May – Correspondence between Clemens and Howells substantially lessened during the year. Sam’s preoccupation with all aspects of business and several speaking engagements, together with Howells’ new duties for “The Editor’s Study” in Harper’s Monthly, and his increasing activism in such matters as the Haymarket fiasco may explain this change.

May 1 Sunday – John Henry Boner wrote to Sam, thanking him for his “kind letter of April the 1st”; Boner had found employement as a proofreader with Theodore L. De Vinne, printer to the Century Co., and Edmund Stedman  “made me feel his house my home.” Sam wrote on the env., “Boner the Southern poet” [MTP].

Check #  Payee  Amount  [Notes]

May 2 Monday – Orion Clemens wrote a note to Sam that his $155 check was received [MTP].

Check #  Payee  Amount  [Notes]

3672  Mssrs McCarty & Cleary  92.68

3673  Mr J.S. Chase, Secy  27.50

3674  Mr. James L. Whitman  7.19

3675  Hartford Silver Plate Co  1.75

May 3 Tuesday –

Check #  Payee  Amount  [Notes]

3676  Western Union Telegraph Co  8.84

3677  Mr Charles Burghorst   80.00

May 4 Wednesday – Vaughn E. Wyman wrote from Perry, Ohio asking how Sam got his pen name, and did he know of Miss Edith Thomas’ works; Wyman had a high regard for Poe’s works but did not think “him equal to Mr. Howells.” Sam wrote on the envelope, “Dam fool. No Answer” [MTP]. Note: Edith Matilda Thomas (1854-1925).

May 5 Thursday – In Hartford Sam answered Orion’s Apr. 27 and/or May 2 letter. He told his brother to “just peg along” on the research on English kings for the memory game. Orion was recovering from swallowing ammonia water thought to be cold medicine. Sam asked him not to send MS — there was too much company and he always had “a raft of things to do,” so that he would “naturally shirk everything that will stand shirking.” Sam confided, “that thief” (Frank M.

May 6 Friday – Edward H. House wrote to Sam about his upcoming visit [May 7 to House]. Note: This is another case of a letter to Sam being assigned the same date as his response, this time from New York to Hartford and return.

May 7 Saturday – In Hartford Sam again wrote to Edward H. House, acknowledging that House could ship his wheelchair by Adams Express and as to the trunks, he and Koto should “do whatever will be most satisfactory & convenient…”

I’m to be away the 17th & back the 18th — that is, if you arrive on the 16th; but if you are to arrive on the 17th, I will cancel my engagement & remain at home.

May 8 Sunday – Joseph Jefferson, actor, offered his autobiography for Sam to publish at Webster & Co. [MTNJ 3: 289n213]. See Sam to Webster, May 28. Jefferson’s book would be published in 1890 and reprinted several times by the Century Co.

Orion Clemens wrote that he’d received Sam’s letter of May 5; Orion wrote of local matters [MTP].

May 9 Monday – In Hartford Sam received the Library of Humor from William Dean Howells and wrote to him:

You spoke of writing an introduction to the L. of H. [Library of Humor]. All right, I wish you would. I think of putting the book in the printers’ hands about a month hence. I’d like the introduction, first-rate, whether you can sign it or not. [MTHL 2: 592-3; MTNJ 3: 295n233].

May 10 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote a one-liner response to a query or request from James B. Pond, one that makes for an interesting quotation:

O’ b’gosh I can’t. I hate writing. / Ever Thine — Mark.

Sam’s notebook entry: May 10, ’87. Charley reports Livy’s balance at J L & Co’s a trifle under $55,000. $3,847.14 subject to draft at any time [MTNJ 3: 288] Note: Charles J. Langdon & Co.

May 11 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Charles Webster:

Joe Jefferson has written his Autobiography! You see, by George we’ve got to keep places open for great books; they spring up in the most unexpected places. [¶] I will read for “literary quality,” & then take it down to you on the 18th, to be read for pecuniary quality…[MTP].

