January 22 Wednesday – As per Elisha Bliss’ invite of Jan. 20, Sam took a train to Hartford, Conn., since he had not been able to reach an agreement through correspondence. This was Sam’s first visit to Hartford. He may have arrived the night before [MTL 2: 162n1]. Andrews cites Jan. 21 [18]. After discussing the matter with Albert Deane Richardson (1833-1869) (who had only received a four percent royalty from Bliss), Sam declined Bliss’ offer of a straight purchase of the book for $10,000, and opted for five percent royalties [Winterich 176]. Powers remarks that by “staking everything on royalty profits from a book that would depend on door-to-door subscription sales to a largely non-‘literary’ clientele, Samuel Clemens revealed a strong intuitive grasp of his natural readership” [MT A Life 234]. Note: It’s likely that Sam simply felt his “readership” would be cut from the same cloth as his “listenership” in his many lectures. Sam did not hold what might have been called normal “literary” ambitions.

Sam stayed at Nook Farm, a 100-acre enclave founded in 1851 by John Hooker (1816-1901), and his brother-in-law, Francis Gillette (1807-1879) with Alice Hooker’s family, friends of the Langdons [Powers, MT A Life 233]. Sam was persuaded to “walk mighty straight,” and wasn’t allowed to smoke. In a letter to the Alta, he claimed to smoke:

“…surreptitiously when all are in bed, to save my reputation, and then draw suspicion upon the cat when the family detect the familiar odor. So far, I am safe, but I am sorry to say the cat has lost caste….She has achieved a reputation for smoking, and may justly be regarded as a degraded, a dishonored, a ruined cat”[Sanborn 386].

Sam’s satirical letter to the editor of the New York Tribune about George Francis Train was printed. Train, a Fenian and crackpot of sorts, was in jail at the time, and had been widely written about in the newspapers [Fatout, MT Speaks 53].

Sam’s LETTER FROM “MARK TWAIN” Correspondence of the New York Citizen.” dated Dec. 15, 1867 ran in the San Francisco Alta California [Schmidt].