Susy’s BiographyⒶapparatus note—Langdon’s illness and death—Susy tells of interesting men whom her father met in England and Scotland—Dr. John Brown, Mr. Charles Kingsley, Mr. Henry M. Stanley, Sir Thomas Hardy, Mr. Henry Irving, Robert Browning, Sir Charles Dilke, Charles Reade, William Black, Lord Houghton, Frank BucklandⒶapparatus note, Tom Hughes, Anthony Trollope, Tom Hood, Dr. MacDonaldⒶapparatus note, and Harrison Ainsworth—Mr. Clemens tells of meeting Lewis Carroll—Of luncheon at Lord Houghton’s—Letters from Mr. and Mrs. Clemens to Dr. Brown—Mr. Clemens’s regret that he did not take Mrs. Clemens for last visit to Dr. Brown.Ⓐapparatus note
From Susy’s Biography.Ⓐapparatus note
IⒶapparatus note stopped in the middle of mamma’s early history to tell about our tripp to VassarⒺexplanatory note because I was afraid I would forget about it, now I will go on where I left off. Some time after Miss Emma Nigh diedⒺexplanatory note papa took mamma and little Langdon to Elmira for the summer. When in Elmira Langdon began to fail but I think mamma did not know just what was the matter with him.Ⓐapparatus note
I was the cause of the child’s illness. His mother trusted him to my care and I took him a long drive in an open barouche for an airing. It was a raw, cold morning, but he was well wrapped about with furs and, in the hands of a careful person, no harm would have come to him. But I soon dropped into a reverie and forgot all about my charge. The furs fell away and exposed his bare legs. By and by the coachman noticed this, and I arranged the wraps again, but it was too late. The child was almost frozen. I hurried home with him. I was aghast at what I had done, and I feared the consequences. I have always felt shame for that treacherous morning’s work and have not allowed myself to think of it when I could help it. I doubt if I had the courage to make confession at that time. I think it most likely that I have never confessed until now.
From Susy’s Biography.Ⓐapparatus note
AtⒶapparatus note last it was time for papa to return to Hartford, and Langdon was real sick at that time, but still mamma decided to go with him, thinking the journey might do him good. But after they reached Hartford he became very sick, and his trouble prooved to be diptheeria. He died about a week after mamma and papa reached Hartford. He was burried by the side of grandpa at Elmira, New YorkⒺexplanatory note. (Susy rests there with them. S.L.C.)Ⓐapparatus note After that,Ⓐapparatus note mamma became very very ill, so ill that there seemed great danger of death, but with a great deal of good care she recoveredⒺexplanatory note. Some months afterward mamma and papa (and Susy, who was perhaps fourteen or fifteen months old at the time—S.L.C.)Ⓐapparatus note went to Europe and stayed for a time in Scotland and England. In Scotland mamma and papa became very well equanted with Dr. John Brown, the author of “Rab and His Friends,”Ⓐapparatus note and he metⒶapparatus note, but was not so well equanted with, Mr. Charles Kingsley, Mr. Henry M. Stanley, Sir Thomas Hardy grandsonⒶapparatus note of the CaptainⒶapparatus note Hardy to whom Nellson said “Kiss me Hardy,”Ⓐapparatus note when dying on shipboardⒶapparatus note, Mr. Henry Irving, Robert Browning, Sir Charles Dilke, Mr. Charles Reade, Mr. William Black, Lord Houghton, Frank Buckland,Ⓐapparatus note Mr. Tom Hughes, Anthony Trollope, Tom Hood, son of the poet—and mamma and papa were quite well equanted with Dr. Macdonald and family, and papa met Harison Ainsworth.Ⓐapparatus note
I remember all these men very well indeed, except the last one. I do not recall Ainsworth. By my count, Susy mentions fourteen men. They are all dead except Sir Charles Dilke and Mr. Tom HughesⒶapparatus note Ⓔexplanatory note.
