August 2 Friday – Sam wrote another short note from New Saybrook to Mollie, again about household needs [MTL 5: 137].
Sam wrote from New Saybrook to Joseph L. Blamire of Routledge & Sons, letter not extant but referred to in Blamire’s of Aug. 6.
August 5 Monday – Sam telegraphed from Saybrook Point, Conn. to Mollie Clemens for her to send a carriage to the Hartford depot “about 10 this morning.” The reason for Sam’s trip back to Hartford is unknown [MTL 5: 137-8]. Sam probably returned to New Saybrook (Saybrook) the same day.
August 6 Tuesday – Sam wrote from New Saybrook to Charles M. Underhill (1839-1924), a general salesman for an affiliate of the J. Langdon & Co. Theodore Crane had informed Sam that his annual payment to Thomas A. Kennett was due with interest (Sam still owed $5,000 of the initial $25,000 for the one-third interest in the Buffalo Express).
August 7 Wednesday – Sam wrote from New Saybrook to Elisha Bliss, acknowledging payment of $8,485.17 in royalties. Sam had finalized plans to sail for England “in 10 or 12 days to be gone several months.” He also related writing “strongly to Anna Dickinson,” the suffrage reformer who was trying to swing a book deal with Bliss but was holding out for a $10,000 guarantee.
August 8 Thursday – Sam telegraphed from Saybrook Point to Mollie Clemens, asking her to “stir up that infernal Steam Laundry” [MTL 5: 141]. He also sent Mollie a short note and a check for the E.C.C. Kellogg Co. for the prowler bell he’d ordered installed at the Forest Street Hartford house. “All well. I am going to England in a week from now” [MTL 5: 142].
August 9 Friday – Joseph L. Blamire for Routledge & Sons, NYC wrote to Sam having rec’d his of Aug. 7, encouraging him to go to England early in September, when he might “see a good deal of country life, before the folks begin to return to Town.” He recommended the Cunard steamship line [MTP].
August 10 Saturday – Bill paid to Putnam Phalanx Market, Hartford grocers; purchases made Aug. 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10: $6 [MTP].
August 11 Sunday – Sam wrote from New Saybrook to Orion Clemens, giving Aug. 21 as his sailing date to England, on what Joseph L. Blamire called “The Crack Steamer of the Cunard Line,” the Scotia. While lying around Saybrook, Sam had formulated his idea for a better scrapbook, and sent details and a drawing to his brother to keep as proof of the date of invention.
August 14, Wednesday – Sam wrote from New Saybrook to Joseph L. Blamire of Routledge & Sons, letter & check for $150 not extant but referred to in Blamire’s of Aug. 15.
August 15 Thursday – Joseph L. Blamire for Routledge & Sons wrote to Sam, having rec’d his note of Aug. 14 with check for $150 for a ticket to Liverpool. Since he didn’t know how long Clemens would be at Saybrook, he’d hold the ticket in NYC [MTP].
August 16 Friday – Sam telegraphed from Saybrook Point to Mollie Clemens: “Send down all my white pants” [MTL 5: 147]. Note: even then, Sam liked to wear white, though while Livy was alive, only in season.
August 18 Sunday – Sam left Saybrook for Hartford, where he probably spent the night [MTL 5: 149n1].
August 19 Monday – Sam wrote poetically from Hartford to Livy, still in Saybrook, Conn.
August 20 Tuesday – Sam wrote from New York to Livy, after buying exchange for some English gold coins, buying a hat and books for the trip. Charley Langdon and wife Ida arrived at the hotel late. Charley brought two boxes of cigars from Theodore Crane for Sam. Sam wrote he was going to dinner with “the Harper’s Drawer man & Will M. Carleton the farm-ballad writer.” William A.
August 21 Wednesday – Sam departed New York, bound for England on the Scotia. Bills paid to Putnam Phalanx Market, grocers $5.43; to T.S. Daniels for oats, etc. $4.80 [MTP].
August 29 Thursday – Sam wrote from the SS Scotia, en route to Liverpool, England, to Livy. Sam missed her already [MTL 5: 151].
August 30 Friday – The Scotia reached Queenstown, Ireland at 8 AM. Sam sent a telegraph to Livy [MTL 5: 152n3].
Livy paid Flower & Hills, grocers $7.05 [MTP].
August 31 Saturday – The Scotia reached Liverpool [MTL 5: 152n3].
In Hartford, Hatch & Tyler delivered coal to the Clemens home [MTP].
September – Sometime during the month, Sir John Bennett (1814-1897) wrote Sam, enclosing Anthony Trollope’s calling card [MTP].
The first of Sam’s two visits to the Doré Gallery, London [MTL 5: 614-21].
September 1 Sunday – Sam wrote from Liverpool, England to Livy.
Livy darling, I wonder if you are back home yet; & I wonder how the Muggins is [pet name for Susy]. & what she looks like. I seem only a stone’s-throw from you & cannot persuade myself that this is a foreign land & that an ocean rolls between us. I feel very near to you.
September 2 Monday – Sam probably spent the first two nights in Liverpool and on this day boarded a train for London. In 1907 he remembered sitting across from a man on the train who was reading Innocents Abroad. The man did not laugh or even smile [MTL 5: 153].
September 4 Wednesday – Bill paid to Squires Grocers for purchases made Aug. 28, 29, 30, 31, Sept. 2, 4 totaling $6.11 [MTP].
September 6 Friday – Sam gave a dinner speech at the Whitefriars Club in London at the Mitre Tavern (Published in Mark Twain Speaking, p. 72-73). Sam was treated like a conquering hero, wined and dined and escorted to many sights. He was a sensation in London.
September 7 Saturday – Sam, along with Tom Hood, make a call on John Camden Hotten’s office. Sam went under the assumed name of “Mr. Bryce” to look over the man who had been publishing unauthorized copies of Mark Twain’s work in England. Hotten recognized Sam right away, but Sam stuck to being Bryce, and looked “glum and stern” [MTL 5: 165n1]. See Sept.
September 9 Monday – Sam spent the day sightseeing with James R. Osgood, the Boston publisher who was vacationing in England. They visited the Kenilworth ruins, Warwick Castle and Stratford on Avon [MTL 5: 155]. Sam would use Warwick Castle in the opening scene of A Connecticut Yankee.