Proof Twain Expected to be Researched

Going through the MTP papers...this one caught my eye...he estimates 80 years but we're still reading his letters 129 years later!

Letter to Joe Twichell 1880 about baby Jean and life in general in this timeperiod of his life.

"Well, we are all getting along here first-rate; Livy gains strength daily, [&] sits up a deal; the baby is five weeks old [ and—— but] no more of this;

somebody may be reading this letter 80 years hence. And so, my friend (you pitying snob, I mean, who are holding this yellow paper in [your] hand in 1960,) save yourself the trouble of looking further; I know how pathetically trivial our small concerns [would] seem to you, [&] I will not let your eye profane them. No, I keep my news; you keep your compassion.

Suffice it you to know, scoffer [&] ribald, that the little child is old [&] blind, now, [&] once more toothless; [&] the rest of us are shadows, these many, many years. Yes, [&] your time cometh!"


-Mark

Ouch! I'm a "pitying snob" but I'm gonna keep at it, "looking further" that is, we have 47 Connecticut towns and cities currently linked to Twain...can't stop now.

http://twainproject.blogspot.com/2009/10/connecticut-mark-twain-connections.html