We met a great many other interesting people, among them Lewis Carroll, author of the immortal “Alice”—but he was only interesting to look at, for he was the stillest and shyest full-grown man I have ever met except “Uncle Remus.”Ⓔexplanatory note Dr. MacDonaldⒶapparatus note and several other lively talkers were present, and the talk went briskly on for a couple of hours, but Carroll sat still all the while except that now and then he answered a question. His answers were brief. I do not remember that he elaborated any of them.
[begin page 434]At a dinner at Smalley’s we met Herbert SpencerⒺexplanatory note. At a large luncheon party at Lord Houghton’s we met Sir Arthur Helps, who was a celebrity of world-wideⒶapparatus note fame at the time, but is quite forgotten nowⒺexplanatory note. Lord Elcho, a large vigorous man, sat at some distance down the table. He was talking earnestly about GodalmingⒺexplanatory note. It was a deep and flowing and unarticulated rumble, but I got the Godalming pretty clearly every time it broke free of the rumble, and as all the strength was on the first end of the word it startled me every time, because it sounded so like swearing. In the middle of the luncheon Lady HoughtonⒺexplanatory note rose, remarked to the guests on her right and on her left in a matter-of-factⒶapparatus note way, “ExcuseⒶapparatus note me, I have an engagement,” and without further ceremony she went off to meet it. This would have been doubtful etiquette in America. Lord Houghton told a number of delightful stories. He told them in French, and I lost nothing of them but the nubs.
I will insert here one or two of the letters referred to by Jock Brown in the letter which I received from him a day or two ago, and which we copied into yesterday’s recordⒺexplanatory note.
June 22, 1876Ⓔexplanatory note.Ⓐapparatus note
Dear Doctor Brown,
Indeed I was a happy woman to see the familiar handwriting. I do hope that we shall not have to go so long again without a word from you. I wish you could come over to us for a season; it seems as if it would do you good, you and yours would be so very welcome.
We are now where we were two years ago when Clara (our baby) was born, on the farm on the top of a high hill where my sister spends her summersⒺexplanatory note. The children are grown fat and hearty, feeding chickens and ducks twice a day, and are keenly alive to all the farm interests. Mr. J. T. Fields was with us with his wife a short time ago, and you may be sure we talked most affectionately of youⒺexplanatory note. We do so earnestly desire that you may continue to improve in health; do let us know of your welfare as often as possible. Love to your sisterⒺexplanatory note. Kind regards to your son please.
As ever affectionately your friend,
Livy L. Clemens.
(1875)Ⓐapparatus note Ⓔexplanatory note
Dear Doctor Brown,
We had grown so very anxious about you that it was a great pleasure to see the dear, familiar handwriting again, but the contents of the letter did make us inexpressibly sad. We have talked so much since about your coming to see us. Would not the change do you good? Could you not trust yourself with us? We would do everything to make you comfortable and happy that we could, and you have so many admirers in America that would be so happy and proud to welcome you. Is it not possible for you to come? Could not your son bring you?Ⓐapparatus note Perhaps the entire change would give you a new and healthier lease of life.
Our children are both well and happy; I wish that you could see them. SusyⒶapparatus note is very motherly to the little one. Mr. Clemens is hard at work on a new book now. He has a new book of sketches recently out, which he is going to send you in a few days; most of the sketches are old, but some few are newⒺexplanatory note.
Oh Doctor Brown how can you speak of your life as a wasted one? What you have written has alone done an immense amount of good, and I know for I speak from experience that one must get good every time they meet and chat with you. I receive good every time I even think of you. Can a life that produces such an effect on others be a wasted life? [begin page 435] I feel that while you live the world is sweeter and better. You ask if Clara is “queer and wistful and commanding,” like your SusyⒶapparatus note. We think she is more queer, (more quaint) perhaps more commanding, but not nearly so wistful in her ways as “your SusyⒶapparatus note.” The nurse that we had with us in Edinburgh had to leave me to take care of a sister ill with consumption. We have had ever since a quiet lady-like German girlⒺexplanatory note. I must leave a place for Mr. C. Do think about coming to us. Give my love to your sister and your son.
