November 20 Friday – Sam wrote from The Normandie Hotel, New York City to an unidentified person, and gave his plans, thinking he might return to Hartford for the weekend then return on Monday for the entire week.
“Dear Sir: When & where can I see you for a moment—meaning an hour—on business?” [MTP].
November 21 Saturday – In New York City Sam wrote to Livy after telling Webster to send her a telegram that he was planning on spending Thursday and Friday (Nov 26-7) at home, taking “the 11 oclock train, reaching Hartford at 2.21.” Sam thought he might be able to stay home until Monday (Nov. 30) but was unsure. He was just on his way to Fred Grant’s and would “stop in & hurry up Mrs.
November 23 Monday – While Sam was in New York on business he ran an errand for Livy’s friend, Fiedele Brooks (Mrs. Henry Brooks); he inquired about curtains from Candace Wheeler for Mrs. Brooks [MTNJ 3: 212n85]. Candace “at once telegraphed Mrs. Brooks to come & get the curtains & instructions” [Nov. 25 to Livy; MTP].
November 24 Tuesday – Sam read proofs early and made the rounds of newspaper offices, talking up the Paige typesetter. He called it a “wild day” in a letter to Livy the next day. He accompanied Charles A. Dana, editor of the New York Sun home…
November 25 Wednesday – Sam wrote from New York City to Livy, describing the “wild day” he’d had the day before (see Nov. 24 entry) [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Ross R. Winans, letter not extant but referred to in Winan’s Nov. 27 reply.
Joseph Jefferson scrawled awfully that he’d telegraphed Sam yesterday that they would not come till late in the day; he could see him from 4 to 5 pm. He’d be at the US Hotel at 3 [MTP].
November 26 Thursday – Thanksgiving – Sam returned to Hartford.
Twichell’s journal:
“We dined—nine of us –ie all but the two youngest children with our dear friends Mr & Mrs C. D. Warner. / In the evening we passed a couple of delightful hours at M.T’s. where there was dancing and charade actings for the young folks” [Yale, copy at MTP].
Livy’s diary entry:
November 27 Friday – Livy‘s 40th birthday. Sam wrote Livy his sentiments on her 40th:
We have reached another milestone, my darling, & a very very remote one from the place whence we have started; but we look back over a pleasant landscape…And here we have company on the journey—ah, such precious company, such inspiring, such lovely & gracious company!…our old love grows & never diminishes…Your husband [MTP].
From Livy‘s diary:
November 28 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Orion, enclosing letters he had received from and for Mary Timberman, asking him to use his influence in gaining her a position with the Boston Museum Theatre or any other theatre, as she wanted to early a “livelihood” in the “dramatic profession.”
November 29 Sunday – Sam wrote to Frank R. Stockton, thanking him for his good wishes [AMT 2: 576].
The Critic ran affectionate essays by Charles Dudley Warner, Oliver Wendell Holmes (a poem), Joel Chandler Harris, and Frank P. Stockton on the eve of Sam’s 50th birthday. These were reprinted in many newspapers, even in the London Pall Mall Gazette of Dec. 12, 1885.
November 30 Monday – Sam’s 50th birthday. Two volumes of Francis Parkman’s Montcalm and Wolfe (1885) were inscribed: “Saml. L. Clemens/ Hartford/ Conn./ Nov. 30th 1885” [Gribben 534].
Frederick D. Grant wrote that “two mistakes have been made in the placing of maps and notes in the II volume” [MTP].
E.J. Hamersley wrote birthday wishes [MTP].
December – Sam wrote from Hartford to an unidentified person:
“There is not a copy to be had. I bought the plates & stock 4 years ago & destroyed them” [MTP]. Note: Sam may have referred to The Jumping Frog book or Mark Twain’s Burlesque Autobiography.
