September 16 Friday – The Clemens family left New York and returned home to Hartford [Sept. 10 telegram to Whitmore].

F.L. Totten wrote from N.Y. to Sam (clipping enclosed of a poem and a sketch of Will Carleton), asking him to send him a list of “all your works with financial results” for a collection of sketches he was writing of prominent men. Sam wrote on the envelope, “Refer him to Chas. Bolton’s book — get his stuff there” [MTP].

September, second half – Upon their return to Hartford, The Clemens family was able to get further acquainted with Grace Elizabeth King (she had been a guest with them at Frederick E. Church at his mansion near Hudson, New York the second week in June). She was staying with the Charles Dudley Warners. A. Hoffman writes,

“The family’s September return to Hartford allowed them to develop a friendship with Grace King, a New Orleans short-story writer favored by Charles Dudley Warner. Sam and Grace shared a dislike for George Washington Cable’s prudish religiosity, and Livy felt a kinship with this literate and patrician woman. With astonishing accuracy, King evaluated life in the household, quickly perceiving the differences between Mark Twain and S. L. Clemens and sensing Sam’s comprehensive genius. She enjoyed his warmth as Sam stretched out on the hearth rug and offered a troubling disquisition on his vision of the coming, dollar-driven American century. ‘He seems to have made a slave to his soul — ,’ she noted, ‘& condemned it to trudge along with him as he shakes his cap & bells’” [342].

From Sam’s notebook:

2 notes. Now in pocket-book. / Chatto’s note £200., due Feb. 27, ’88; & his note for £230.5.10, due March 27, ’88. Both placed in Bissell’s hands for collection about middle of Sept [MTNJ 3: 317]. Note: Sam likely gave these notes to Bissell upon his return to Hartford.