April 20 Sunday – Back home in Hartford, Sam wrote to Edgar W. Howe, reporting that Howells was “drunk with admiration of your book,” The Story of a Country Town (1883).
“As T.B. Aldrich was present during one whole evening [on the recent trip to Boston], & had to listen to so much talk about a book which he has not seen, he naturally got pretty well filled up with curiosity” [MTP].
April 21 Monday – George E. Waring wrote to ask Sam to send him a copy of “Ambulina” [MTP]. Note: see Feb. 18 entry on Ambulina.
April 22 Tuesday – From Hartford Sam replied to Charles Webster’s Apr. 21. He wanted the raft chapter, which was used in LM, “left wholly out” of HF. He badgered Webster about getting official pledges, called “acceptances” out of Osgood for money owed.
April 24 Thursday – Richard Watson Gilder wrote to Clemens with Mrs. Burnett’s suggestion about the story project (5 tales from 5 authors) [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “My skeleton novelettes”
April 25 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster. He planned to go to New York City “next Tuesday” (Apr. 29) and stay at the Brunswick Hotel. He wanted Webster to either meet him there or at Laurence Hutton’s in the evening. Sam enclosed 300 shares of Oregon Trans-Continental stock, which he eventually took a huge loss on. Sam bought it at 73 and it was now worth only 15 or 16.
April 26 Saturday – Charles Webster wrote to Clemens: office stationery printed; would hold the drawings for him to see on Tuesday; Howells suggestion to print a book “about the adventures of a young country boy in Boston” in the fall; paper costs; Osgood money; office rent contract; Raubs trial postponed [MTP].
April 27 Sunday – Roswell Smith wrote to Clemens about a farm house in Simsbury, Conn. for Cable to rent at $350 per year [MTP].
April 27 to May 4 Sunday – In his May 4 letter to the Gerhardts, Sam wrote:
“…Twichell & I have been breaking our necks & bones all the past 7 days trying to learn to ride the bicycle—but we have acquired the art, now, & shan’t break anything more” [MTP]. (See May 4 entry.)
April 28 Monday – Sam wrote a short note from Hartford to Charles Webster, directing him to call at Laurence Hutton’s “Wednesday morning, & walk up to the station with me….Remind me to give you all of Huck Finn that Howells has revised for the artist & printer” [MTBus 251].
April 29 Tuesday – Sam gave a speech at a breakfast for Edwin Booth in New York City [Fatout, MT Speaking 656]. He likely spent the night at Laurence Hutton’s house, for he’d directed Webster to meet him there at 9 AM the next morning [MTBus 251].
April 30 Wednesday – Sam wrote two notes to Charles Webster (possibly the planned meeting for this day did not take place). He wanted to retrieve the P&P dramatization from Marshall Mallory and didn’t “want any nonsense out of that man” [MTBus 251]. His second note directed a sale of “that stock at 20” [MTP].
May 1 Thursday – Sam and Charles Webster executed “some kind of informal agreement concerning the publication of Huckleberry Finn” [MTLTP 169]. Sam would be his own publisher, through Webster. The Charles L. Webster & Co. was created as a new subscription publishing house during May [Emerson 153].
May 3 Saturday – Hubbard & Farmer per Way bankers & brokers advised stock purchases [MTP].
May 4 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to the Gerhardts in Paris, France. Sam disclosed the family wouldn’t be traveling to Europe this year—pleading poverty.
We have made but few investments in the last few years which have not turned out badly. Our losses during the past three years have been prodigious.
May 5 Monday ca. – In his Autobiography, Sam gives “about the 5th of May” as the date “the crash came and several Grant families found themselves absolutely penniless” from the fraud of “a brisk young man by the name of Ferdinand Ward” [MTA 1: 29-30]. This event would greatly affect Sam’s life.
Worden & Co. wrote to Sam on his account [MTP].
May 6 Tuesday – Howells had received and read Sam’s dramatization of P&P and wrote on May 4 that it was “altogether too thin and slight.” He felt Sam needed to fill in more from the book and that overall it was too short, and “the parlance is not sufficiently ‘early English’.” Sam replied:
“Well, then, some day I’ll try to remedy the play, but I’d rather take a dose of medicine. I am greatly obliged to you for reading it & telling me” [MTHL 2: 486].
May 7 Wednesday – Sam had received and approved of the cover for HF. He wrote from Hartford to Webster of his approval, with one detail: “the boy’s mouth is a trifle more Irishy than necessary.” Edward W. Kemble had been chosen as the artist for the book and had to rework many illustrations from such objections [MTLTP 174]. As always, Webster handled the details and the dirty work.
May 8 Thursday – Charles A. Dana for The New York Sun wrote: “There is no use talking. I don’t see any way but for you to write me two or three short stories not exceeding ten or twenty thousand words apiece. As for pay I will agree that you shall have more than you ever got and you can print them in a book as much as you like afterwards” and “I have got Henry James and Bret Harte, and I must have you” [MTP].
May 9 Friday – Lorenz Rohr (1846-1902) editor of the Kansas Freie Presse wrote to Sam, sending him a translation of the song, “Lorelei” [MTP]. Note: Sam replied on May 12. He wrote on the env., “Another Lorelei ass.”
May 10 Saturday – Sam had not forgotten the new Sellers play.
May 11 Sunday – Sam responded from Hartford to an unidentified person, that he could not “remember having ever been on a school committee in Virginia City…” nor did he “remember knowing a man in Virginia City named Freeborn.” Sam did know a man by that name in San Francisco and figured he’d be “quite sixty years old, now, if alive” [MTP].
May 12 Monday – Sam wrote a short note from Hartford to Charles Webster. “Parsloe and Aldrich are not in Europe, they are playing in the West. I’m beginning to look for you here, now” [MTBus 254].
May 13 Tuesday – Mary Keily finished her Jan. 23 letter [MTP].
May 14 Wednesday – Edgar W. Howe for Atchison Globe wrote to Clemens: He’d sent Aldrich a book and all those on the list Sam furnished. He was working on another book, this one not as much a history as the first [MTP].
James B. Pond wrote to Clemens: “I have had a talk with Mr. Roswell Smith about the house for Mr Cable. He & I think it would be best for you to take charge of the affair. I am willing to pay my share…” [MTP].
May 15 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James B. Pond about Roswell Smith’s proposal:
Roswell has got up a Hartford-Cable-Lecture; & he put the Hartford end of it in my hands, & described how he was going to put the New York end of it through, himself. Do you remember how he carried out his contract? I do—& don’t you doubt it. And now Roswell would put another project in my hands! Why, it almost makes me smile.
May 16 Friday – Sam sent to an unidentified person: “Very Truly Yours / S.L. Clemens / Mark Twain / Hartford May 16/84” [MTP].
Charles E. Wilson wrote to Sam, enclosing a newsletter/flyer and an invitation. Wilson was president of a Boston club, the Amateur Journalist’s Club. He invited Sam to the “Grand Reunion and Ratification Meeting” on May 17. Sam wrote on the envelope: