Now you shall find us the most reasonable people in the world. We had thought of precipitating
upon you
Goeorge Warner & wife one day; Twichell & his jewel of a wife another day, & Chas. Perkins
& wife another. Only those—simply members of our family, they are. But I’ll close
the door against
them all—which will “fix” all of the lot except Twichell, who will no more hesitate
to climb in at the
back window than nothing.
And you shall go to bed when you please, get up when you please, talk when you please,
read when you please.
Mrs. Howells may even go to New York Saturday if she feels that she must, but if some
gentle, un-annoying coaxing can beguile her into
putting that off a few days, we shall be more than glad, for I do wish she & Mrs.
Clemens could have a good square chance to
get acquainted with each other. But first & last & all the time, we want you to feel
untrameledⒶemendation & wholly free from restraint, here.
The date suits—all dates suit.
Yrs Evr
Mark
Textual Commentary
1 March 1875 • To
William Dean Howells
• Hartford, Conn. • UCCL02488
Source text(s):
MS, Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox
and Tilden Foundations (NN-B).
Clemens answered the following letter (CU-MARK), which replied to his of 20
February:
UCLC32117
editorial office of the atlantic monthly. the riverside press, cambridge, mass.
Feb. 28, 1875.
My dear Clemens:
Your giving up that river-trip has been such a blow to me that I have not been able
to write until now.
Mrs. Howells and I expect to appear at Hartford on Thursday, March 11, to afflict
you very briefly. As Mrs. H.
and Mrs. Clemens are both tearing invalids, don’t you think it would be better not
to give that ball this visit? Let us have just a nice sit-down, quiet time. Of course if the date named
wont do, you can temporize:
we’re unsuspecting people. I want you to give me all the Pilot experiences you can
in conscience. It’ll help your
book to have had them talked about beforehand. I know that our pay is small, comparatively.
We missed you dreadfully at the dinner, the other day, where we had a beautiful time.
Yours ever
W. D. Howells.
Mrs. H. expects to go on to N. Y. the Saturday after her arrival in Hartford. The
“beautiful
time” was at the Nautilus Club dinner on 24 February (see 20 Feb
75 to Osgoodclick to open link).
MS, Henry W. and Albert A. Berg Collection, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox and Tilden Foundations (NN-B).
L6 , 400–1; MTB , 1:503, excerpt; MTL , 1:216–17; MTHL , 1:68–69.
see Howells Letters in Description of Provenance.
More information on provenance may be found in Description of Provenanceclick to open link.