On 4/15/08 10:18 AM, "Steve Courtney" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> And after Susie died in 1896, Clemens wrote that Twichell was the only one he
> wanted to correspond with because he had "the touch that heals, not
> lacerates."
Hartford. Nov.2.1897
Dear old Mark;
We have been reading, and re-reading, and again reading your ³In
Memoriam² with the accompaniment of a gray autumn sky and the falling leaves
to blend with its unspeakable heart=breaking sadness; its aching, choking
pathos. It sets all chords of memory and of love a tremble. It renews the
pain of the sense of Lifeıs inscrutable mystery, and of the mystery of human
experience. It renews, also, (may I say?) the deep and solemn gladness of
the faith that God in whose awful Hand we all are held, is, when you get to
the end of things, Love. But I will not talk about it: in fact it seems to
impose hush and silence upon me. This, however, I would say: if there be
those who are thinking ³Can this be Mark Twain?² I am not one of them. I
have long known that it was in you to chant the music of the hidden soul
conversing with the Fathomless Elements, and as I followed your yearning
throbbing song of Grief and inextinguishable Regret, my inward comment was
³It is he: none other than my Mark Twain.² Mark: it made me love you so
that it hurt; and, of course, I felt Livy and the girls behind you; the
whole dear group was there; with the beloved Shadow in the midst; and
bending over all, the angel of Tears and Sorrow. ³Weeping may endure for a
night, but joy cometh in the morning², says the Old book. God send you the
dawn of that fulfillment soon. But I trust He is already sending it.
. . . .
Yours everlastingly
Oh, Iıve got lots to tell you!
Joe
Harold K. Bush, Ph.D
Associate Professor
Dept. of English, Saint Louis University
St. Louis, MO 63108
314-977-3616 (w); 314-771-6795 (h)
<www.slu.edu/colleges/AS/ENG/faculty/hbush.html>
Quote of the moment:
"Do not be too moral. You may cheat yourself out of much life. Aim above
morality. Be not simply good; be good for something."
--Henry David Thoreau
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