Affectionately,
Livy L. Clemens.
Dear Doctor, if you and your son Jock only would run over here! What a welcome we would give you! and besides, you would forget cares and the troubles that come of them. To forget pain is to be painless; to forget care is to be rid of it; to go abroad is to accomplish both. Do try the prescription!
Always with love,
Saml. L. Clemens.
P. S. Livy, you haven’t signed your letter. Don’t forget thatⒶapparatus note . S.L.C.
P. P. S. I hope you will excuse Mr. Clemens’s P. S. to me; it is characteristic for him to put it right on the letter. Livy L.C.
Hartford, June 1, 1882.
My dear Mr. Brown,
I was three thousand miles from home, at breakfast in New Orleans, when the damp morning paper revealed the sorrowful news among the cable dispatchesⒺexplanatory note. There was no place in America, however remote, or however rich or poor or high or humble, where words of mourning for your honoredⒶapparatus note father were not uttered that morning, for his works had made him known and loved all over the land. To Mrs. Clemens and me, the loss is a personal one, and our grief the grief which one feels for one who was peculiarly near and dear. Mrs. Clemens has never ceased to express regret that we came away from England the last time without going to see him, and often we have since projected a voyage across the Atlantic for the sole purpose of taking him by the hand and looking into his kind eyes once more before he should be called to his rest.
We both thank you greatly for the Edinburgh papers which you sent. My wife and I join in affectionate remembrances and greetings to yourself and your aunt, and in the sincere tender of our sympathies.
Faithfully yours,
S. L. Clemens.
P. S.Ⓐapparatus note Our SusyⒶapparatus note is still “Megalopis.” He gave her that nameⒺexplanatory note.
Can you spare us a photograph of your father? We have none but the one taken in group with ourselvesⒺexplanatory note.
It was my fault that she never saw Doctor John in life again. How many crimes I committed against that gentle and patient and forgiving spirit! I always told her that if she died first, the rest of my life would be made up of self-reproaches for the tears I had made her shed. And she always replied that if I should pass from life first, she would never have to reproach herself without having loved me the less devotedly or the less constantly because of those tears. We had this conversation again, and for the thousandth time, when the night of death was closing about her—though we did not suspect that.
[begin page 436]In the letter last quoted above, I say “Mrs.Ⓐapparatus note Clemens has never ceased to express regret that we came away from England the last time without going to see him.” I think that that was intended to convey the impressionⒶapparatus note that she was a party concerned in our leaving England without going to see him. It is not so. She urged me, she begged me, she implored me to take her to Edinburgh to see Doctor John—but I was in one of my devil moods, and I would not do it. I would not do it because I should have been obliged to continue the courier in service until we got back to Liverpool. It seemed to me that I had endured him as long as I could. I wanted to get aboard ship and be done with himⒺexplanatory note. How childish it all seems now! And how brutal—that I could not be moved to confer upon my wife a precious and lasting joy because it would cause me a small inconvenience. I have known few meaner men than I am. By good fortune this feature of my nature does not often get to the surface, and so I doubt if any member of my family except my wife ever suspected how much of that feature there was in me. I suppose it never failed to arrive at the surface when there was opportunity, but it was as I have said—the opportunities have been so infrequent that this worst detail of my character has never been known to any but two persons—Mrs. Clemens, who suffered from it, and I, who suffer from the remembrance of the tears it caused her.Ⓐapparatus note
Our tripp to Vassar] See the Autobiographical Dictation of 7 March 1906.
after Miss Emma Nigh died] See the Autobiographical Dictation of 15 February 1906, 362.21–28 and note.
