10 March 1869 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 00274)
I suppose my darling Lou Livy is well, to-night. I am sure I fervently hope so, at any rate. I am venturing on a dangerous experiment, now—sitting down here s to try to write half a page to you & s then stop. It isn’t so easy to stop as it is to determine to do it. And I ought to be in bed—for Nasby called at my room at 10 last night & we sat up & talked until 5 minutes past 6 this morning. {In fancy I am getting a scolding, now, & I know perfectly well that I deserve it. And I can’t take any revenge, either—for at this distance I can’t very well kiss the scolder & so close her lips.} But Livy, I took a strong liking to this fellow, who has some very noble qualities I do assure you, & I did want to talk. I won’t behave so any more, Livy dear. So you forgive me for just this once, don’t you, Livy?—the blessedest darling that ever did live. And Livy, it may seem strange to you, but honestly I was perfectly fascinated with Nasby’s lecture, & find no flaw in it—yet I went there purposely to criticise, & was not made acquainted with the lecturer until after the speech was finished.1explanatory note
It is another stormy night—raining & blowing great guns. I went out to Mrs Hooker’s at 9 7 PM, & got pretty well soaked through. {The fact is, I met her accidentally yesterday & she gave me a good honest invitation to come to-night—Twichell & I are to sup there on Friday.} It is 10 PM, & I have just returned. Had a pleasant time. Little Miss Baker was there—very pretty girl—& we played whist, Mrs H. & I against Baker & Miss Alice. Mr. Day could didn’t come out, on account of the storm,— Ⓐemendation or, they thought maybe he had gone to a lecture Ⓐemendation. So I didn’t see him.2explanatory note They pressed me very pleasantly to stay all night, & smoke as much as I pleased in my bedroom—& urged that you would desire me to remain & not go out in the storm— Ⓐemendation again, if you were here. But bless you, you warn’t there, loveliest of your sex, else I wouldn’t be here at this Allyn House at this moment, I promise you.
Had a negative taken yesterday, & expect to send you the picture tomorrow. Too cloudy to print a specimen to-day. The negative seems excellent.—so I look for no delay.3explanatory note
Mrs. Hooker compares you to a dainty little wax-flower—how is that? I like it, Miss, if you don’t. I like any figure that people use when they mean to speak lovingly & praisefully of my Livy. You miracle!
Nasby’s visit interrupted my letter to the “little woman,” Mrs. Crane, so it isn’t finished yet. Must do it to-morrow.4explanatory note ¶ Na Nasby wants to get me on his paper. Nix.5explanatory note
To Charlie—darling scrub—Bother the account! Let the tailor look Ⓐemendation out for it himself. I’ll pay him when I come. I am glad to hear of Ida (concerning Ⓐemendation her age,)—& glad to hear you are overtaking her so fast.6explanatory note
To Livy again—darling girl—Yes, Charlie & you are right. I did send you a letter in your own name yesterday Ⓐemendation, & stamped one the day before, intending to do the same, but had to open it to add something to Charlie on the envelop, & so had to use two envelops as usual.7explanatory note
I am working so hard & so unremittingly that there is no life in me now—so don’t look for any im in Ⓐemendationmy letters, dear. I am afraid I shan’t have time to finish revising the MS.
Do Ⓐemendation you know, I found there was hardly a button on the shirts I brought away with me? Wish I had got you to use your sensible eyes in examining them, instead of trusting to my awkward ones.
Must not try to answer your pleasant letter to-night, my darling little Lou Livy (I like Livy ever so much the best—simply used Louise because I couldn’t help loving it because it was your name.}Ⓐemendation Go to Good Ⓐemendationnight—go to bed, my pet. With a warm kiss, eloquent of love & honor,
Miss Olivia L. Langdon | Elmira | New York. postmarked: hartford conn. mar 12 docketed by OLL: 53rd
Petroleum V. Nasby delivered “Cussed be Canaan” in Hartford on 9 March. The Hartford Courant reported that he “gave great satisfaction,” but the rival Times disagreed: “Those who have not yet got enough of the American citizen of African descent, had an opportunity at Nasby’s lecture, last night, (subject ‘cursed be Canaan’) to get a belly-full. It was a dismal failure, so far as any fun or wit was concerned, and was all ‘nig, nig, nigger;’ and the Republicans in that audience felt like changing the title of that lecture, to ‘Cussed be Nasby’” (“Nasby’s Lecture,” Hartford Courant, 10 Mar 69, 2; “Nasby’s Lecture, Last Evening,” Hartford Times, 10 Mar 69, 2). Several months later Clemens himself described the performance for his San Francisco Alta California readers:
It is a very unvarnished narrative of the negro’s career, from the flood to the present day, and bristles with satire. For instance, the interpolating of the word white in State Constitutions existing under a great general Constitution which declares all men to be equal, is neatly touched by a recommendation that the Scriptures be so altered, at the same time, as to make them pleasantly conform to men’s notions—thus: “Suffer little white children to come unto me, and forbid them not!” The lecture is a fair and logical argument against slavery, and is the pleasantest to listen to I have ever heard upon that novel and interesting subject. It is necessarily severe upon the Democracy, but not more so than one would expect from Nasby. . . . Well, Nasby is a good fellow, and companionable, and we sat up till daylight reading Bret Harte’s Condensed Novels and talking over Western lecturing experiences. But lecturing experiences, deliciously toothsome and interesting as they are, must be recounted only in secret session, with closed doors. Otherwise, what a telling magazine article one could make out of them. (SLC 1869)
Clemens never published an article about his lecture experiences. In 1898, however, he discussed them in an autobiographical sketch that included an account of Nasby’s Hartford lecture. Recalling Nasby’s “petrified” posture and “roaring” and “ruthless” technique, he concluded that the lecturer’s success, “was due to his matter, not his manner; for his delivery was destitute of art, unless a tremendous & inspiring earnestness & energy may be called by that name” (SLC 1898, 3–5).
Miss Baker has not been identified. John Day was Alice Hooker’s fiancé.
Clemens’s dismissal of Nasby’s offer was less final than it appears here: see 26? Mar 69 to Jane Lampton Clemens and familyclick to open link. The daily edition of the Toledo Blade had a circulation of only 3,000. But the weekly edition, to which Nasby gave his particular attention, had a circulation of 75,000 and claimed a readership of 500,000 (Rowell, 90, 295). The Blade had been “one of the North’s strongest pro-Lincoln publications,” during the Civil War, and afterward it “agitated for the end of racial discrimination and for the amelioration of its consequences,” achieving its greatest success between 1865 and 1888, while Nasby was editor and part owner (Toledo Blade History, 1–3).
Charles’s record of his cash account with Clemens shows that Clemens did indeed pay an additional bill of $23 to tailor Cyrus Fay on 31 March, two weeks after he arrived back in Elmira (“Samℓ. L. Clemens Esq In acc with C. J. Langdon,” statement dated “Elmira Aug 9th 1869,” CU-MARK; see 2 Mar 69 to OLL, n. 3click to open link). Ida B. Clark, Charles’s fiancée, had turned twenty on 7 March. He would not be twenty until 13 August. They married at the age of twenty-one, on 12 October 1870.
The date of the postmark (March 10) on the previous letter, which was sent directly to Olivia, shows that she could scarcely have received it, let alone replied to it, when Clemens wrote this paragraph. Despite appearances, therefore, the paragraph was his effort to anticipate her reaction and to mollify her, if necessary—even as he repeated the deed with the present letter. If Olivia was alarmed, she gave no indication of it that has survived. In fact, by the end of March, the newly founded Elmira Saturday Evening Review Devoted to Literature, Science, Arts, News &c . had received a reasonably authoritative report of their engagement:
—Madame Rumor says that S. C. Clemens, a quondam California miner, who is now quite extensively known as a humorous sketch writer and lecturer, sporting the nom de plume of Mark Twain, has won the heart and hand of one of Elmira’s fairest daughters. (“Local Jottings,” 27 Mar 69, 8)
MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK).
L3 , 158–161; LLMT , 358, brief paraphrase; MTMF , 85, brief excerpts.
see Samossoud Collection, p. 586.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.