Langdon's Pencil: Samuel Clemens and His Children's Voices

Between 7 November 1870 and 2 June 1872, the letters Samuel Clemens and Olivia Clemens sent their friends and families are filled with reports on the condition of their firstborn son Langdon.1 His premature birth and constant sicknesses filled both parents with intense anxiety. Among messages about business, the couple's letters reflect on parenthood and, while on tour, Samuel's letters home to Olivia repeatedly end with well-wishes for Langdon or “Cubbie,” as they called him. The couple's worry proved justified, as Langdon died of diphtheria when only nineteen months old.Moving (for the most part) chronologically through the letters of Samuel and Olivia Clemens, this article examines Samuel's struggle with Langdon's uncertain health and its impact on his relationship with his son. Analyzing his oscillations between hope, happiness, and anxiety, I am particularly interested in letters where Samuel ventriloquizes his son to friends and family. Writing a small handful of letters “from” Langdon shortly after his son's birth, Samuel reflects on, imagines, and exaggerates what he believes to be the thoughts in his son's mind. Bringing in later correspondences from Samuel and Olivia which reflect on Langdon's development and speech, I suggest that we should read this body of letters as more than just lighthearted jests—rather, I argue that infant speech indexes a number of Samuel's anxieties and literary concerns in this roughly two-year period. Following my analysis of these letters from the 1870s, I show that questions of writing to or for the unspeaking child return decades later in his Autobiography, where Samuel breaks his long silence on Langdon.While Samuel limited his use of the Langdon persona to his private correspondences between 1870 and 1872, the cultivation of this persona nevertheless marks an important development of the child's voice in Twain's published works. Though by no means a starting point in Twain's work about or for children, the Langdon letters reveal a distinctly anxious and individualized ventriloquism. The invented infant voice does not represent the nation by way of metonymically standing in for all children, as is the case in a vast majority of children's fiction, but consistently stands in for Samuel himself. This may be true of all ventriloquism, but nowhere is this projection more apparent than in his efforts to give voice to his son. By focusing on the Langdon persona and the strange dynamics it introduces between parent, child, and letter recipient, I explore the complex temporality of Samuel's fear and grief. In addition, I suggest that these letters disclose inseparable conflations between that author—father and child—text that are distinct from Samuel's general treatment of the child's voice in his fiction, yet have greater implications for his treatment of the child's voice in his fiction after 1872 and his late autobiography.Samuel's invented scenes of infant writing and speech comically undermine the etymology of infant, as infans quite literally means “unable to speak.” The inaccessibility of the infant consciousness and nineteenth-century literary efforts to give voice to it have been a long-held curiosity for writers as well as a concern for scholars of children's literature and children in literature. The child's consciousness of the world before language was often imagined as a state of innocence and free of socialization. Yet Samuel's Langdon persona is not a Romantic exercise in rendering what Samuel Taylor Coleridge called “a state so godlike.”2 Neither is it exactly the battleground for indoctrination and socialization so familiar to scholars of nineteenth-century childhood studies.3Instead, Samuel eschews the world of beautiful childhood innocence that was ubiquitous in the sentimental and pedagogical texts of the nineteenth century, rejecting a literary mode that many have tied to systems of moral and social instruction. The voice Samuel invents for Langdon is witty, occasionally puzzled at his surroundings, and humorously world-weary at the fuss around him. There is little in these letters that suggests that Samuel wanted to reproduce a truly childlike voice as he did in later works like Tom Sawyer. At the same time, this exercise undoubtedly captures how Samuel animated his idea of Langdon's future voice through this literary play and consequently how these correspondences also shaped what sort of place Langdon might take within the Clemens family and social circle.The Langdon persona was both a personal and literary exercise. For example, Samuel writes two letters in Langdon's voice in November 1870, shortly after Langdon's birth. The first was sent to Eunice Ford, Langdon's great-grandmother, and the second to close friends Joseph and Harmony Twichell. These two letters reveal a delicate balance of tone, as the baby's perspective is filled with endearing descriptions of his family and bodily functions, as well as concerns about health and mortality that the baby cannot in this shared fantasy yet articulate.To Ford, Clemens begins the letter with a playful opening: “Do not tell grandma who the letter is from. Let her find out as she goes along.” The letter opens with an impatient and indignant writer criticizing Ford for not writing before the reveal: “I am four days old to-day at eleven o'clock.”4 Baby Langdon reports on his low weight, his bathing habits, his gas, and his appearance with humor and light-heartedness: And I tell you it is dull, roosting around on pillows & rocking chairs & everybody else spinning around town having a good time. Sometimes they let that other baby lie on the kitchen table & wink at the sun, but bless you I never get a show. Sometimes I get so mad that I cannot keep my temper or my opinion. But it only makes things worse. They call it colic, & give me some execrable medicine. Colic. Everything is colic. A baby can't open its mouth about the simplest matter but up comes some wise body & says it is wind in its bowels. When I saw the dog the first time, I made a noise which was partly fright & partly admiration—but it cost me a double dose of medicine for wind in the bowels. Do these people take me for a balloon? (IV, 223)In this letter, the sounds of the bowels substitute for a speaking voice, as Langdon laments that the “baby can't open its mouth about the simplest matter.” At the same time, the reverse is true, as Samuel uses this persona to rhetorically make a stink and minimize the gravity of Langdon's health. Despite the amusing descriptions of colic, key details nevertheless give away Langdon's frail constitution. “I have a ridiculous time of it with clothes,” Langdon shares, “I am only 13 inches long, & these [slips] are as much as 3 feet.” He also writes, “I am not entirely satisfied with my complexion. I am as red as a lobster. I am really ashamed to see company” (IV, 223). To make these alarming features inconveniences, Samuel downplays Langdon's state of health. Either for his benefit or Ford's, Samuel's playful report only hints at Langdon's precarious state. The letter does not betray the fear he had that same week, which he confides to his brother Orion Clemens: “I do not believe the baby will live five days” (IV, 231).To the Twichells, addressed as “Uncle & Aunt,” Samuel-as-Langdon describes again his “wretched” health as a newborn: I am not corpulent, nor am I robust in any way. At birth I only weighed 4 1/2 pounds with my clothes on—& the clothes were the chief feature of the weight, too, I am obliged to confess. [. . .] They all say I look very old & venerable—& I am aware, myself that I never smile. Life seems a serious thing, what I have seen of it—& my me that it is made up of & wind in the bowels. (IV, this a about bowels a was a serious at this point in the The Clemens family saw no of before Langdon's most the of Langdon and her close and with This letter not only from the of and it also as a of Samuel's Langdon his “I was not on this about the first in [. . .] we to be all the play is (IV, Samuel uses this to a more and this is a to or the worry Langdon's is not to these as private they are texts to in the of Samuel's yet they are also literary report on the state of a in this this where the infant the and to the or no of these letters be called these are private letters and no of to be pedagogical or of children's nineteenth-century children, and children's writing may scholars the playful in these is in children's of it is is a to which as a for the of For the the of a that is at and at other and by both and that the of childhood as a of and an of and and a world with its and The infant voice, as to the child's voice, is a yet world for Samuel to And while he does not take this of rendering the infant voice when he the Langdon that does not make the infant state any nor does it Langdon from questions of or the of children's fiction as writes, the in which comes first and the child comes after but where of the in Samuel a fiction which the of a literary also this between Twain's Tom and the concern with of in of child The humor of the Langdon persona the of children, the of many child in fiction and the that children more often than literary or is a not that of Twain's of the and of the or his for which the and of texts for also the of the the the old and the of and on the or the of and of Tom and Life on the both to and the of for and about When of a child who never she that the of children in nineteenth-century is not an to the and of the child but same in to she children's fiction this and never its with a which up the child as a point of in to and the Samuel's Langdon letters on yet he also and its on These letters may the details of Langdon's but than his state of they to to up more and to his of does not close or the between and or the between and child, which Samuel's Langdon letters the same of when she writes, children's fiction an of the child the it does so in to the child who is the the who does not so within its the child as what we find in Samuel's letters as Langdon is an to and to his unspeaking infant a a The of humor is as it the of writing a child's as an exercise in projection and The is and yet Langdon the child just the of by the Langdon I a between fiction and other scholars have made more between Langdon's and Twain's In to works which reflect on children's my on on Samuel's as a and his with These letters about with to the this have been by Following Joseph that Langdon's had an impact on out that Langdon often been a in when the of Samuel's brother his and his have been a of for example, Twain's with his writes in his of how Twain's and family shaped his fiction that his innocence with the of his that Twain's silence on the for this in be as an of both the of his and the of his He also a relationship between the parents of Twain's fiction and the at Langdon's thoughts on Samuel's silence of who he of his son that but no in his his was and have