October 20 Friday – At 4:50 p.m. in New York, on Players Club letterhead, Sam wrote to Livy. He mentioned a change in plans about his skeleton novelette idea, and would evaluate his “old translation of Struwelpeter & see if it is worth publishing.” He felt a new color printing invention by Cosmopolitan would be “just the thing” with the story.
October 21 Saturday – In New York Sam wrote to Livy, enclosing a letter to him from Clara written Oct. 18 at Quarry Farm. Sam wrote after Clara’s signature:
October 24 Tuesday – In New York Sam sent a note to Frederick J. Hall directing him to send $175 to the steamer office for passage and funds for daughter Clara and her teacher’s daughter, Miss Katherine Willard.
I go to Hartford at noon to-morrow, (Wednesday) with my daughter. Please re-mail such letters as may arrive for us up to Saturday noon….Open all telegrams & re-wire them to me. SLC [MTP].
October 25 Wednesday – Before leaving for Hartford, Sam enclosed Charles Langdon’s Oct. 24 letter (asking for payment of $1,705.93 for the James Rathbone note and interest payments) to Frederick J. Hall. See Aug. 8 for Langdon borrowing $8,000 from his friend Rathbone to help Webster & Co.
October 26 Thursday – Sam was in Hartford staying with the Charles Dudley Warners [Oct. 27 to Elderkin].
October 27 Friday – In Hartford Sam responded to letters and a formal invitation from John Elderkin and Frank R. Lawrence about a forthcoming banquet:
October 28 Saturday – Sam was in Hartford staying with the Charles Dudley Warners [Oct. 27 to Elderkin].
October 28-31 Tuesday – Sometime during this period Sam wrote a letter from either Hartford or New York to Livy about Isa Carrington Cabell and Susan Warner.
October 29 Sunday – Sam was in Hartford staying with the Charles Dudley Warners [Oct. 27 to Elderkin].
October 30 Monday – Sam returned to New York with daughter Clara [Oct. 27 to Elderkin].
October 31 Tuesday – At 10 a.m. in New York, Sam shipped out daughter Clara on the liner Allee, bound for Europe. Clara was accompanied by Miss Katherine Willard, daughter of Clara’s Berlin schoolmaster. Later Sam wrote to Mary Mapes Dodge that Clara had just left and that if she had missed seeing her altogether, he guessed “the dentist was the reason.” He would be at her place for dinner on Thursday Nov. 2 by himself, unless she notified him otherwise [MTP].
November – Tom Sawyer Abroad appeared as a serial in the November issue of St. Nicholas Magazine. “The Esquimau Maiden’s Romance” ran in the Cosmopolitan. This sketch was later collected in The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories and Essays (1900), and My Debut as a Literary Person, Etc. (1903) [Budd, Collected 2: 1001].
November 1 Wednesday – Sam inscribed a copy of HF to Francis Wilson: Salutation and Best Wishes to Francis Wilson from Mark Twain. New York, Nov. 1, 1893 [MTP].
The Brooklyn Eagle, along with other newspapers, announced on p.4:
THE NEW NOVEL BY MARK TWAIN
November 2 Thursday – In New York Sam wrote to daughter Clara. He wanted her to be sure to call “immediately” on the widow Frau Alice von Versen in Berlin; she would need to inquire as the house they were living in had been supplied by the German government. He remarked Clara had been gone 55 hours and was well on her way across the Atlantic. He admonished her to find an escort for the long trip from Berlin to Paris, one who would be satisfactory to Livy, who was worried about the matter.
November 3 Friday – In New York Sam wrote to Orion and Mollie Clemens that he’d “mapped out a long novel to-day, & will bury myself in it to-morrow….” Note: The story was “Tom Sawyer Detective,” which LLMT p.277 calls “an ingenious but uninspired yarn not published until August and September 1896 in Harper’s Magazine.” Sam also wrote about daughter Clara’s trip.