his trouble prooved to be diptheeria . . . burried . . . at Elmira, New York] Langdon Clemens, born prematurely, was never robust and was slow to develop. He died in Hartford from diphtheria, on 2 June 1872, at the age of nineteen months. After funeral services in Hartford, he was buried in the Langdon family plot at Woodlawn Cemetery, in Elmira, near Olivia’s father, Jervis Langdon. Clemens must have “confessed” more than once, for in 1911 his sister-in-law, Susan L. Crane, remarked that “Mr Clemens was often inclined to blame himself unjustly” ( L5: Crane to Paine, 25 May 1911, photocopy in CU-MARK, in link note following 26 May 1872 to Bliss, 99–101; 13 Feb 1872 to Fairbanks, 44; 22 Apr 1872 to the Warners, 79; 15 May 1872 to OC and MEC, 86).
After that . . . with a great deal of good care she recovered] Olivia had wished to accompany Langdon’s body to Elmira, but because of “her poor state of health,” and because she could not leave infant Susy, she stayed behind in Hartford. Clemens remained there with her, entrusting the body to Susan and Theodore Crane (Lilly Warner to George Warner, 3 and 5 June 1872, CU-MARK, in link note following 26 May 1872 to Bliss, L5, 98).
Mr. Charles Kingsley . . . They are all dead except Sir Charles Dilke and Mr. Tom Hughes] Charles Kingsley (1819–75), minister, canon of Westminster, Cambridge history professor, novelist, poet, and essayist; Henry M. Stanley (1841–1904), journalist and explorer, whom Clemens first met in St. Louis in 1867; Sir Thomas Duffus Hardy (1804–78), deputy keeper of the Public Records, but not a descendant of Sir Thomas Masterman Hardy (1769–1839), who witnessed Lord Nelson’s death at Trafalgar in October 1805; actor Sir Henry Irving (1838–1905); poet Robert Browning (1812–89); Sir Charles Wentworth Dilke (1843–1911), liberal member of Parliament and proprietor of the Athenaeum, a weekly journal of literary and artistic criticism; novelist and dramatist Charles Reade (1814–84); journalist and novelist William Black (1841–98); Richard Monckton Milnes (1809–85), first Baron Houghton, statesman, poet, and writer, and editor of Keats; Francis Trevelyan Buckland (1826–80), physician and prominent natural historian and pisciculturist; novelist Anthony Trollope (1815–82); Tom Hood (1835–74), poet, journalist, anthologist, and son of poet and humorist Thomas Hood (1799–1845); poet, novelist, and children’s author George MacDonald (1824–1905), his wife, Louisa (1822–1902), and their eleven children; and journalist and historical novelist William Harrison Ainsworth (1805–82). Clemens was unaware that novelist, biographer, journalist, and member of Parliament Thomas Hughes (1822–96), best known for Tom Brown’s School Days (1857), was also dead. When an excerpt from this dictation was published in the North American Review of 16 November 1906, his name had been removed from this sentence, presumably not by Clemens (NAR 6, 970). Presumably it was Olivia who furnished Susy with an account of the 1873 trip to Great Britain. For details of the Clemenses’ contacts with most of these individuals, see Clemens’s letters for 1872–73 ( L5, passim).
We met . . . Lewis Carroll, author of the immortal “Alice” . . . “Uncle Remus.”] The meeting with Lewis Carroll (Charles L. Dodgson, 1832–98) came at the home of George and Louisa MacDonald, the “Retreat” in Hammersmith, but on Saturday, 26 July 1879, not in 1873. Carroll noted in his diary that day: “Met Mr. Clements (Mark Twain), with whom I was pleased and interested.” The MacDonald family gave a dramatic performance, as they had also done when the Clemenses visited on 16 July 1873 (Dodgson 1993–2007, 194–95; 11 July 73 to Smith, L5, 414). Clemens had been familiar with the “Uncle Remus” stories by Joel Chandler Harris since 1880 (see “My Autobiography [Random Extracts from It],” note at 217.25–27).
