It was a date. New Year's Eve, 1867.  Dickens performed at Steinway  Hall.
The Langdons were in New York and at Charley's  invitation Sam had called 
on the
family earlier at the St. Nicholas  Hotel on December 27.  

For a full account of the night that he said  "made the fortune of my 
life..."
see Kaplan's "Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain,"  Simon and Schuster, NY,
1966, p. 65. 
 
Roger Durrett
Charlotte, NC

In a message dated 12/1/2011 4:20:07 P.M. Eastern  Standard Time, 
[log in to unmask] writes:
The girl was undoubtedly Livy; their first  date was to hear Dickens read 
(in company with with her parents and, I think,  Alice Hooker, to whom 
Clemens was initially more attracted than to Livy).   Clemens's analysis of 
Dickens' style as always struck me as betraying the  anxiety of the novitiate in 
the presence of the master--he's studying him  intensely, trying to figure 
out what makes his magic.

As for the "white"  reference, yes, it's a joke, but one with a heavy 
underpinning of American  racism and sexism that gives us a glimpse into American 
culture of the  time.  Impacted in that one word is a whole host of issues: 
questions about  the respectability of theater, for starters--what kinds of 
women went to  theaters?  Did women in Twain's home town--or in Nevada or 
S.F. for that  matter--go to theaters or was it still a largely male domain?  
Second,  Twain's own history with women--he rarely mentions his own  
relationships--romantic or sexual, but when he does, I think it's often along  the 
lines of that crack he makes (in Nevada?) about sleeping with  
chambermaids.  Third, the need to specify that this woman is white, that  whiteness 
connotes respectability, with the assumption that blackness does  not.  So this 
is all about Sam Clemens at this time of his life, but it's  also all about 
American race and gender relations.  --susan  harris

Susan K. Harris

Hall Professor of American  Literature

University of Kansas

Author of God's Arbiters:  Americans and the Philippines,  1898-1902

________________________________________
From: Mark Twain  Forum [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of John Davis 
[[log in to unmask]]
Sent:  Thursday, December 01, 2011 10:05 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: MT  & Dickens (& Christmas)

If I recall correctly, his first "date"  with Livy was attendance at a
Dickens lecture.  I'm sure she is the  "white" woman to whom he refers, and
I also agree that that designation of  her is intended as a joke.

On Thu, Dec 1, 2011 at 10:17 AM, westbook  <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> I think the "white woman" thing  was just Twain's way of making a joke.
> Tim Champlin
> -----  Original Message -----
> From: "Ben Wise"  <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent:  Wednesday, November 30, 2011 7:22 PM
> Subject: Re: MT & Dickens  (& Christmas)
>
>
> >I figure "white" just goes along  with "highly respectable" in the
> >convention=
> > al  rhetorical litany of attributes accorded a woman one is proud to 
have
>  > in o=
> > ne's company, at that declarative time  But...who  WAS that white woman?
> >
> > Ben
> >
>  >
> >
> > On Nov 30, 2011, at 6:02 PM, Harold Bush  <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> >> folks, deep into the  Christmas tales of Dickens this week and next;
> >> though=
>  > t
> >> I'd treat myself to another look and see how the  students like (or
> >> dislike=
> > )
> >>  them.
> >> Here's just a few rambling questions, in case any of you  are in a
> holiday
> >> mood and feel like chatting:
>  >>=20
> >> I wonder how MT thought of Dickens as a  novelist?  I don't have a copy
> of
> >> Alan's book  handy (sure wish the new edition of MT'sL would appear, 
are
> >>  yo=
> > u
> >> listening Prof. Gribben?).
>  >>=20
> >> I wonder what he might have thought of those old  Christmas tales -- 
and
> >> also, when or if MT ever really wrote  much about Christmas, or used it
> >> muc=
> > h
>  >> as a setting?
> >>=20
> >> I also was  interested in this little review MT wrote of his visit to
> hear
>  >> CD read, in NYC, 1868:
> >>=20
> >> "He read  David Copperfield. He is a bad reader, in one sense -- 
because
> >>  he=
> >
> >> does not enunciate his words sharply and  distinctly -- he does not cut
> >> the=
> >
>  >> syllables cleanly, and therefore many and many of them fell dead  
before
> >> they reached our part of the house. [I say "our" because  I am proud to
> >> observe that there was a beautiful young lady  with me -- a highly
> >> respectable young white woman.]"
>  >>=20
> >> (from a nice website:   charlesdickenspage.com/twain_on_dickens.html;
>  is
> >>  this published in a recent edition somewhere?  not really sure  about
> that
> >> .=
> >
> >> . .  .)
> >>=20
> >> For most of the 60s, evidently, CD read  those Christmas tales in 
public
> >> readings.  But the thing  that really caught my eye:  why did he call 
her
> >> a=
>  >
> >> "white" woman?  I don't really get the reason for  emphasizing that -- 
as
> >> i=
> > f
> >> he  would be with an African American?  or am I just missing something
>  >> with=
> >
> >> that?
> >>=20
>  >> Anyway;  if anyone has something to say about MT and Christmas, or  
CD,
> >> I'm=
> >
> >> interested!
>  >>=20
> >>=20
> >> thanks, --Hal B.
>  >>=20
> >>=20
> >>=20
> >>=20
>  >> --=20
> >> Harold K. Bush, Ph.D
> >> Professor  of English
> >> Saint Louis University
> >> St. Louis,  MO  63108
> >> 314-977-3616 (w); 314-771-6795 (h)
>  >> <www.slu.edu/x23809.xml>
>



--
John H.  Davis, Ph.D.
Professor of English
Department of Language and  Literature
Chowan University
Murfreesboro, North Carolina 27855=