Clemens, Samuel L.

Three letters to daughter Jean, two dated 1908 and one 1909.



Autograph letter signed ("Your loving Father"), 3 pages on Innocence at Home stationery, Redding, Sunday [9 August 1908], announcing that the Stanchfields will be arriving and that they will tell him about Jean's prospects in Germany, encourages her to be happy. Together with: holograph envelope; soiled, stained, torn along right margin. — Autograph letter signed ("Father"), 4 pages on Redding, Connecticut stationery, Redding, 2 October 1908, announcing Clara's renaming of the Redding house to "Stormfield."— Autograph letter signed ("Father"), announcing social plans at Stormfield, the sighting of a blue-jay by himself and one of the family cats.

A father's loving encouragement.  In the 9 August letter, Clemens advises Jean to "Be happy, dear love, & put all disturbing solicitudes away from you, & bury yourself in cheerful books & pleasant thoughts. Oh, yes, dear Jean, dear heart, shut your eyes & your heart to all burden of life, & be happy." in the letter of 2 October, he reports that Clara has changed the name of the Redding house to Stormfield because it was built with money from a magazine story entitled "Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven." The house is also situated high on a hill with no obstructions, "so that all the storms that come will beat upon it." He has also acquired six cats. "We crowd one of the grandchildren into a pocket of the billard table ... he sits there by the hour & watches the game ... when a ball passes near him he puts out a dainty paw & changes its direction & spoils the shot." In the last letter, Clemens revels in seeing a blue jay "shuttle sail across the sunny air." Apparently one of the cats caught sight of it as well: "Danbury saw it too, & started indolently away with an air intended to make me think he was going to church ... If he comes back with feathers in his mouth, he will be bound over for trial till you come."