To
Joseph H. Twichell 27 June 1877 • Elmira, N.Y.(MS: CtY-BR,
UCCL01444)
Elmira, June 27
Dear old Joe—
Your letter came today—thanks for it, & thanks for the generous thanks you
filled it with, & which I do not deserve in the least, but accept & enjoy just as
happily
& gratefully as if I did. ItⒶemendation was much the joyousest trip I ever had, Joe—not a heartache in it, not a twinge of
conscience. I often
come to myself out of a reverie & detect an undertone of thought that had been thinking
itself without
volition of mine: viz: If we had only had ten days of those walks & talks instead of four!1explanatory note
I sent those 2 articles to Howells & have completed our trip in 2 more since I came
here.
I like the last two ever so much; but I have written to Howells & suggested the destruction
of the 2 I read
to you. In my closing chapter I have got in your story of the 2 dying soldiers & the
coffin; if that
doesn’t travel the rounds, then this is an unappreciative world. I got in the cabbage
palms in due
& solemn state; & the white houses; & Alfred; & the soup &
chicken of St George’s & that young girl there; & Moore’s chair which we
didn’t see; & the absent tramps; & a blast at our health officer, & upwards
of several other things. I like those 2 chapters.
You grieve us to death with your news about Dean Sage. I am conscious of a stubborn
inward refusal
to accept of this impending dispensation—a sort of resentment about it that is afraid
to formulate itself.
There are so many we could spare!—& that he should
be singled out! ThisⒶemendation is wicked, no doubt, but it is at least honest. And justifiable.
We all of this household send love & God bless you’s to yourⒶemendation & yours.
Ys Ever
Mark.
squeezed in:
Exitu-Israel has just come—many thanks, Joe—I’ll give you an opinion. Been
reading a lot of French rot here & am glad to get this.2explanatory note
Textual Commentary
Source text(s):
MS, Joseph H. Twichell Collection, CtY-BR.
Previous Publication:
MicroPUL, reel
1.
Provenance:
Twichell’s papers were passed on to his children. Although CtY received some items
in 1951 from
Joseph H. Twichell and Mrs. Charles Ives, his son and daughter, the main collection
was donated in 1967 by Charles
P. Twichell, his grandson.
I send you by mail to-day Baring-Goulds novel “In Exitu Israel,” which it
has taken me longer than I thought to procure.
And I seize the occasion—in fact I have been waiting for it—to tell you again how
much I value our late trip to Bermuda and how grateful I am to you for your
kindness in proposing inviting me to it.
Ever since we got home I have felt that it would be necessary for me to shed a
little ink on the subject before I was done with it i.e as a matter between you and
me.
The more I think it over, the more impressed I am with the fact, that we (or I)
had a splendid time—the more conscious I am of having enjoyed it, as I have
enjoyed few things in all my life. I had to work so for a fortnight after our return
that I could not fairly compose my mind to a review of what we saw and did. But
now that I am somewhat less intensely occupied, it comes over me night and day
as a dream of delights. What a happy four days we spent ashore—how innocent
and mirthful! I was more like a boy in my feelings than I remember being for
many a year.
I find that I derived very marked physical benefit from the recreation and rest I
had, and furnished my mind with a rich stock of new impressions as well.
Put it down as an oasis! I’m afraid I shall not see as green a spot again soon. And
it was your invention and your gift. And your company was the best of it. Indeed, I
never took more comfort in being with you than on this journey; which, my boy,
is saying a great deal.
Well, Mark, I thank you for everything, and may God bless you and yours for
your goodness to me and mine. Amen.
A rumor has reached us that Clara was sick on the way to Elmira. We judge,
however, that her illness was brief, or we should have heard more about it.
Dean Sage got home a fortnight ago, and a few days after had a violent attack of
his malady, from which he is slowly recovering, and expects to come up this week
or next to spend a day or two with us. Will SageCto whom I wrote making
inquiryCsays that they are all a good deal discouraged about Dean, as it is plain
that he cannot endure many attacks like this last.
All of us are well. Six weeks more and we are off for the Adirondacks—six
groaning weeks—while you repose like gods on the heights of your calm cool Hill.
Tell me what you think of “In Exitu.” With love to Livy & the girls
Yrs aff
Joe
The gift book was Sabine Baring-Gould’s In Exitu Israel: An Historical Novel. Clara
Clemens Gabrilowitsch donated it to the Mark Twain Library, in Redding,
Connecticut, after Clemens’s death (Baring-Gould 1870; Gribben 1980, 1:46). Dean
Sage lived until 23 June 1902, when he died suddenly of a stroke at age sixty-one.
His
younger brother William (1844–1924) was, like him, a member of the family lumber
firm, H. W. Sage and Company.
2 For Clemens’s opinion of In Exitu Israel see his 6 August 1877 letter to Mollie
Fairbanks.
MS, Joseph H. Twichell Collection, CtY-BR.
MicroPUL, reel 1.
Twichell’s papers were passed on to his children. Although CtY received some items in 1951 from Joseph H. Twichell and Mrs. Charles Ives, his son and daughter, the main collection was donated in 1967 by Charles P. Twichell, his grandson.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.