December 1 Tuesday – Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant, Vol. 1 was officially published [MTNJ 3: 210n81]. Note: Powers [504] and Perry [233] each give the publication date as Dec. 10. However, the Library of America edition of Grant’s Memoirs gives these statistics: “The first volume was published December 1, 1885, in five bindings: cloth at $7.00 a set; sheep, $9.00; half-morocco, $11.00; full-morocco, $18.00; and tree calf, $25.00.”
December 2 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells, asking to be reminded should Webster forget to send the $2,000 that Howells had requested. Sam made reference to “these first days of publication” of Grant’s Memoirs and gave specific shipping numbers—another argument for Dec. 1 being the correct publication date.
December 3 Thursday – Sam wrote from New York City to Livy. He had received Susy’s letter telling of the death of Mary Burton. He related the night before at Laffan’s, and Mrs. Grant’s, and wrote of the Japanese Village in Madison Square Garden that he wanted to show Livy when she came down the following week [MTP].
December 5 Saturday – In Boston, Howells answered that he’d received the check, but didn’t think he could keep it. His dilemma was that Harpers, whom he’d recently contracted with, would not allow him to have his name on the title page of another publisher’s work, and that if there was no definite plan to publish, he felt the money did not belong to him.
December 6 Sunday – Brander Matthews wrote to Sam: “Bunner is to be married in Jan. So he comes here to breakfast, Thursday, Dec 17th at 1 P.M. Couldn’t you find some imperative business which will demand your presence in this city on the 17th…The breakfast will be very informal—you may wear your slippers!” [MTP].
December 7 Monday – Back in Hartford, probably over the weekend, Sam wrote to Howells about the “Library of Humor” book. Sam suggested Howells write the preface now, and then:
“…we can put the Library away, with cheerful souls, knowing that at any time now or far away, there’s nothing in the way of her coming out whenever we want her to.”
December 8 Tuesday – Sam wrote a short note from Hartford to Orion, sending $25 and a Christmas greeting, saying the money represented,
“…what they would buy & send you if they warn’t so dam busy” [MTP].
Sam also wrote, or allowed to be written in his behalf, from Hartford to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, declining an invitation to some event [MTP].
December 9 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Walter E. Dacrow, who evidently had asked for a small article. Sam’s answer deserves space here:
If anything in the world could tempt me, this letter of yours could certainly do it. But I give myself only five years longer to live, and in that time I must furnish certain books for the betterment of the human race; if I should stop to peddle miscellaneous articles, it would leave the human race insecure [MTP].
December 10 Thursday – Karl Gerhardt wrote more about the death mask matter, Grant to Gerhardt Dec. 7 enclosed [MTP].
December 11 Friday – From Sam’s notebook:
“Howells says [from his Dec. 11 letter to Sam]: I’m reading Grant’s book with a delight I’ve failed to find in novels.” And again: “I think he is one of the most natural—that is, best—writers I ever read. The book merits its enormous success, simply as literature” [MTNJ 3: 217].
December 12 Saturday – The New York Critic printed an interview with Sam’s mother, Jane Clemens: Sam as a boy avoided school, though he enjoyed reading [Tenney 14].
December 13 Sunday – William M. Clemens for Chicago Literary Life Magazine wrote “sorry” Sam was 50 [MTP].
Prof. John Fiske wrote asking if he could “accept your kind invitation for the 23d instead of the 16th?” [MTP].
December 14 Monday – The Monday Evening Club met at the Clemens home with a discussion of “Eloquence.” Susy Clemens attended the meeting. “The essayist of the evening contended that the only form of eloquence was verbal.
December 15 Tuesday – Denis E. McCarthy died in Irvington, Alameda County, Calif. He was 55. The New York Times reported his death on Dec. 18, 1885, p.2. The article mentions his association with Sam, “then a young and comparatively unknown writer.” It also recounted the fake robbery on the “divide,” which may have caused a permanent breach with Sam. McCarthy died as editor and proprietor of the Virginia City Chronicle, which he ran from 1873. Too much demon rum killed him.