24 August 1878 • Leukerbad, Switzerland (MS, in pencil: Koslosky, UCCL 01589)
Saturday.
4. 30 PM
Livy darling, Joe & I have had a most noble day. Started to climb (on foot) at 8.30 this morning among the grandest peaks! Every half hour carried us back a month in the season. We left them harvesting 2d crop of hay. At 9 we were in July & found ripe strawberries; at 9.30 we were in June & gathered flowers belonging to that month; at 10 we were in May & gathered a flower which appeared in Heidelberg the 17th of that month; also forget-me-nots, (which disappeared from Heidelberg about mid-May); at 11.30 we were in April (by the flowers); at noon we had rain & hail mixed, & wind & enveloping fogs, & considered it March; at 12.30 we had snow-banks aboveⒶemendation us & snow-banks below us, & considered it February. Not good f February, though, because in the midst of the wild desolation the forget-me-not still bloomed, lovely as ever.
What a flower-garden the Gemmi Pass is! After I had got my hands full, Joe made me a paper bag, which I pinned to my lappel & filled with choice specimens. I gathered no flowers which I had ever gathered before except 4 or 5 kinds. We took it leisurely, & I picked all I wanted to. I mailed my harvest to you a while ago. Don’t send it to Mrs. Brooks until you have looked it over flower by flower. It will pay.
Among the clouds & ever lasting snows I found a brave & bright little forget-me-not growing in the very midst of a vast expanse of smashed & tumbled stone-debris, just as cheerful as if the barren & awful domes & ramparts that towered around were the blessed walls of heaven. I thought how Lilly Warner would be touched by such a gracious surprise, if she instead of I had seen it, so I plucked it & have mailed it to her, with a note.
Our walk was 7 hours—the last 2 down a path as steep as a ladder, almost, cut in the face of a mighty precipice. People are not allowed to ride down it. This part of the day’s walk taxed our knees, I tell you. We have been loafing about this village for an hour, now—we stay here over Sunday. Not tired at all. (Joe’s hat fell over the precipice—so he came here bareheaded.) I love you, my darling.
MS, in pencil, collection of Pierce Koslosky, Jr. This letter to Olivia Clemens, like that of 23 Augustclick to open link, is written on pages torn from a notebook (evidently Notebook 15—see N&J2, 113–52).
MTL , 1:334–35; Christie’s catalog, 20 November 1992, no. 7574, lot 165, partial publication.
Chester L. Davis, Sr., probably acquired the MS from Clara Clemens Samossoud sometime between 1949 and 1962 (see Samossoud Collection in Description of Provenance). After his death in 1987, the MS was owned by Chester L. Davis, Jr., who sold it through Christie’s in November 1992. Then or thereafter it was purchased by Pierce Koslosky, Jr.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.