December 8 Friday – In New York Sam wrote to Livy, telling about the prior day’s conference with interests of the type-setter, and of a 4 p.m. reconvening later this day, after Henry H. Rogers held a private meeting with him before the meeting.

The object of this [meeting with Rogers] may be to advise me as to how much stock to stand out for, in exchange for my royalties. And also as to how many royalties to refuse to give up. He wants all other royalties absorbed, if it be possible, but not all of mine.

December 7 Thursday – In New York in the afternoon the “several interests” of the typesetter “met face to face for the first time.” Towner K. Webster and his lawyer represented the Chicago interests, “the two Knevals represented the” Connecticut Co., Henry H. Rogers, and Sam, who wrote to Livy of the meeting the next day (Dec. 8):

December 6 Wednesday – In New York Sam wrote to Thomas Bailey Aldrich after staying up half the night reading An Old Town by the Sea.

If I had written you last night when I began the book, I should have written breezily and maybe hilariously; but by the time I had finished it, at 3 in the morning, it had worked its spell & Portsmouth was become the town of my boyhood — with all which implies & compels: the bringing back of one’s youth, almost the only time of life worth living over again…[MTP].

December 5 Tuesday – In New York, at the Players Club, Sam read Thomas Bailey Aldrich’s An Old Town by the Sea (1893), which commemorated Aldrich’s birthplace of Portsmouth, N.H. Sam finished the book at 3 a.m. the next morning [Gribben 17; Dec. 6 to Aldrich].

December 4 Monday – In New York Sam wrote two letters to Livy; the second with a paragraph to daughter Jean. In the first letter he opened with reassurance of his love, and apologized should he “bust out into momentary impatiences.” That he had written anything which made her cry caused him pain; he would try his “best not to do so again.” He referred to “that miserable business of Clara’s going to Berlin,” and saw “no other way” but for her to stay with Livy for the time being.

December 3 Sunday – Sam started at 11:45 a.m. for a noon “breakfast engagement” at the home of Judge Charles H. Truax, 1992 Madison Ave. He arrived late, but “Nobody was surprised.” The meal was not served until 3 p.m. He had to leave at 5 p.m. in order to make a dinner engagement with William Dean Howells at his apartment, 40 West 59th St., some 110 blocks away, “22 miles in snow & slush!” [MTHL 2: 655n1; Dec. 4 to Livy].

December 2 Saturday – In New York Sam wrote to Livy. He enclosed Howells’ Dec. 1 request that he not wear his dress coat, writing a paragraph on the back:

Livy darling, I shall go in a dress coat just the same. I had to leave there yesterday because so many people came there was no satisfaction in the visit. Several of them called Howells out for extended private interviews. Heretofore there have been many people. But they stayed in the parlor.

Sam then wrote the balance of his letter on other pages:

December 1 Friday – In New York on Players Club stationery, Sam wrote a short note to Charles Willey in Bay Shore, Long Island:

My Dear Sir: / I have great confidence in Huck Finn’s judgment in these matters; therefore I am quite willing that you should use the design [MTP].

Sam visited William Dean Howells in his N.Y. apartment but “had to leave there …because so many people came there was no satisfaction in the visit” [Dec. 2 to Livy].

December – “Traveling with a Reformer” first ran in the Cosmopolitan. It was later included in How to Tell a Story, and Other Essays (1897), and The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories and Essays (1900) and My Debut as a Literary Person, etc. (1903) [Budd, Collected 2: 1001]. The second installment of Tom Sawyer Abroad appeared as a serial in the Dec. issue of St. Nicholas Magazine.

November 30 Thursday – Sam’s 58th Birthday. In New York he wrote to William Dean Howells, apologetic about a mix-up having accepted Howells’ and Judge Charles H. Truax’s invitations for the same day.

I am to go to a breakfast at noon next Sunday [Dec. 3], & am disgusted with myself for being so thoughtless as to consent. I am not capable of two appetites in one day.