November 15 Thursday – In the afternoon, the Clemenses held a tea for Matthew Arnold in their Hartford home [LeMaster 36]. Arnold gave his “Numbers” lecture after the tea. He also visited the Clemens home in the evening. Sam did not disclose to Howells what the two talked about [Powers, MT A Life 480]. From Twichell’s journal:
November 16–17 Saturday – Sam, Livy and William Dean Howells went to Boston sometime during this period. Matthew Arnold lectured there on Nov. 17 [MTHL 1: 449n2].
November 17 Saturday – A pink 3×5 receipt to Sam, printed “Stock Account” for a check of $5,000 is in the 1883 MTP financial file.
William Dean Howells wrote: “When I supposed you were coming to us I engaged to take you out to Cambridge this (Saturday) evening to see my play at a friend’s done by children. If you can go, come to 4 Louisburg Square by a quarter to eight, and let me know, anyway”[MTP]. (not in MTHL)
November 18 Sunday – Sam was in Boston and accompanied the Howellses in a social call upon the Aldriches Sam returned to Hartford directly from the Aldriches, after the Howellses left. Howells wrote him on Nov. 19 about being “half dead …from eating & laughing yesterday” [MTHL 1: 448, 450n3].
November 19 Monday – Back in Hartford, Sam telegraphed Howells. He and Livy repeated an invitation for the Howellses to visit. Sam had not received a letter from Howells written the same day expressing that he couldn’t return to Hartford for a solid week, but would come “two weeks from to-day” (Dec. 3) [MTHL 1: 449-50].
“I have told thirty lies and am not out of the Woods yet; S L Clemens” [MTP].
November 20 Tuesday – George W. Cable arrived for a visit. He went with the Clemenses and the Warners to a reception. Cable wrote his wife the next day that he’d “Talked my head off; but don’t worry, there wasn’t anything in it.” At the Clemens home, Cable read for “Mark T., his sweet wife, her mother, & Clara and her sister. They were pleased…” [Turner, MT & GWC 23].
November 21 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells.
“Good—& all right. Within an hour I shall be deep in an old piece of work which always interests me, any time of the year that I take it up. So I will go down into that, & not appear at the surface again till the Howellses arrive here the 3d of December” [MTHL 1: 451].
November 26 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster, enclosing information he’d been sent about an investment. If it was “safe” he asked Webster to let him know [MTP].
November 27 Tuesday – Livy’s 38th birthday.
November 29 Thursday – Dora Knowlton “a stranger to you” and an actress, wrote from NYC to ask if he’d allow her to dramatize P&P [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Can’t / P&P”
November 30 Friday – Sam’s 48th birthday. He wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster. Sam and Howells had written a new play, American Claimant, and though Sam didn’t really want to hire John T. Raymond again, he realized the benefit of doing so. Yet, he did not fully trust Raymond.
December 1 Saturday ca. – About this day, Sam also wrote to the Bartholdi Pedestal Fund, a group raising money for the base of the Statue of Liberty [MTP]. The letter ran in the Dec. 3 edition of the New York Times (see Dec. 3 entry).
December 3 Monday – Howells wrote to explain his inability to leave for Hartford—his sister, Annie Howells Fréchette was coming with her two little children. He offered a few more ideas for the Sellers play and expressed hope that Raymond would agree to play the part. He told of Cable’s lectures at Chickering Hall in Boston on Nov. 26 and 28 and holding a “blow out” for him [MTHL 1: 452-4].
December 4 Tuesday – Sam’s letter which argued for changing the under-construction Statue of Liberty into one for Adam ran on page 2 of the New York Times [Budd, “Collected” 1020].
MARK TWAIN AGGRIEVED.
WHY A STATUE OF LIBERTY WHEN WE HAVE ADAM!
December 8 Saturday – Joe Goodman wrote Sam, praising LM. and offering other news:
December 10 Monday – Chatto & Windus wrote thanking him for Osgood’s memorandum on LM. Much of the letter is smeared and illegible [MTP].
December 13 Thursday – Karl Gerhardt wrote; only the envelope survives [MTP].
December 14 Friday – In Hartford, Sam inscribed 1601, Conversation As It Was By the Social Fireside in the Time of the Tudors to George Iles (1852-1942), American author and editor in Montreal. “Dear Iles— I beg a thousand pardons, but I had forgotten all about it. / . Truly Yours / S L C. / Dec 14/83” [MTP].
December 15 Saturday – Worden & Co. wrote requesting $2,500 as “additional margin” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Sent $3000 Dec. 18”
M.U. wrote from Hartford urging Clemens “to turn away from your vanities, and seek with all earnestness the Lord God of Hosts” [MTP] Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Religious fanatic / Self-righteous Rot"
December 17 Monday – Sam took a train for Boston, where he spent a day or two with Howells [MTHL 1: 454n2]. In his Dec. 19 letter to Webster,
“I went to Boston, but I had no ‘business’ to talk, & didn’t talk any” [MTBus 229]
December 18 Tuesday – Clemens sent $3,000 to Worden & Co.; letter not extant; referenced in Dec. notes on Worden’s letter.
December 19 Wednesday – Sam wrote two letters from Hartford to Charles Webster. The first enclosed $271 and asked him to go to George Jones (editor of the N.Y. Times) and ask for the same amount and tell him that it’s an interview and that Sam wants to “build a magazine article & get that money back without any trouble.” Samuel Webster calls this mystery “intriguing.” Sam’s second letter may explain:
December 20 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster about a gift Livy was purchasing for her mother [MTBus 230].
Sam also wrote to Howells with the idea to write “a tragedy” together for the new Sellers play and enclosed a scene based on Thomas Carlyle’s Oliver Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches.
December 21 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James R. Osgood, offering a rare apology for his remarks. Evidently, he had questioned Osgood’s integrity. Powers points out that sales of LM “languished at 30,000 copies” [MT A Life, 469]. In a letter now lost, Sam accused Osgood of mismanaging the book. Osgood was “astonished” and defended himself; he’d written on Dec.
December 23 Sunday – Orion and Mollie Clemens wrote to Clemens & Livy: who was Ben? Christmas presents & wishes [MTP]. Note: “Ben” was a nickname for Clara.