Submitted by scott on

1882 – Sam drew up a list of his investments and domicile expenses since Jan. 1, 1881. They totaled $83,875 not including staff salaries, food, clothing, and utilities [Emerson 125-6]. Here is a list in Sam’s handwriting in the 1882 financial file, MTP: Note this totals $92,875; Sam totaled $88,575; some figures copied differently by Emerson and this writer; as Emerson points out, these figures do not include “the salaries of six full-time servants and part-time maids, secretaries, governesses, and nurses for the children, amounting to some $1,650 per year, and such routine expenses as food, heating, and clothing.”

Greenhouse lot 12,000 
Improving& grading it, say  700 
Kaolatype expenses3 000 
New Kitchen, &c  9,000 
Plumbing 1500 
My new book 10000 
Fredonia Watch Co 3500 
Engineering Co 14,500 
Type-Setter Co 5000 
New Carriage 650 
Crown Pt Iron Co 10600 
Stocks 4500 
Am Ex. In Europe 5000 
Decorating 5000 
Law expenses 2000 
Rugs 1625 
 Total 92, 875

Ed Folsom and Jerome Loving recently published “The Walt Whitman Controversy – A Lost Document.” The Virginia Quarterly Review (Spring 2007); 82, 2. p.123-38. The article cites a letter from the Boston District Attorney to James R. Osgood, which puts the date of Sam’s article, “The Walt Whitman Controversy” in 1882. Gribben had previously conjectured “possibly 1880.”

William Shepard Walsh sent Sam a copy of his book, Authors and Authorship (1882): (inscription: “Compliments of William Shepard Walsh”); also autographed “S.L. Clemens, Hartford, 1882.”

Franklin G. Whitmore wrote. Only envelope survives, but written on it: “Brer C—The enclosed letters are the nearest approach to the contracts with Am. Pub. Cy. That I can find. They will give you a fair insight as to some of the points contained in the contracts.” He thought Webster or Perkins knew where the actual contracts were [MTP].

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Day By Day Acknowledgment

Mark Twain Day By Day was originally a print reference, meticulously created by David Fears, who has generously made this work available, via the Center for Mark Twain Studies, as a digital edition.   

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