"Don't scold me, Livy--let me pay my due homage to your worth; let me honor you above all women; let me love you with a love that knows no doubt, no question--for you are my world, my life, my pride, my all of earth that is worth the having." These are the words of Samuel Clemens in love. Playful and reverential, jubilant and despondent, they are filled with tributes to his fiancee Olivia Langdon and with promises faithfully kept during a thirty-four-year marriage.
The 188 superbly edited letters gathered here show Samuel Clemens having few idle moments in 1869. When he was not...