November 4 Saturday – In New York, Sam gave a reading at the Uncut Leaves Society. See John D. Barry, “New York Letter,” Literary World (Boston), 24; 18 Nov. 1893, p.385. The Hartford Daily Courant, Nov. 11, 1893, p.4 “Society Notes” reported that Sam and Kate Douglas Wiggin (1856-1923), children’s author and educator, were among the readers. Wiggin is best known for The Birds’ Christmas Carol (1887) and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm (1903).
November 5 Sunday – In New York Sam dined with the William Mackay Laffans [Nov. 6 to Susy]. A declined invitation from Andrew Carnegie to John Elderkin, Secretary of the Lotos Club, names this date and his inability to meet “my friend — everybody’s friend — Mark Twain” on Sunday [MTP: Nov. 3 Carnegie to Elderkin]. Note: this suggests the dinner was a Lotos Club affair.
November 6 Monday – In New York Sam spent the afternoon talking to the actor Joe Jefferson, who dropped into the Players Club to see him. Later in the day Sam wrote to daughter Susy, asking her help in comforting her mother while he was away. With the intercession of Rogers, Sam still hoped for riches from the typesetter.
November 7 Tuesday – In New York Sam wrote on Players Club letterhead to Susan L. Warner, declining an invitation, probably to visit the Warners in Hartford. The need for him to remain in the country might “close at any unforeseen moment,” and then he would “break for ship without stopping to stuff my shawl-strap.” He wrote he would see her at the Hutton’s the next Monday (Nov. 13), however, and then they could talk [MTP].
November 8 Wednesday – In New York on Webster & Co. letterhead, Sam wrote to Livy. He was glad she’d decided to stay at the Imperial Hotel in Paris as the “landlord knows us and wants us.” He was glad she was sleeping regularly and “stop worrying.” He would send autographs requested by Mrs. Murphy and he would “promptly write Mr. Fisher” for favors done for Livy.
November 9 Thursday – In New York, Sam continued to work “slowly and cautiously” on Tom Sawyer, Detective [Nov. 10 to Livy].
In the evening Sam dined with Dr. Clarence C. Rice and Mr. Huntington [Nov. 6 to Susy]. Note: Mr. Huntington is not further identified.
November 10 Friday – In New York Sam wrote on Players Club letterhead to Livy. Even with all the interruptions he was “making good progress” on Tom Sawyer, Detective having written 10,000 words.
The last two days I have written very slowly & cautiously, & made my steps sure. It is a delightful work & a delightful subject. The story tells itself.
Sam also related election results from Tuesday, Nov. 7:
November 11 Saturday – In New York City, The Lotos Club gave a dinner in honor of Mark Twain. Sam’s speech may be found in Fatout, MT Speaking, p.265-7. The New York Times, November 12, 1893 also published a version of the speech. See also MTB 971.
President Frank R. Lawrence (1845-1918) introduced Mark Twain:
November 13 Monday – In New York City in the afternoon, a memorial service was held for the late Edwin Booth, who died on June 7. Sam was in attendance (according to his Nov. 6 to Susy he went with Mrs. Rice). As reported in the N.Y. Times of Nov. 12 and 14, p.3 and 8, “The Booth Memorial” and “In Memory of Edwin Booth”:
November 14 Tuesday – In New York at the Players Club, Sam wrote to Livy.
The Booth Memorial Service a the Madison Square Garden yesterday was impressive & beautiful. All the distinction of New York was massed in that place. I seemed to be personally acquainted with half of the people there. There is no church congregation in Hartford where I would recognize any where near such a huge proportion of the faces. It was like being in a family gathering.
November 15 Wednesday – In New York, Sam inscribed a copy of Roughing It to Francis Wilson: To / Francis Wilson / with kind regards of / Mark Twain. / New York, / Nov. 15, ’93 [MTP: G.A. Baker catalog Nov. 6-7, 1940 No. 54].