Complete Letters of Mark Twain | Page 8

gospel of sincerity in
according praise to whatever he considered genuine, and ridicule to the
things believed to be shams. It was a gospel that Mark Twain continued
to preach during his whole career. It became, in fact, his chief literary
message to the world, a world ready for that message.
He returned to find himself famous. Publishers were ready with plans
for collecting the letters in book form. The American Publishing

Company, of Hartford, proposed a volume, elaborately illustrated, to be
sold by subscription. He agreed with them as to terms, and went to
Washington' to prepare copy. But he could not work quietly there, and
presently was back in San Francisco, putting his book together,
lecturing occasionally, always to crowded houses. He returned in
August, 1868, with the manuscript of the Innocents Abroad, and that
winter, while his book was being manufactured, lectured throughout
the East and Middle West, making his headquarters in Hartford, and in
Elmira, New York.
He had an especial reason for going to Elmira. On the Quaker City he
had met a young man by the name of Charles Langdon, and one day, in
the Bay of Smyrna, had seen a miniature of the boy's sister, Olivia
Langdon, then a girl of about twenty-two. He fell in love with that
picture, and still more deeply in love with the original when he met her
in New York on his return. The Langdon home was in Elmira, and it
was for this reason that as time passed he frequently sojourned there.
When the proofs of the Innocents Abroad were sent him he took them
along, and he and sweet "Livy" Langdon read them together. What he
lacked in those days in literary delicacy she detected, and together they
pruned it away. She became his editor that winter--a position which she
held until her death.
The book was published in July, 1869, and its success was immediate
and abundant. On his wedding-day, February 2, 1870, Clemens
received a check from his publishers for more than four thousand
dollars, royalty accumulated during the three months preceding. The
sales soon amounted to more than fifty thousand copies, and had
increased to very nearly one hundred thousand at the end of the first
three years. It was a book of travel, its lowest price three dollars and
fifty cents. Even with our increased reading population no such sale is
found for a book of that description to-day. And the Innocents Abroad
holds its place--still outsells every other book in its particular field.
[This in 1917. D.W.]
Mark Twain now decided to settle down. He had bought an interest in
the Express, of Buffalo, New York, and took up his residence in that
city in a house presented to the young couple by Mr. Langdon. It did
not prove a fortunate beginning. Sickness, death, and trouble of many
kinds put a blight on the happiness of their first married year and gave,

them a distaste for the home in which they had made such a promising
start. A baby boy, Langdon Clemens, came along in November, but he
was never a strong child. By the end of the following year the
Clemenses had arranged for a residence in Hartford, temporary at first,
later made permanent. It was in Hartford that little Langdon died, in
1872.
Clemens, meanwhile, had sold out his interest in the Express, severed
his connection with the Galaxy, a magazine for which he was doing a
department each month, and had written a second book for the
American Publishing Company, Roughing It, published in 1872. In
August of the same year he made a trip to London, to get material for a
book on England, but was too much sought after, too continuously
feted, to do any work. He went alone, but in November returned with
the purpose of taking Mrs. Clemens and the new baby, Susy, to
England the following spring. They sailed in April, 1873, and spent a
good portion of the year in England and Scotland. They returned to
America in November, and Clemens hurried back to London alone to
deliver a notable series of lectures under the management of George
Dolby, formerly managing agent for Charles Dickens. For two months
Mark Twain lectured steadily to London audiences--the big Hanover
Square rooms always filled. He returned to his family in January, 1874.
Meantime, a home was being built for them in Hartford, and in the
autumn of 1874 they took up residence in ita happy residence,
continued through seventeen years--well-nigh perfect years. Their
summers they spent in Elmira, on Quarry Farm--a beautiful hilltop, the
home of Mrs. Clemens's sister. It was in Elmira that much of Mark
Twain's literary work was done. He had a special study there, some
distance from the house, where he loved