October 26 Monday – Sam had returned to New York, this time with Livy [see Oct. 28 to Annie Webster]. He made a notebook entry that “Up to date, 320,000 sets of General Grant’s book have been subscribed for—that is to say, 640,000 single volumes” [MTNJ 3: 204]. He also noted seeing a play at the Metropolitan in New York.:

October 27 Tuesday – Livy shopped while Sam tried to finish business but failed to visit his niece, Annie. After stopping at Mrs. Grant’s, he could not see Charles Webster in time to catch his train. Livy was worn out (Sam wrote “she had the cholera morbus lately”). The trip went all wrong, Sam wrote, and he apologized for not calling [MTP].

October 28 Wednesday ­– Samuel G. Dunham remitted the proceeds from Clemens’ $100,000 notes to Charles Webster, for the working capital to publish Grant’s Memoirs [MTNJ 3: 204n69].

Sam wrote from Hartford to his niece, Annie Webster, apologizing for not being able to stop for a visit with Livy the day before [MTP].

October 29 Thursday – Charles Webster notified Sam that the proceeds of the notes had been received all right from Dunham. “I have offered Col Grant ½ profits on his book up to 50,000 and if it sold more than 50,000 to give him 60% of the profits. We can afford this and no more” [MTNJ 3: 204n69; MTP].

October 30 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to his mother, Jane Clemens.

November – Sam, in Hartford, inscribed a copy of P&P to Ulysses S. Grant Jr (“Buck”): “To / U.S. Grant, Jr. / from / The Author. / ~ / Nov. ’85” [MTP].

November 1 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to unidentified persons:

“Dear Sirs: I think you have been ordering & paying for our several magazines, & charging to us in your usual bills. If so, please continue to do it & oblige” [MTP].

November 2 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster about a mix up with too many books sent to station masters on the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad—men who were involved in arranging “hotel” or “parlor” cars for the Clemens family when they traveled back and forth between Elmira and Hoboken. Griffith, A.

November 3 Tuesday – George Walton Greene wrote to encourage Sam to attend the annual meeting of the Copyright League on Saturday [MTP].

The “Troy ass” R.L. Blakeman also wrote…from Troy NY. Only the envelope survives [MTP].

November 4 Wednesday – Sam wrote a letter from New York City to Annie Eliot Trumbull, daughter of Hartford historian and philologist J. Hammond Trumbull, who wrote the multilingual chapter epigraphs for The Gilded Age. The Trumbulls were family friends. The letter was entirely in German [MTP].

November 5 Thursday – Orion Clemens wrote check rec’d for $155. “Jean’s letter was very interesting. Tell her to write again”[MTP].

Rollin M. Daggett wrote from Washington DC about having Sam publish a book of “fifteen or twenty legends of love, chivalry and barbaric pomp, extending back for over seven hundred years,” he was preparing with King Kalakana of Hawaii [MTP].

November 6 Friday – Frank Fuller wrote from Madison, NY. About being lied to by a solicitor that Clemens would “take charge of this magazine,” Literary Life. He then wrote of a financial scheme [MTP].

November 7 Saturday – James Fraser Glück (1852-1897) for Young Men’s Assoc. Buffalo wrote to ask for the HF MS for display in their library [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Sent what was left of Huck Finn / Buffalo Library”

George E. Waring wrote on Union League Club notepaper, NYC that he’d come “near invading you last week. I shall have that pleasure soon” [MTP].

November 8 Sunday – Sam entertained an old Virginia City friend, landlord, and editor of the Territorial Enterprise, Rollin M. Daggett (see Jan. 24, 1878). Daggett had been U.S. Minister to the Sandwich Islands. He stayed two days and showed Sam a manuscript he’d written with the King Kamehameha V of the Islands; Sam was interested in publishing it [Nov 11 to Webster, MTP].

November 9 Monday – Henry Ward Beecher wrote scolding Sam and assured that the pages of Grant’s Memoirs he had were safe “and will soon be on their way home” [MTP].

James Redpath telegram: “Would like to see you tonight or tomorrow morning. Will be at the Allen House” [MTP].

November 10 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster, directing him to send William Hamersley a check for $3,500—“it finishes the type-setter business in a very satisfactory fashion,” Sam wrote. Sam also instructed Webster to gather information regarding “General Grant’s literary powers—his happily proven ability as an author…” [MTP].

November 11 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Frank Fuller, advising him not to pay Literary Life a cent to advertise for him. Sam wrote he’d “dropped that scheme I wrote you about” (on Sept. 26.) realizing it would take all the time from an “idle man.”

November 12 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James Fraser Glück, a Buffalo lawyer and rare book collector, who had written asking Sam to donate the original manuscript of Huck Finn to the Buffalo Library [MTP]. Note: this is the half that survived and was re-discovered in early 1991.

November 13 Friday – Orion Clemens wrote: “I enclose replies from the mint, and will send you extracts from Macaulay’s Life & Letters next week.” And, “Ma treated me to a dog and pony show at the opera house last Saturday afternoon” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “What a ton of gold and silver is worth”

Rollin M. Daggett wrote from Wash. DC with his travel plans back to San Diego, and the book of legends he was preparing with the Hawaiian King [MTP].

November 14 Saturday – Lizzie C. Grant (Mrs. Jesse Grant) wrote to thank Samfor an article she’d rec’d from the Philadelphia Ledger about the portrait of Gen. Grant [MTP].

November 15 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Pelham Ogle.

November 16 Monday – Sam referred to “12 hours’ cast-iron sleep,” going to “bed at 6” in his Nov. 17 to Livy. “…was asleep at half-past. I woke up twice for ¾ of an hour in the night…” [MTP].

George W. Elliot for American Rural Home Weekly wrote hoping that Sam “might be induced to write a few lines.” Elliot was a fan of Clemens’ efforts for a monument to Adam [MTP].

November 17 Tuesday – Sam wrote from New York City to Livy.

      Livy darling, another solid day’s work on proofreading, two hours of it at Mrs. Grant’s house, & the rest at the office…

November 18 Wednesday – Sam wrote from New York City to Livy on Western Union form as stationery:

“Livy dear, I suppose I shall leave for Washington at 8 in the morning, arriving at the Ebbitt House there about a quarter before 2 in the afternoon.”

Sam wrote about the dinner the night before, only three courses but “a marvel”—raw oysters, very small, fresh, terrapin stew:

November 19 Thursday – Sam left New York City for Washington, D.C. 

Sam wrote to Rollin M. Daggett, letter not extant but referred to in Daggett’s Nov. 28 reply.

Sam sent a full morocco copy of Grant’s Memoirs to Philip H. Sheridan (1831-1888) [Gribben 640].

From Sam’s notebook: