Details
CLEMENS, SAMUEL LANGHORNE. Autograph letter signed ("Sam.") TO HIS MOTHER AND FAMILY in St. Louis ("My Dear Mother & Brother & Sisters & Nephew & Niece & Margaret"), Elmira, N.Y., 5 February 1869. 3 pages, 8vo, with original stamped envelope addressed by Clemens (to his sister Mrs. William (Pamela) Moffett, the envelope imprinted with his future father-in-law Jervis Langdon's return address; in fine condition.
ANNOUNCING HIS ENGAGEMENT TO LIVY LANGDON
"This is to inform you that on yesterday, the 4th of February, I was duly & solemnly & irrevocably engaged to be married to Miss Olivia L. Langdon, aged 23 1/2, only daughter of Jervis and Olivia Langdon, of Elmira, New York. Amen. She is the best girl in all the world, & the most sensible, & I am just as proud of her as I can be. It may be a good while before we are married [it was not until the following February], for I am not rich enough to give her a comfortable home right away, & I don't want anybody's help. I can get an eighth of the Cleveland Herald for $25,000, & have it so arranged that I can pay for it as I earn the money with my unaided hands...
"I am not worrying about whether you will love my future wife or not -- if you know her twenty-four hours & then don't love her, you will accomplish what nobody else has ever succeeded in doing since she was born. She just naturally drops into everybody's affections that comes across her. My prophecy was correct. She said she never could or would love me -- but she set herself the task of making a Christian of me. I said she would succeed, but that in the meantime whe would unwittingly dig a matrimonial pit & end by rumbling into it -- & lo! the prophecy is fulfilled..."
Published in Love Letters of Mark Twain, ed. D. Wecter, p. 64.
ANNOUNCING HIS ENGAGEMENT TO LIVY LANGDON
"This is to inform you that on yesterday, the 4th of February, I was duly & solemnly & irrevocably engaged to be married to Miss Olivia L. Langdon, aged 23 1/2, only daughter of Jervis and Olivia Langdon, of Elmira, New York. Amen. She is the best girl in all the world, & the most sensible, & I am just as proud of her as I can be. It may be a good while before we are married [it was not until the following February], for I am not rich enough to give her a comfortable home right away, & I don't want anybody's help. I can get an eighth of the Cleveland Herald for $25,000, & have it so arranged that I can pay for it as I earn the money with my unaided hands...
"I am not worrying about whether you will love my future wife or not -- if you know her twenty-four hours & then don't love her, you will accomplish what nobody else has ever succeeded in doing since she was born. She just naturally drops into everybody's affections that comes across her. My prophecy was correct. She said she never could or would love me -- but she set herself the task of making a Christian of me. I said she would succeed, but that in the meantime whe would unwittingly dig a matrimonial pit & end by rumbling into it -- & lo! the prophecy is fulfilled..."
Published in Love Letters of Mark Twain, ed. D. Wecter, p. 64.