Mark Twain's Letters — Volume 6 (1907-1910) eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 60 pages of information about Mark Twain's Letters — Volume 6 (1907-1910).

Mark Twain's Letters — Volume 6 (1907-1910) eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 60 pages of information about Mark Twain's Letters — Volume 6 (1907-1910).

I have a letter from Clara this morning.  She is solicitous, and wants me well and watchfully taken care of.  My, she ought to see Helen and her parents and Claude administer that trust!

Also she says:  “I hope to hear from you or Mr. Paine very soon.”

I am writing her, and I know you will respond to your part of her prayer. 
She is pretty desolate now, after Jean’s emancipation—­the only kindness
God ever did that poor unoffending child in all her hard life. 
                              Ys ever
                                        S. L. C.

     Send Clara a copy of Howells’s gorgeous letter.  I want a copy of my
     article that he is speaking of.

The “gorgeous letter” was concerning Mark Twain’s article, “The Turning-point in My Life” which had just appeared in one of the Harper publications.  Howells wrote of it, “While your wonderful words are warm in my mind yet, I want to tell you what you know already:  that you never wrote anything greater, finer, than that turning-point paper of yours.”
From the early Bermuda letters we may gather that Mark Twain’s days were enjoyable enough, and that his malady was not giving him serious trouble, thus far.  Near the end of January he wrote:  “Life continues here the same as usual.  There isn’t a flaw in it.  Good times, good home, tranquil contentment all day and every day, without a break.  I shouldn’t know how to go about bettering my situation.”  He did little in the way of literary work, probably finding neither time nor inclination for it.  When he wrote at all it was merely to set down some fanciful drolleries with no thought of publication.

To Prof.  William Lyon Phelps, Yale College: 

Hamilton, March 12.  Dear professor Phelps,—­I thank you ever so much for the book—­[Professor Phelps’s Essays on Modern Novelists.]—­which I find charming—­so charming indeed, that I read it through in a single night, and did not regret the lost night’s sleep.  I am glad if I deserve what you have said about me:  and even if I don’t I am proud and well contented, since you think I deserve it.

Yes, I saw Prof.  Lounsbury, and had a most pleasant time with him.  He ought to have staid longer in this little paradise—­partly for his own sake, but mainly for mine.

I knew my poor Jean had written you.  I shall not have so dear and sweet a secretary again.

Good health to you, and all good fortune attend you. 
                         Sincerely yours,
                                   S. L. Clemens.

He would appear to have written not many letters besides those to Mrs. Gabrilowitsch and to Stormfield, but when a little girl sent him a report of a dream, inspired by reading The Prince and the Pauper, he took the time and trouble to acknowledge it, realizing, no doubt, that a line from him would give the child happiness.

To Miss Sulamith, in New York: 

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Mark Twain's Letters — Volume 6 (1907-1910) from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.