At a dinner at Smalley’s we met Herbert Spencer] George Washburn Smalley (1833–1916) was in charge of the New York Tribune’s European correspondence from 1867 to 1895 and was himself the paper’s London correspondent. From 1895 to 1905 he was U.S. correspondent of the London Times. Philosopher Herbert Spencer (1820–1903) and the Clemenses were among the dinner guests at Smalley’s home on 2 July 1873 ( L5: 11 June 1873 to Miller, 377–78 n. 2; 1 and 2 July 1873 to Miller, 395–96 n. 1).
we met Sir Arthur Helps . . . is quite forgotten now] Sir Arthur Helps (1813–75) was clerk of the privy council, a personal adviser to Queen Victoria, and a popular writer of the day, producing numerous volumes of fiction, history, and biography.
Lord Elcho . . . was talking earnestly about Godalming] Francis Wemyss-Charteris-Douglas (1818–1914), eighth earl of Wemyss, sixth earl of March, and Lord Elcho, was a member of Parliament and a lord of the treasury. Godalming is an ancient town in Surrey, thirty miles southwest of London.
Lady Houghton] The former Annabella Hungerford Crewe (1814–74) married Richard Monckton Milnes (Lord Houghton) in 1851.
I will insert here one or two of the letters . . . copied into yesterday’s record] All three of the letters Clemens inserted below were included by Jock Brown in his edition of his father’s letters (John Brown 1907, 354, 357–58, 360–61). The texts were transcribed into this dictation from the typescripts Brown had sent from Scotland.
June 22, 1876] The letter sent to Brown in 1876 was written by both of the Clemenses; in this dictation Clemens inserted only the part that Olivia had written, which followed his (for the full text see SLC and OLC to Brown, 22 June 1876, Letters 1876–1880 ).
farm . . . where my sister spends her summers] Quarry Farm, near Elmira.
Mr. J. T. Fields . . . we talked most affectionately of you] Author and retired Boston publisher James T. Fields and his wife, Annie, had visited the Clemenses in Hartford from 27 to 29 April 1876. Fields and Clemens were parties to the 1876 campaign to raise a retirement fund for Dr. John Brown (see 17 Mar 1876 to Redpath, n. 2, Letters 1876–1880, and the Introduction, p. 7). Annie Adams Fields (1834–1915), a poet, biographer, and social reformer, was known for her hospitality. She entertained a wide circle of literary acquaintances at her Boston home, recording personal anecdotes of famous authors in her diaries; some of them were published in Memories of a Hostess (Howe 1922).
your sister] Isabella Cranston Brown (see AD, 5 Feb 1906, note at 328.30–33).
(1875)] This letter was undated, and when Hobby transcribed it into this dictation, she typed merely “(18 ).” The date now assigned to it is 25–28 October 1875 (for the text as it was sent, and the letter from Brown that it answered, see OLC and SLC to Brown, 25–28 Oct 1875, L6, 570–72).
Mr. Clemens is hard at work on a new book now . . . some few are new] The “new book” may have been one of a number of unidentified works Clemens had in mind or in progress in the fall of 1875 (see 4 Nov 1875 to Howells, L6, 585 n. 9). The sketchbook was Mark Twain’s Sketches, New and Old (1875c), which he had his publisher send to Brown on 6 December 1875 (11 Jan 1876 to Bliss, Letters 1876–1880 ).
nurse that we had with us . . . quiet lady-like German girl] Ellen (Nellie) Bermingham and Rosina Hay, respectively (“Contract for the Routledge The Gilded Age,” L5, 641 n. 4; SLC and OLC to Brown, 4 Sept 1874, L6, 226 n. 8).
I was three thousand miles from home . . . sorrowful news among the cable dispatches] Brown died on 11 May 1882, at which time Clemens was in New Orleans gathering material for Life on the Mississippi.