Samuel repeatedly his family both his fiction and in work on the relationship between Samuel's and Twain's fiction much to in these two of for the development of Twain's for children before and after Langdon's from in to the more and of Tom The of this is to the way that and the of infant speech and the of in Samuel's Langdon which humor and with a to report on the state of the family and In this Samuel's Langdon persona the writer a of in “a of through which the voice, and the its silence Samuel the of the literary his letters repeatedly and his This imagined Langdon repeatedly that he does not to have any and to His language is only to be and by or out on the of Samuel's Langdon persona is at with Samuel's much like of the of or not the of writing may some of to the state of The in its temporality the of it in the temporality of the [. . .] not just the mode but also the In other what the up to is not how away childhood but its be The this be this be through language will return to this of my where I look at of Langdon in Twain's that through the of Clemens as a the of this the of Langdon's language a of and how much Langdon be like his Samuel of these letters in Langdon's voice around the time of Langdon's birth to to the this letter is of its through a from in Langdon in of his (IV, This is the only we have of writing to do not in this The so as Samuel often called that his is to the of the also about you are a in these and are not familiar with my else first not have been so familiar or so of humor is on in this letter, as she what she of all . . . of in all that me of (IV, This about Langdon's his the letter that more you have of her the I have to of these on a literary “I have only of in my to his I have with the of at and this (IV, this about the son as a of the is a from or a playful to in Samuel's letter, we do not the language of and in letter reflects the of language and in nineteenth-century her of the infant Langdon is both a and literary to speech is to The of also of the with which Samuel's is tied to his and how the precarious infant who not yet many of his family a made and through in this letter which first to the all is the Langdon in many a literary to about his delicate firstborn this way is as he not long after Langdon's “I but in my I was it was to I but its health is so precarious that I a about the little he from & it in (IV, Samuel was about his Langdon persona a private and as we see from this letter, his appearance in was This is not but that Samuel saw the of the Langdon persona as a from in the the use of it from might also suggest this more Samuel was about in he nevertheless like the between and where writers Langdon's Langdon was a of his is an in these from that Samuel saw his premature birth in Langdon to the that Samuel in a and infant voice that his In a letter of November 1870, Samuel invented to his for a of baby This time, he describes a between Langdon and The first time the baby saw the he things for I am about in the time, you is a I will not in this he “I do not to have any with but you find that the of my is not to you get up on & take a the (IV, see the wink in his when Samuel “I cannot where the child its for for from the it been my to make its speech as free from of that as my (IV, may also see hints of his more literary as with the at the of when about you have read a by the of of Tom but that no was made by and he the his is a play in these which Langdon's The marks which Samuel's to Langdon's also give a of the of this speech, writes, the with the of a out on the of also sounds a of Samuel's letter the anxious of Langdon's Samuel a to his child in these that his and Samuel repeatedly on Langdon's good in other Langdon in a very The same or the before Samuel this imagined with his son he sent of Langdon Clemens to two of his son (IV, The in this little of that he the of and the that may be a suggests that is more in Langdon's than we To he writes of the “I have to a He is about He is a good little (IV, a letter to Eunice Ford that same by Samuel-as-Langdon to his Samuel an of Langdon which this I you a to you that it at this of all of the when are important & their of & this baby & of his & is a small personal of who his his & his & out & a good a good many but his is his & He never he is he between the and Langdon of Samuel's letters and the may a with the later reports on the of his son's when Langdon was a he to and and does his the Clemens family Langdon's a development that be as as the of Samuel's letters often on Langdon's Langdon is around he writes to I the more & more as he & & To me he is a very very little for I have the for (IV, The of Samuel at a relationship to a speaking Langdon who will be & a voice which may be by the a of infant that his for Langdon will is also a that may betray a greater between the as like this occasionally in their Despite some of these concerns about Langdon's his did and to some so did his Olivia writes when Langdon is months old that “I have been having a good time with baby of the he is a little his second he very like at a good of the This letter of Olivia Langdon to her speech yet the of at as to like about or captures the of at the of language some of in Langdon's while suggests of captures the that Langdon is just on the of a world of language but also to a between Samuel and Langdon a Samuel was away from home as he on a from to 1872 this time, Langdon was eleven to months Langdon is often only a small in letters from