November 28 Friday – In Elmira Olivia Lewis Langdon died. She was 80. Livy and her sister Susan Crane were with her, and Susy and Clara Clemens were on their way (they may have left this day or Nov. 29). A telegram (not extant) was sent to Sam in Hartford. He answered:
Livy darling, my heart goes out to you [MTPO].
November 27 Thursday – Thanksgiving – Livy’s 45th birthday. Livy was still in Elmira at her mother’s bedside. She wrote Sam:
We had a bad fright last night, we thought mother was going, but after a time she got quiet and slept about four hours. It is a terrible time [MTP; A. Hoffman 362-3].
In Hartford in the morning, Sam finished his Nov. 26 to Livy.
November 26 Wednesday – Sam brought Susy home to Hartford from Bryn Mawr. She would not return. Evidently she failed an algebra exam and did not wish to redo it, though her teacher, Miss Thomas, was eager to give her another chance. She was described at being “rattled,” no doubt from the bad news about her grandmother, and also about sister Jean; Susy had also suffered from an acute case of homesickness. At about 10 p.m., Sam began a letter to Livy, still in Elmira; he wrote of the day’s trip:
November 25 Tuesday – Sam reached Bryn Mawr, Penn. too late to bring Susy home that day, and so had to spend the night. He wrote to Livy that Susy was “first rate.” It was in Susy’s parlor at 9:05 p.m. that he wrote his wife this short note:
We send a whole world of love to you. I’m going now to the cottage here on the grounds where I am to sleep. Goodnight, Dear Heart [MTP]. Note: it was Thanksgiving break at the school.
November 24 Monday – Sam probably spent the day traveling back to Hartford.
Wilson Barrett sent Sam clippings from the Nov. 14, 1890 issue of The Lantern newspaper, St. Helens, England about various dramatics there starring Mr. Wilson Barrett and Miss Eastlake [MTP].
November 22 Saturday – Katy Leary (1856?-1934), the Clemens family’s longtime maid, wanted to telegraph Livy to return home. Young Jean Clemens was seriously ill; Dr. Kellogg agreed that Livy’s return was needed. Clara Clemens, now sixteen, overruled Katy and the doctor, arguing that Livy could not withstand such an arduous trip home from Elmira while her mother lay dying [Nov. 26, 27 to Livy].
November 21 Friday – Sam and Livy arrived in Elmira and went to Olivia Lewis Langdon’s bedside [Nov. 27 to Howells].
Thomas F. Shields, the fired N.Y. horse-car conductor, wrote to Sam after receiving his telegram several days before. Shields, upon applying back to the Horse-Car Co., was reinstated, albeit as an “extra conductor”; he wrote it would “take some time before I get a steady car again” [MTP].
November 20 Thursday – Stillman & Co., Agents, Hartford, billed $10 for re-dying seal coat: Livy wrote on bill: “Dear Sirs/ My absence from town must be my excuse for this bill’s remaining so long unpaid / O.L. Clemens”; Paid Dec. 21, 1890 [MTP].
Sam wrote to William J. Bok for Bok Syndicate Press, N.Y., objecting to a published paragraph in “Bok’s Literary Leaves” about Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher. Sam’s letter not extant but referred to in Bok’s apology of Nov. 28 [MTP].
November 19 Wednesday – Rev. Edwin Pond Parker wrote to Sam upset at learning a “public reception” for H.M. Stanley would be given following his Hartford lecture, and solely to those who had paid $1 to hear him. He applied to Sam assuming that the Stanley’s would be their guest again [MTP].
An unidentified person from N.Y. sent Sam a critical note about the firing of the conductor [MTP].
November 18 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam mailed a calling card with a mourning border to John Russell Young, congratulating his wife, Rose Fitzpatrick Young (1841-1881) and hoping “that she will always try to deserve her good fortune” [MTP]. Note: Mrs. Young’s achievement is not specified.