Our Susy is still “Megalopis.” He gave her that name] In 1873 Brown gave the nickname to seventeen-month-old Susy because, Clemens later explained, her “large eyes seemed to him to warrant that sounding Greek epithet” (SLC 1876–85, 3).
one taken in group with ourselves] See the photograph preceding page 203.
courier in service until we got back to Liverpool . . . be done with him] Clemens seems to have confused the two couriers he employed during the family’s 1878–79 European sojourn. George Burk, a German, worked for the Clemenses in Germany, Switzerland, and Italy from early August until 1 October 1878, when he was discharged for incompetence. Joseph Verey, a Pole, worked for them in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and probably briefly in England from 8 July until around 20 July 1879, when they reached London, giving great satisfaction during that time. The Clemenses arrived in Liverpool on 21 August and sailed for the United States two days later ( N&J2, 48, 52 n. 16, 121 n. 17, 197–98 n. 71, 210–11, 327 n. 67).
Source documents.
OLC and SLC to Brown (lost) Typescripts, sent from Scotland, of three letters: OLC to Brown, 22 June 1876; OLC and SLC to Brown, 25–28 Oct 1875; and SLC to Brown, 1 June 1882: ‘Dear Doctor . . . with ourselves.’ (434.15–435.37); now lost.TS1 Typescript, leaves numbered 526–38, made from Hobby’s notes and the three letters to Brown and revised.
TS2 Typescript, leaves numbered 672–80, made from the revised TS1.
TS3 Typescript, leaves numbered 60–63, made from the revised TS1 and further revised (the same extent as NAR 6, plus the dateline and summary paragraph).
NAR 6pf Galley proofs of NAR 6, typeset from the revised TS3, ViU (the same extent as NAR 6).
NAR 6 North American Review 183 (16 November 1906), 969–70: ‘From Susy’s . . . the nubs.’ (433.1–434.11).
Hobby transcribed the typescripts of Brown’s letters that his son, Jock, had sent from Scotland. The TS1 text is on pages with typed numbers 531–36, replacing the original typed numbers 3–6 and 10–11. Clemens used only Olivia’s portion of the 22 June 1876 letter; at the top of TS1 page 531, some of his own portion of the letter, which preceded hers, is visible. The manuscripts of the letters are extant; although the Scottish typescripts were not exact transcriptions of the manuscripts (the punctuation had been altered, especially Olivia’s idiosyncratic style), they were Hobby’s only source, and their readings have therefore been retained here. The manuscript of the 25–28 October 1875 letter, however, includes a sentence not found in TS1 (‘Could not your son bring you?’ at 434.36–37). The sentence is in the text published in Letters of Dr. John Brown (John Brown 1907), whose source was almost certainly the same typescript that Jock Brown sent to Clemens and asked to be returned to him. Since there is no apparent reason for Clemens to delete the sentence, it seems likely that Hobby omitted it in error, and it has been restored here. (The manuscript of the 22 June 1876 letter was sold at Sotheby’s in 1993; its present location is unknown; see MTPO for a transcription. The second and third letters, of 25–28 October 1875 and 1 June 1882, are in the National Library of Scotland in Edinburgh (StEdNL; see L6, 570–71, for a transcription of the 1875 letter.)
The dateline typed on TS1 (‘Friday, March 22.’) is erroneous and has been corrected in the present text. Harvey reviewed TS1 in August 1906 for possible publication in the NAR and selected one excerpt. Hobby incorporated the revisions that Clemens made on TS1 into both TS2 (which was not further revised) and TS3, where she ended the summary paragraph with ‘Houghton’s.’ to correspond to the material included there. Clemens revised TS3 to serve as printer’s copy for NAR 6, where it follows excerpts from the AD of 26 February 1906 and the entire AD of 7 March 1906. He made no revisions in this excerpt on NAR 6pf.
On the verso of the last page of TS3 Harvey wrote the following draft: ‘We may conclude generally that “early to bed, early to rise” continues to produce the beneficial effects accorded by tradition to the habit and that less turning of night into day would add materially to the sum of human happiness’. This sentence appeared in the “Editor’s Chair” in the NAR issue of 5 October 1906 (183:692).
Marginal Notes on TS1 and TS3 Concerning Publication in the NAR