December 18 Monday – In New York Sam dined with the Laurence Hutton family and wrote of it on Dec. 19 to Livy:
I dined with the Huttons yesterday [Dec. 18] evening — family dinner, no dress — & we had a delightful time till 11 o’clock. Mr. Hutton thinks Pudd’nhead opens up in great & fine style. The fact is I get a great many compliments on that story & the promise it holds out to the reader [MTP].
December 17 Sunday – In New York Sam wrote to Livy, enclosing the “Tale of the Dime-Novel Maiden,” and describing his new digs, and the difficulty of waiting:
December 16 Saturday – In New York Sam moved to a better room at the Players Club. He completed the “Tale of the Dime-Novel Maiden,” which he began in a letter to Livy on Oct 17. In his Dec. 17 to Livy he wrote of moving into his new quarters on this evening and running across the tale which he’d misplaced.
December 15 Friday – The N.Y. Times, p.1 reported Sam failed to meet his Dec. 14 speaking engagement at St. George’s Church because “his medical adviser forbade it.”
December 14 Thursday – In New York and still laid up, Sam wrote to Clarence C. Buel:
I am still in bed, & waiting for Dr. Rice to come & withdraw his prohibition.
I have been obliged to eat — couldn’t wait any longer, because I had a long fit of coughing which had to be stopped somehow or other. So don’t keep a place for me at table.
December 13 Wednesday – In New York on Dr. Clarence Rice’s letterhead, Sam wrote to Clarence C. Buel, asking if he might get “that Thursday talk put off?” due to his bad cough and cold. He was scheduled to give a lecture to the St. George’s Church Men’s Club on “Reminiscences of a Mississippi Pilot” on Dec. 14.
Sam also wrote on Players Club letterhead to Henry H. Rogers:
Dear Doctor Rogers:
December 12 Tuesday – Livy wrote to Sam. He received the letter (not extant) on Dec. 25 with three others from her (Dec. 9, 10, 11), after his return from Chicago [Dec.25 to Livy].
William A. Goodhart (Law offices of Goodhart & Phillips, N.Y.) wrote to Sam:
December 11 Monday – In New York Sam came down with a bad cold, and called in Dr. Clarence Rice to administer. He kept an appointment (unspecified) at noon [Dec. 14 to Trumbull]. Evidently, he did not go with Rice to a play as proposed in his notebook [NB 33 TS 43].
Livy wrote to Sam. He received the letter (not extant) on Dec. 25 with three others from her (Dec. 9, 10, 12), after his return from Chicago [Dec.25 to Livy].
December 10 Sunday – Sam returned to New York and wrote from the Players Club to the Secretary of the Millicent Library in Fairhaven, Mass. This was Henry H. Rogers’ boyhood town to which he later gave many gifts, including the Fairhaven High School, the Town Hall, a Masonic Hall, Cushman Park, and Millicent Library, named for his deceased daughter who had a love of books. At age 20 Rogers left the town to seek his fortune in the oil fields of Pennsylvania.
December 9 Saturday – In New York at 9 a.m. the final meeting of all the interests (without Paige)in the typesetter took place. The group broke for lunch and met again at 3 p.m. Sam wrote to Livy relating the prior day’s meeting and this day’s: