Letters, Vol 4

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You ought to see Livy & me, now-a-days--you never saw such a serenely satisfied couple of doves in all your life. I spent Jan 1, 2, 3 & 5 there, & left at 8 last night. With my vile temper & variable moods, it seems an incomprehensible miracle that we two have been right together in the same house half the time for a year & a half, & yet have never had a cross word, or a lover's 'tiff,' or a pouting spell, or a misunderstanding, or the faintest shadow of a jealous suspicion. Now isn't that absolutely wonderful? Could I have had such an experience with any other girl on earth? I am perfectly certain I could not. . . . We are to be married on Feb. 2d. This volume of letters captures the first two years of a loving marriage between Samuel Clemens and Olivia L. Langdon, lasting over thirty years. It chronicles a tumultuous period marked by Clemens's rising fame, the birth of a sickly first child, and his wife's near-fatal illness. Beginning in 1870, following the success of "The Innocents Abroad," Clemens embarks on a lecture tour while planning to settle in Buffalo as editor of the "Express." By the end of 1871, he has moved to Hartford, anticipating the publication of "Roughing It" and the birth of his second child. The letters reveal Clemens's literary ambitions, business ideas, and moments of frustration and grief, interspersed with humor and self-reflection. Alongside "Roughing It," he penned popular short pieces during this