother, had originally been scheduled for May 1868, but was then postpond—at her request—until “the Fall.” When Mrs. Fairbanks wrote to confirm a fall visit, Mrs. Langdon replied on Olivia’s behalf, saying that “for several reasons (which I could easily explain to you could I see you,) we do not either of us feel that it is just the time for her to go now” (OLL to Mary Mason Fairbanks, 30 Apr 68, CtHMTH; Olivia Lewis Langdon to Mary Mason Fairbanks, 4 Sept 68, CtHMTH). Mrs. Langdon’s reluctance to let Olivia accompany Clemens and her brother on their September visit to the Fairbankses suggests that she already suspected Clemens’s special interest in her daughter. Olivia did not herself reply to Mrs. Fairbanks until 26 October, presumably after Clemens chided her about the matter:
In looking at your letter I find it dated Aug. 20th— Who would have thought that so long a time would elapse after the rec’pt of it, before I should send you one word (directly) of thanks for your heartily expressed wish that I should visit you? If shame would set me free from blame worthiness, I should be free, for I am ashamed that in appearence you should have been so long neglected— (CtHMTH)
Mary Paine Fairbanks.
A photofacsimile of MS page 4 published in Sotheby Parke Bernet 1976 (illustration for lot 42), ‘at . . . anywhere?’ (349.17–26), is copy-text for that portion of the letter. The remainder is based on one complete and three partial transcriptions, all deriving independently but at different removes from the original MS, which has not been found.
Collation shows that they are in approximately the following relation to the MS:
P1 is a substantially accurate version of the letter’s ninth paragraph (‘About . . . heart.’, 350.13–32) contained in a newspaper article promoting Clemens’s second lecture appearance in Cleveland, on 22 January 1869. Clemens himself revised (and perhaps recopied) the passage for publication (see pp. 365–66, 367 n.5).
P2 and P3, the 1932 Sotheby and the 1976 Sotheby Parke Bernet catalogs, indicate that the MS has probably survived intact to this day. The catalog description in P3 reads:
An important long early Autograph Letter Signed (“Mark”), 10 pp., 8vo, Lansing, Mich. Dec. 24 1868 to “Dear Mother” (his close friend Mrs. Mary Mason Fairbanks) about his courtship of Olivia Langdon and closing with a poetical description of the Nativity. In a morocco-backed case.
The description in P2 is briefer and makes no mention of the morocco case. Both catalogs publish extracts from the manuscript: P2 publishes the dateline and the signature, ‘Mark,’ and quotes about six sentences from the body of the letter. P3 provides longer excerpts from the letter, as well as the photofacsimile of MS page 4.
P4, Wecter’s transcription, was based on “a copy probably a TS of the original in the possession of Mr. Thomas Nast Fairbanks.” Wecter further explained, “The manuscript was offered for sale by Sotheby’s on June 27, 1932; its present whereabouts cannot be ascertained” ( MTMF , 55 n. 1). P4 is the only substantially complete transcript of the letter.
L2 , 348–351; MTMF , 57–60; see also Copy-text.
The MS was almost certainly owned by Thomas Nast Fairbanks, possibly until 1932; its subsequent and current owners are unknown.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.
Like many catalogs, P3 used italic type for text quoted from MS (except for the dateline and signature), a convention silently normalized here.