Jervis and Olivia Lewis Langdon
24 May 1869 • South Windsor, Conn. (MS: CU-MARK, UCCL 00309)
My precious little darling, my heart does yearn for you this morning! If you were only here what a visit we would have, all to ourselves. This place where I am writing is a little framed & plastered smoking-cottage down among the grassy meadows & shrubbery 100 yards from the house; it consists of just one room, about four times as large as the closet you hang your dresses in; it is shaded by apple-trees in full bloom, & giant elms; it has a large window in each of three sides, & a door in the other—so that there is a world of light, & no matter which direction the breeze comes from in it Ⓐemendation can pass freely through. It is carpeted, & has a lounge, two desks, two tables & two chairs in it, & pictures on the walls, & is so retired & still, & so cosy & comfortable. The place is vocal with the music of birds & fragrant with the breath of flowers—& out of one window, through openings between the elms, I cath catch Ⓐemendation a glimpse, of far-reaching vistas of rolling meadows & purple hills all draped in the regal panoply of spring. It is such a love of a place! And to think this that Ⓐemendation this Sabbath-repose is undisturbed by any sound but the rejoicings of the birds! Cosy! why your bedstead would almost entirely fill the apartment. If Ⓐemendation you were only here, Paradise would have come again, indeed! And we would sit on that lounge & so give ourselves up to happiness that the flight of time would never be heeded.
I have enjoyed this visit to this quaint old-fashioned country house of Mr. Roe’s. He is 71 years old, & his wife is as good & motherly as any old soul you ever saw. We sat last night till late, & talked, & young Roe (my old Nevada & California friend—the son & heir of Roe, senior,) played on the piano & sang till, with the full & fervent enjoyment of the time I was so filled with loving memories of you & thoughts about you that I seemed more touched with gratitude to God than ever before, for this priceless love of yours that He has poured out upon my life to make it beautiful & blessed.2explanatory note I asked them to find a Plymouth Collection & sing “Geer,”3explanatory note & then my darling you seemed almost present in the flesh. And as the rich chords floated up, the air seemed filled with a mysterious presence, & I fancied it was the soul of Livy wandering abroad on the invisible wings of a dream while the sweet body slee slept Ⓐemendation. Oh you visit me, even when you do not know it yourself. We had family prayers, & beautiful & earnest & touching they were, too—& when the kneeling patriarch pleaded for “our dear ones,” it was as if I uttered the words myself, they so truly voiced the supplication that was in my heart. And when I went to bed, my busy brain was so thronged with images of you that it seemed for two hours that I never would be able to banish the worshipped Ⓐemendation little visitor & calm myself to sleep. How you haunted me! What a variegated & ceaseless pantomime of appearing & re-appearing you did keep up!—& how you did tantalize me with becoming almost tangible & kissable, & then turning to the lovely impalpableness of a dream-spirit in the twinkling of an eye, before I could lay my longing hands upon you! You little bundle of aggravation! And so she was—but Ⓐemendation it ever Ⓐemendation so easy to love her, anyhow. Oh, your dear sweet face looks up so placidly & contentedly from the little picture, here in the midst of this woodland Sabbath-tranquillity. She is such a bewitching little nun, in that picture. I carry this with me yet, & leave the other at home, because, although in one or two respects the other is the more beautiful face, this one loves me, while the other does not know me & so does not care for me.—it carries in its face the interests & memories of a time when I had not yet been born into the beautiful revelation that there was a Livy in all the world—& most surely I had not yet dreamed that there was such a Livy—a lo Ⓐemendation Livy without whose love I would now hold life the saddest, saddest gift that God could condemn me to go on possessing.4explanatory note For you are the life-principle in me—you are the only part of me that is worth the sustaining—& so if you, the crystal fountain, were taken from me, of what worth were the scarred & unsentient rock any more? Would Ⓐemendation the mosses grow about it, & the flowers adorn it, & the foliage chant above it, as before? Or would these wither & die, & desolation come? Would a heart that you had made rich with your love, ever see anything but poverty & rags in any other? Never, in my sincere belief, so help me God.
Mr. A. S. Roe, the elder, is the author of numerous novels, & has the author-instinct to seek the fellowship of scribblers—& so has sent frequent cordial invitations to me to visit at his house, & now, for many reasons, I am glad I am come. I like the family, & have enjoyed myself—& besides, this health-giving air has filled me with a glad new life, & a snap & a vigor that are more pronounced than what I felt even before I was sick. I feel about restored to health. I suppose I shall return to Hartford this evening.
