Submitted by scott on

May 29 Tuesday  Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells, revealing that he had traveled to Bermuda under an assumed name, and lamenting the fact that Howells had not been on the trip:

Confound you, Joe Twichell & I roamed about Bermuda day & night & never ceased to gabble & enjoy. About half the talk was—“It is a burning shame that Howells isn’t here,” “Nobody could get at the very meat & marrow of this pervading charm & deliciousness like Howells,” “How Howells would revel in the quaintness, & the simplicity of this people & the Sabbath repose of this land!” “What an imperishable sketch Howells would make of Capt. West the whaler, & Capt. Hope with the patient, pathetic face, wanderer in all the oceans for 43 years, lucky in none; coming home defeated once more, now minus his ship—resigned, uncomplaining, being used to this,” “What a rattling chapter Howells would make out of the small boy Alfred, with his alert eye & military brevity & exactness of speech; & out of the old landlady; & her sacred onions; & her daughter; & the visiting clergymen; & the ancient pianos of Hamilton & the venerable music in vogue there—& forty other things which we shall leave untouched or touch but lightly upon, we not being worth,” “Dam Howells for not being here!” (this usually from me, not Twichell) [MTLE 2: 74].

Sam also wrote a note to John A. McPherson, who evidently had inquired as to the source of Sam’s pen name, “Mark Twain” [MTLE 2: 75].

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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