THE NEW BOOK AND A WEDDING
thirty thousand volumes had been sold. It was a book of travel; its lowest price was three and a half dollars; the record has not been equaled since. In England also large editions had been issued, and translations into foreign languages were under way. It was and is a great book, because it is a human book—a book written straight from the heart.
If Mark Twain had not been famous before, he was so now. Indeed, it is doubtful if any other American author was so widely known and read as the author of The Innocents Abroad during that first half-year after its publication.
Yet for some reason he still did not regard himself as a literary man. He was a journalist, and began to look about for a paper which he could buy—his idea being to establish a business and a home. Through Mr. Langdon's assistance, he finally obtained an interest in the Buffalo Express, and the end of the year 1869 found him established as its associate editor, though still lecturing here and there, because his wedding-day was near at hand and there must be no lack of funds.
It was the 26. of February, 1870, that Samuel Clemens and Olivia Langdon were married. A few days before, he sat down one night and wrote to Jim Gillis, away out in the Tuolumne Hills, and told him of all his good fortune, recalling their days at Angel's Camp, and the absurd frog story, which he said had been the beginning of his happiness. In the five years since then he had traveled a long way, but he had not forgotten.
On the morning of his wedding-day Mark Twain
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