While you've read Mark Twain's works and have probably quoted him, you might not know much about Samuel Clemens' personal life. Clemens made friends with Charles Langdon on his trip to the Holy Land in 1868, and later met his younger sister Olivia. Olivia was educated, devout, progressive, and chronically ill, possibly with tuberculosis.
Eventually Samuel decided Olivia was the girl for him. He had earned a Bohemian reputation that was not necessarily good for a prospective husband and so when he came and stayed for two weeks and then asked Langdon for his daughter’s hand in marriage, he received a “chilled” response from her father. Moreover, Olivia gave him a resounding “no” when he proposed marriage.
The refusal by Olivia did not dishearten Samuel. He began a vibrant epistolary courtship writing 184 courtship letters. Their letters discussed their opinions of authors and books and they also expressed their ideas about what they thought a perfect marriage entailed. Relationships between the sexes and the elements that composed a perfect husband or wife were also among the things Olivia and Samuel debated at length. Interestingly, their opinions were often radically different, and yet despite these differences Samuel became determined to marry Olivia.
Olivia turned down Samuel's proposals twice more before they married in 1870. Read about their romance and the Clemens' family life at Geri Walton's blog. -via Strange Company