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Appendix D: A Sample of Letters This sample of nine letters sheds light on both the early Sam Clemens as well as the older Clemens as he begins his life with Olivia Langdon and, still later, as he navigates the losses of Susy, Livy, and Jean. Each letter opens a small window through which it is possible to take a snapshot of Clemens at a particular time and in a particular place.l The contrasting images of Clemens here are striking. From his earliest letters home to his mother from New York in 1853, we see a young man on an adventure. The New York letters were published by Orion Clemens in his local newspaper, and young Sam would have known that publication was likely.2 Not all the images here flatter Clemens or conform to the icon ofMark Twain. In these letters he affirms the social conventions-and, indeed, the racism and nativist prejudice-of antebellum Hannibal. At seventeen, Clemens is certainly regurgitating the lessons he had learned about those who are different. Perhaps as a way to reinforce a brand offrontier superiority (and to reinforce that even in New York he remains a citizen of the South and West), he dismisses abolition and notions of racial equality with snide comments and decries the influx of the poor (and especially children) as reason to shudder.3 Juxtaposed to the concerns ofan older Clemens, we marvel at the shift in tone and attitude as Clemens moves into adult responsibilities. He worries early in his career about how best to nurture and develop his talent for humorous writing-a talent that he is none too impressed with, until, ofcourse, others see his promise. That tendency to depend on the accolades of others, on the benefit ofwiser and more worldly opinion, comes to the fore again as he reflects on his marriage. The post-wedding letter to Will Bowen offers a wealth of reminiscences, many of which will later find their way into Clemens' Mississippi-based novels. This is Clemens as he comes to terms with a notion of the past as grist for a literary present. More importantly, however, is Clemens' shift out of that past into the present of his life with Livy. That movement opens an entirely new and decidedly domestic context for Clemens' writing. He will become more pointed in his social criticism because of his education into the progressivism of the Langdon family and eventually ofthe host offriends and acquaintances he and Livy would 258 A Sample of Letters 259 collect in Hartford. But all that begins with setting aside the tales of childhood for the demands of domestic life. Clemens used his autobiographical writing to renew his family ties and to seek some consolation for his long life, from the memories that flood in as he marks anniversaries, to the collaboration with Susy by using so much of the biography of him and the family that she wrote, to the ache that runs through the record of jean's death. The sense of lost connections is also part of his letter writing. Though it is possible to overstress the momentous loss offamily members and its toll on the aging Clemens, his letters marking the deaths of Susy, Livy, and Jean offer the authentic voice of grief. It is that grief that propels much of the material that he presents in "Chapters from My Autobiography." As he responds more immediately to each loss, his voice in the letters is especially clear and vibrates with a deep emotion that, if at times presented in the conventional language of mourning, demonstrates the depth ofhis grief. It's impossible to read the letters about these losses and not feel Clemens' devastation. Though these brief glimpses into Clemens' private life are affecting, they are only a partial record of the life and times of Clemens and his literary, social, and domestic persona Mark Twain. Given the range of topics presented in the autobiographical "Chapters from My Autobiography," however, even these few letters make it possible to see the immediacy and authenticity of Clemens' reactions to events and the emotion with which he struggled. To Jane Lampton Clemens4 New York Wednesday, August 24th 1853 My Dear Mother: you will doubtless be a little surprised, and somewhat angry when you receive this, and find me so far from home; but you must bear a little with me, for you know I was always the best boy you had, and perhaps you remember the...

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