May 12 Thursday – William L. Alden from the U.S. Consulate in Rome, wrote to Sam offering an autobiography of Garibaldi “of 89 chapters, and 693 pages of MS” [MTLTP 218n1 (top)].

Check #  Payee  Amount  [Notes]

3691  Mssrs Wm Wander & Son  9.00  Pianos & Tuning

May 13 Friday – In Auburndale, Mass. at Lee’s Hotel, Howells answered Sam’s May 9 letter.

I will write the introduction, and perhaps the Harpers will let me sign it. But I should prefer to do it after I’d seen some proof of the book, for that thing’s got cold in my mind now. Save some of the beginning for four or five or six pp., and I’ll have it ready [MTHL 2: 593].

Check #  Payee  Amount  [Notes]

May 14 Saturday – J.E. Jenks of the Boston Herald, Washington office, wrote asking for Sam’s photo and autograph for a collector in his office [MTP].

May 15 Sunday – The Brooklyn Eagle, p.7, “Books & Magazines” included a paragraph on Sam’s latest readings:

Mark Twain is working “English as She is Taught” for all it is worth. He has been reading in public from it in Boston, the first instance, probably, of a joke book put to such a use, unless Artemus Ward and Josh Billings were before him.

May 16 Monday – Edward H. House and his adopted daughter Koto arrived at the Clemens residence for a visit. House would house-sit the Farmington house while the Clemens family took their annual trek to Quarry Farm, where Sam would continue working on CY while House worked on the dramatization of P&P as encouraged by Sam [A. Hoffman 340].

May 17 Tuesday – Sam had received word from Frank D. Finlay (1838?-1917), which included the news that Finlay’s sons (Frank D. Finlay Jr. and Russell Finlay) were in the military. Sam met Finlay in Belfast, Ireland in 1873, and the two became fast friends (See MTDBD 1: several entries). Sam responded and wrote about a possible business trip to England next fall.

May 18 Wednesday – Sam had planned to go to New York City [May 11 to Webster] and take Joe Jefferson’s MS for Webster to evaluate. No mention of a trip was made, although one week later, May 25, Sam wrote to Webster about the satisfaction of Webster’s visit, which likely was arranged when Sam could not get away (see May 25 entry).

May 21 Saturday – Sam wrote to Richard Watson Gilder, editor of Century Magazine. He’d read three letters written in response to “English As She Is Taught” and suggested Gilder publish a supplement to the article in the Sept. or Oct. issue, including the letters in question.

May 23 Monday – From Sam’s notebook:  

Mrs. Stowe came on the Ombre & said “I am reading the Prince & Pauper for the sixth time.” She asked about such matters & I referred to Perkin Warbeck & Lambert Simnel.

She was already losing her mind [MTNJ 3: 290].

May 24 Tuesday – William M. May wrote from New York asking Sam’s aid in collecting $240 owed him by Karl Gerhardt for the marble portrait he’d done of Henry Ward Beecher; May quoted Gerhardt’s Mar. 19, 1886 response that Sam was responsible for the debt since he directed its creation [MTP].

Charles L. Webster wrote to Sam enclosing a copy of their recent contract [MTP].

Check #  Payee  Amount  [Notes]

May 25 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Charles Webster.

The new contract has arrived. Livy & I got more business-satisfaction & comprehension out of your visit than any amount of working through third parties could have furnished.

May 27 Friday – In Findlay, Ohio, his old stomping grounds, William Dean Howells wrote Sam all about the recent discovery there of natural gas.

May 28 Saturday – In Hartford Sam responded to a request from Sylvester Baxter of the Boston Herald and chipped in $50 to a fund to help Walt Whitman build a summer cottage. Sam gave to a similar collection taken in Aug. 1885 to buy Whitman a horse and buggy (see Aug. 6, 1885 entry) [MTNJ 3: 269n140].