Richard Gunderman at the
Smithsonian magazine offers a piece on Mark Twain and his wife Olivia.
The year 2018 marks the 150th
anniversary of one of the great courtships in American history, the wooing of
an unenthusiastic 22-year-old Olivia Langdon by a completely smitten
32-year-old Samuel Langhorne Clemens, better known as Mark Twain.
As I first learned while
visiting Twain’s hometown of Hannibal, Missouri in preparation for teaching
“Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,” the contrasts between the two were indeed
stark, and the prospects for their eventual union exceedingly poor. Olivia Langdon,
known as Livy, was a thoroughly proper easterner, while Sam was a rugged man of
the West. Livy came from a family that was rich and well-educated, while Sam
had grown up poor and left school at age 12. She was thoroughly pious, while he
was a man who knew how to smoke, drink and swear.
On Valentine’s Day, their
story is a reminder of the true meaning of love. Despite many challenges, once
united, they never gave up on each other and enjoyed a fulfilling 34 years of
marriage.
You can read the rest of the
piece via the below link:
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