January 20 Friday – Howells, in a Boston boarding house where he might be close to his doctor, answered Sam’s Jan. 18 letter. Howells thanked him for the Gerhardt letter and remarked how “the ideal perfection of some things in life” led him to conclude, “never to meddle with the ideal in fiction….” He was just now recovering from a five-week stint in a sick bed due to exhaustion.
January 21 Saturday – Sam may have been influenced by Howells’ comments of Jan. 20, and took Livy’s advice—He directed Charles Webster to examine the New York Tribune for evidence that Reid was persecuting him. Ned House may have also complained of similar treatment to Sam; Charles Dudley Warner certainly did complain [MTHL 1: 390n1].
January 22 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Louis Fréchette. There’d been a mix-up on an invitation; a man had invited him to an event honoring Fréchette in Holyoke, Mass., and then told Fréchette that Sam had accepted when he had not. Sam felt honor-bound to go along and so cleared the air. He also wanted to discuss a matter with Fréchette that he could not write about, and asked if Fréchette might be able to stop in Hartford for a day or two before the Holyoke dinner [MTP].
January 23 Monday – Hubbard & Farmer bankers & brokers sent a statement with a credit balance of $11,640.95 [MTP].
David M. Drury wrote from NYC to solicit an autograph [MTP].
Worden & Co. Wrote advising purchase of 100 shares of Western Union at 80 [MTP].
January 24 Tuesday – A.P. Mitchell, NY stockbroker wrote, promoting a copper mine in Ariz. He claimed he’d made Sam’s acquaintance 10 years before in Pittsburgh [MTP]. Note: Clemens was in Pittsburgh during his 1872 lecture course on Jan. 11 to 16.
January 25 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James R. Osgood:
“If you and Roswell Smith are proposing a new magazine & Howell’s won’t take the editorship, why don’t you offer it to House?…Of course I have said nothing to him of the matter, & don’t know if he could drop his Japanese interests & his Japanese Consul-Generalship…” [MTP]. Note: Roswell Smith (1829-1892).
January 26 Thursday – John Russell Young of the New York Herald inscribed a copy of his Around the World with General Grant in 1877, 1878, 1879 (1879): “To Mark Twain, honoring his genius; and remembering the friendship of many, many years. Jno Russell Young, N.Y., January 26, 1882” [Gribben 795].
January 27 Friday – Worden, Webb & Co. advised sale 100 shares Western Union @ 82 [MTP].
John Russell Young wrote: “I send you a copy of my work by express” [MTP]. Note: see Jan 26.
January 28 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells about the Whitelaw Reid “persecutions” of the New York Herald, which Sam had thoroughly investigated after Livy suggested he do so (See Jan. 21 entry to Webster).
January 29 Sunday – Joe Goodman wrote from Fresno, Calif. to Sam offering his opinion on P&P.
January 30 Monday – Edward “Ned” House and his adopted Japanese daughter, Koto, evidently returned for what was intended to be a brief visit, because Sam wrote on Jan. 28 to Howells that “House & Koto are coming Monday. They leave again Tuesday.” House and daughter may have traveled somewhere and returned to spend another day with Sam. An attack of gout would keep House abed at Sam’s for three weeks. House wouldn’t leave until Feb.
January 31 Tuesday – The Canadian poet laureate, Louis Honoré Fréchette of Quebec, was a big fan of Sam’s and met him during the Montreal dinner. Fréchette was also William Dean Howells’ brother-in-law, husband of Anne Howells. Fréchette soon came to the U.S.; Sam spoke at a dinner in his honor at the Hotel Windsor, in Holyoke, Mass. His subject: “On After-Dinner Speaking”:
February – Sam’s notebook: “Get Kellogg’s Andersonville experiences through a short-hand reporter,” referring to Robert H. Kellogg’s Life and Death in Rebel Prisons (1865). Kellogg was an agent for the Connecticut Mutual Life Insurance Co. in Hartford at this time [Gribben 366].
February 1 Wednesday – Joe Twichell wrote: “Your remembrance of dear Alex Holley, and your liking for him will give the enclosed eulogy and notice of the works he wrought some interest to you….Hope Jean and House are better this morning…” [MTP]. Note: Alexander Lyman Holley died on Jan. 29; he was the foremost steel engineer of his time.
February 2 Thursday – The Clemenses entertained Louis Fréchette at their Hartford home [MTHL 1: 389].
Kate D. Barstow wrote from Wash. DC to request additional $50 from Sam for her medical training [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Request complied with.”
February 3 Friday – Sam’s 6 PM Friday Evening Club (drinking, smoking, billiards for men) included: Charles Hopkins Clark, asst. editor of the Hartford Courant; Joe Twichell; Edwin Pond Parker, Congregationalist clergyman; Samuel C. Dunham and Henry C. Robinson attorneys; and William T.
February 4 Saturday – Wm. H. Jackson, mfr. grates, New York, billed $17 for “1 large Brass wire Fireguard, special mesh, boxing” paid Mar. 2 [MTP].
Charles H. Clark for Hartford Courant wrote to thank Sam for the prior evening at his home [MTP].
February 5 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Moncure Conway.
February 6 Monday – Sam cabled Karl Gerhardt that the idea of him taking private lessons from “The Master” was an excellent idea [MTP, see Mar. 21 letter to Gerhardt].
Lillie Edmunds wrote from NYC, a begging letter for help with her design schooling [MTP].
February 7 Tuesday – Estes & Lauriat, bookseller wrote to Sam; letter not extant [MTP].
Charles Webster wrote: “We are to have 500 of the new books this afternoon.” He included various ad rates. Part of the letter is torn and missing [MTP].
Worden & Co. wrote advice selling 100 shares Western Union @ 81 &3/4 [MTP].
February 9 Thursday – S.B. Wheeler, “looking glass and picture frames” New York, billed Sam $32 for “1 picture frame 19×24½ $25; relining picture, box & packing” [MTP].
February 10 Friday – In Hartford, Sam declined an invitation from Lt. Charles E. Wood to come up to West Point for an Officers Hop (see Feb. 3 entry). Wood had been post adjutant in 1881 and now served as the post librarian. Sam declined due to illnesses in his and Twichell’s families. Wood wrote again on Feb. 11.
February 11 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to E.B. Peck, to decline an invitation for a dinner at a gathering that called itself “Tom Sawyer’s Gang.” Sam was too busy “crowding his work forward” in order to take his trip up the Mississippi [MTP]. See also The Twainian, Jan-Feb 1957 p.4 for more on this club.
February 12 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James R. Osgood. Unwilling to admit that publishing by subscription was no longer the viable method it once was, Sam found every other possible reason for the failure of P&P to generate sales in line with his past successes.
February 13 Monday – Dan Slote died. The New York Times obituary of Feb. 14: