April 12 Sunday – Sergei M. Stepnyak (Sergei Mikhailovich Kravchinski), a Russian revolutionary, wrote to Sam from the Alvorton Hotel in Boston, including a brief letter of introduction (Apr. 11) from William Dean Howells. Stepnyak asked if he might call on Sam when he passed through Hartford in a few days [MTHL 2: 643n1].
April 11 Saturday – Howells sent a brief letter of introduction for Sergei M. Stepnyak (Sergei Mikhailovich Kravchinski). “I am sure you and he will not fail to be great friends” [MTHL 2: 643]. The source notes identify Kravchinski as a “Russian Nihilist and exile,” who wrote under the pseudonym Stepnyak (Often spelled Stepniak). In Nov. 1888, Howells had issued a positive review of Stepnyak’s The Russian Peasant. Stepnyak lectured on Siberian exiles, Tolstoi, and the need for revolution in Russia [n1].
April 10 Friday – Sam had received a phonograph from the New England Phonograph Co., but it came with a repaired seal to a battery. Franklin G. Whitmore wrote for Sam that the battery had been shipped back for replacement [MTP].
April 9 Thursday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall asking him to:
…ransack your safe for my old contracts with American Publishing Co. and if you can’t find them require them of Webster, who has without doubt carted them off in obedience to his native disposition to smouch all unwatched property. I think the contracts may enable me to forbid those people to issue cheap editions without my privity and consent…We will issue cheap editions — especially if they do not approve [MTLTP 271-2].
April 8 Wednesday – Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam’s about Frank Bliss’s Apr. 4 letter which objected to the issuance of a cheap edition of HF:
April 7 Tuesday – Frederick Fitzgerald wrote to Sam that “General Hawley would be in town off and on for five or six days” and was presently at the City Hotel [MTP]. Note: evidently Fitzgerald worked for Hawley, whom Sam wanted to see.
April 6 Monday – The N.Y. Times, p.4 “The Academy’s Exhibition” described the 66th exhibition of the National Academy of Design, which included “a half length of ‘Mark Twain’ by Charles Noel Flagg.”
April 5 Sunday – Robert W. Carl sent a note and a clipping from this day’s New York Recorder, which he called, “a comparatively new journal.” The article was titled, “MARK TWAIN’S REVENGE,” the story from Sen. William M. Stewart’s perspective of why Sam’s RI featured an unflattering illustration of the Senator. Jones claimed the picture was published due to his threat to “flog” Sam in Washington, D.C.
April 4 Saturday – In Hartford Sam responded to Howells’ Apr. 3:
April 3 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Blakely Hall, the editor of the magazine Truth. Established in 1881, Truth began as a small weekly covering New York City life. 1891 brought additional financial backers and Hall, who was already a well-known editor. He made over the magazine as a glossy, lavishly illustrated magazine of humor, fiction, reviews, poetry, and cartoons.