But Livy darling, the matter that lies closest to my heart, is to urge you, to beg you, to remainder on larger paper: beseech you to come down to New York right away with your father & mother—for Charley writes me they are coming. Do, Livy dear, please. Now you know it is only two weeks & a half till you will be in Hartford,5explanatory note & couldn’t you spend that very jolly in New York? Do, Livy dear, Livy darling—I would go down immediately, & we would read all the rest of the proof there together. Ⓐemendation—all the vital part of the Holy Land—& we would go everywhere that you wanted to go, & do everything you wanted to do. Now Livy dear, life is short & uncertain (I had dreadful dreams last Ⓐemendation night), & do let us be together all we can. We do not know at what moment Death may invade our Eden & banish one or the other & make it desolate. And if you positively can’t come now, (Oh do, please, Livy,) come the 1st—or the 2d—or the 3d—but don’t put it away off till the 10th. It seems a century. I am so hungry to see you. I would be in Elmira now if there were n’t such delays in getting the proofs back & forth—but in New York they can come down at night & go back in the morning—just the length of time I bestow on them here. in margin: Flowers for you & Mrs. Sue. 6explanatory note
To Mr. & Mrs. Langdon—Please won’t you bring Livy down to New York with you, right now. There are awful things in the proofs which she needs to scratch out, & I am putting in more & more awful ones every day & making it perfectly horrible because I am a helpless orphan & have no one to keep me from doing it, but I wouldn’t do it if Livy were by—& it takes so long now for proofs to get to Elmira that some of the pages get hurried into stereotype before her corrections can get back. And my goodness gracious, how I do want to see her! (w Please, won’t you bring her with you?7explanatory note
Livy, Livy, Livy darling, it is such a happiness, such a pleasure, such a luxury, to write you, that I don’t know when to stop. Oh, you must come down right away with your father & mother. I would be the most delighted man on the whole earth. I would just almost fly away with ecstasy. Please, little woman, little darling, come.
It punishes you, does it, for me to make a “ fr Ⓐemendation prize for industry” of you? Well it does my heart good to hear you say it, darling, & I won’t do so any more. I will write Livy first, & then work—& I fancy I shall work the better for it, likely. But your suggestion is depravity itself, darling! it is monstrous! it is an outrage on all charity! Leave your letters unread till I have finished my work for the day. Oh. Livy! what impossibilities your little busy head does conceive! Why, child, I will not do anything of the kind. You might as well tell me to sit & toil in Mrs. Sue’s little parlor, through hours of labor, with your radiant presence by me making all the place pure & holy & glad & beautiful, & never kiss the dear lips till my task was done! Oh, would I? Trust me for it, I never would. Oh darling, darling, darling, I do so love you—I am so proud Ⓐemendation of you—I am so blessed in you—I so worship you! Rest the dear old head on my shoulder & let me look into the happy eyes again, O sacred head to me, & eyes that are to me of as beacons of hope & love & peace, looking out over the troubled waters & telling me of the haven that is at hand, upon whose protecting reefs the storms of life shall beat in vain till Death at last shall open wide the way!
Good-bye princess—darling—idol.
Miss Olivia L. Langdon | Elmira | New York. on the flap: r postmarked: warehouse point ct.8explanatory note may 2◇ Ⓐemendation docketed by OLL: 81st
Olivia’s docket number for this letter establishes that five letters, now lost, preceded it.
Azel Stevens Roe (1798–1886) was a wine merchant in New York City before relocating to his farm on East Windsor Hill, about eight miles northeast of Hartford. (East Windsor Hill became part of South Windsor when East Windsor was divided in 1845.) There, beginning in 1850, he wrote a series of novels that enjoyed large sales in the United States and England. His son, Azel Stevens Roe, Jr., was a tutor of the deaf at the State Deaf and Dumb and Blind Institution in San Francisco in 1863, and by late 1865 was a music teacher in that city. In 1867 he was a resident of Virginia City, Nevada, where he taught vocal and instrumental music. No details of his acquaintance with Clemens in the West have been recovered, nor is it known if he had seen Clemens since, but following the present reunion the two men stayed in touch for a time. After Clemens settled in Hartford in 1871, Roe “spent some pleasant nights with him” there and Clemens “paid a visit to the elder Roes” (Samuel Chalmers Thompson, 76). It was probably the May 1869 visit that Roe recalled in 1906 as one of the highlights of their friendship:
I have been away in the Far West for fifteen years, but am now living at the dear old home, where in the little summer house at the foot of the garden, you wrote your name on the window at my mother’s request.
It is still there & recalls to my mind when I see it those past happy hours. (Roe to SLC, 3 Jan 1906, CU-MARK)
(“Death of Azel S. Roe,” Hartford Courant, 4 Jan 86, 2; Trumbull, 1:169, 2:124–25, 129; Burpee, 2:983, 987–88; Langley 1863, 22, 119, 309, 509; Langley 1865, 378; “A. S. Roe, Jr.,” Virginia City Territorial Enterprise, 12 Dec 67, 2.)
Olivia’s favorite hymn (see 9 and 31 Mar 69 to Crane, n. 9click to open link).
For the “more beautiful” photograph, see 22 Jan 69 to OLL, n. 1click to open link. The “bewitching” photograph, evidently not the “fat cheeks” profile Clemens mentioned in his second letter of 15 May to Olivia, has not been identified.
That is, a week before the 17 June wedding of Alice Hooker.
A residue of the flowers Clemens enclosed remains on the manuscript page.
Apparently Clemens had just been in New York City himself, for the record of the cash account Charles J. Langdon was keeping for him indicates that he received fifty dollars there on 23 May (“Saml. L. Clemens Esq In acc with C. J. Langdon,” statement dated “Elmira Aug 9th 1869,” CU-MARK). No evidence has been found that the Langdons went to New York at this time, with or without Olivia. Clemens rejoined her in Elmira before the end of May.
Warehouse Point, “on the main line of the New York, New Haven & Hartford railroad ... was a busy shipping center” in East Windsor, and also the site of one of the town’s post offices (Burpee, 2:990–91).
MS, Mark Twain Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley (CU-MARK).
L3 , 249–253; Wecter 1947, 67, brief quotation; LLMT , 359, breif paraphrase.
see Samossoud Collection, p. 586.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.