Samuel to Olivia in this time, only in like the for Langdon is for much of this to the that that is a of in Samuel's later this to a of with the couple's constant of what should Langdon or the were to from their correspondences Samuel's tour, it is that Olivia how the infant voice, or key to Samuel's for or to his son. In a letter the first months of Samuel's tour, Olivia her “I as he you and he will other like (IV, while Olivia also often in she never goes as as to give his letters more on Langdon's which her to see and to is very anxious to have you get home he that you will not on any and and I the but little he cannot he a speaking (IV, In these both Samuel and Olivia make a out of their unspeaking while also their future for Langdon's in of the of with his which Samuel as Langdon and sent to in the in Samuel most in his to the most (IV, this and Samuel again makes of Langdon's by his noise and with a with in the of Samuel on the same Langdon's as by his to and efforts to Olivia reports on a Langdon that we say where is he at that stands on the (IV, we get of language in a to Samuel writes that the say & to which he means by it is the Samuel also that Langdon cannot that is not of development but of development so to it is development of from his is an I These again to Samuel's with his son and his to what may as to Langdon's to is very that Langdon's or of are the only we have of the child's in Samuel and Samuel his for a son that like in his Olivia Langdon to to his in a show of This of as be read as a on Samuel's to be of efforts to make Langdon his and the impact of Samuel's for five an where in “I do not to have any with is a through the from a out to the more familiar a the of or Samuel's as Langdon's for Samuel to his son's for and the they this about Samuel to read Langdon's or as may find their or as we will no letters between and June 1872 but we from and that this the was and that the family to where Langdon's health a for the worse. Langdon on June the body was to and in the family Neither of his parents was as health was and they in In a letter to two after Langdon's Samuel to And I you also for & for did a in how is the that the child that is was the only that was When we only To it seems a time, very little about Langdon his that Tom which he shortly after in the months of 1872, about the of his most of Langdon not he his some decades In his of the two of Langdon's Samuel again to a child's This time, it is voice as it in of from as a of or to Twain's the of a within This the of the Langdon as the from to and the of her the by and Langdon's is first through in Langdon to but I did not just what was the matter with is in the mode of on or this to by that makes the that he the of the child's for to the on a He “I have for that work and have not myself to of it when I I I had the to make at the time. I it most that I have never scholars like have that it was this with that to very little about Langdon in his writing and correspondences after his to both writing and this of his is a of Twain's as on a of this after in at The of her is a to Twain's for his and his that a describes much of Twain's work on the as an to her to or as it in a to my In this children's in the of her just as Langdon's imagined speech animated the infant to make a I to the in which Twain's much like the Langdon is with speech, speech, and silence when grief. For the of which was by as an by and a any of The he writes, was where the is by the and but the of the that the a of vast and that it be before the of is The of the child's voice also again when the he in the of He the where his and from the that the of the family and in a of the Olivia was in to the when as a a time of this he also details that this of like the that they are in the of her childhood and the place in the to that she was by who her from the and that to when was a child of this is a of again of the as we Langdon's at this of with scenes from Langdon's both Langdon's and the that the call is other than the is the is not to minimize the of and or the in the Clemens these scenes where and are called or show that it is the of for the and which and the or of their Though its the play of Samuel's letters on which are animated by a concern with or and an it is how this on speech from the again later in his descriptions of the only do these show and the of speaking his their a in of vast a of might which and humorously Langdon's voice, look a more of Langdon's and Twain's intense of does it that he the writing to when he these decades Tom writes, writes a about he exactly where to with a but when he writes of he where he I with Twain's on which an but of Langdon at This begins with of to a in his little that was his I believe he was very seen in his This in Langdon's is the for this Langdon was never and may only in his was nevertheless the most for language and only it was which tied to his In his this from His decades after the with the is is about the which the of their and the details of their from to Yet it seems apparent that this is that only have been to by her parents or close to she was only two months old when Langdon the voice of a make these of Langdon the of children their with a with the of Langdon's we cannot the of his it that the of his firstborn an open for most of his In close to we see how after Langdon's the Clemens a of or of their firstborn son as who the of writing and their to Langdon's voice, in these playful letters or in scenes of in this of his