Passionate readers both, Olivia Langdon and Mark Twain courted through books, spelling out their expectations through literary references as they corresponded during their frequent separations. Their letters reveal Olivia Langdon not as a Victorian prude, as many twentieth-century critics have portrayed her, but as a thoughtful intellectual, widely read in literature, history, and modern science.

Not surprisingly, the letters show Twain as a critic, a suitor who lampooned Langdon's interests even while he sought to win her love. While Langdon's letters show her carefully considering her culture's array of possible role models, Twain's exhibit his conservatism about women's nature and roles. At the same time, they show him resisting many of his culture's basic assumptions.

Working with Langdon's own letters and diaries as well as Twain's, Harris traces the complexities of Langdon and Twain's courtship within their larger contexts, showing how they negotiated their relationship through the mediums of literature, material culture, and the dynamics of the extended family.