From Page 17 The Life of Mark Twain - The Middle Years 1871-1891:
In order to support Livy in the style to which he had become accustomed and to earn his own bread and butter until he began to collect royalties on Roughing It, Sam had decided even before leaving Buffalo to speak throughout New England during the fall and winter lecture season under the auspices of the Boston Lyceum Bureau and its manager James Redpath.
October 13 Friday – Sam and Charles Langdon left Hartford. Sam was to begin his lecture tour in three days. He stopped in New York, where he stayed at the St. Nicholas Hotel. Charles Langdon and Sam and Edward L.
October 14 Saturday – Sam wrote from the St. Nicholas Hotel in New York to Livy:
“Charley left for home a few minutes ago—9 AM. Well, I do wish I could see you, now, Livy dear, & the splendid cubbie.”
Sam left New York and arrived in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania at 4 PM [MTL 4: 469-470].
October 15 Sunday – Sam wrote from Bethlehem, Pennsylvania to Livy. Sam wrote of the town, “an old Dutch settlement, & I hear that tongue here as often as ours.” He was impressed by a cemetery with acres of identical graves with tombstones “the size of a boy’s slate.” Sam had registered with an assumed name at the hotel to guarantee his privacy, even though it meant bypassing a reception and “sumptuous rooms provided” [MTL 4: 470-1].
October 16 Monday to February 27 – 1872 Lecture Tour:
Sam returned to the lecture circuit under the management of James Redpath and the Boston Lyceum Bureau. There were at least 77 engagements using three different speeches.
October 17 Tuesday – Sam lectured in Allentown, Penn. He wrote from Allentown to Livy:
Livy darling, this lecture will never do. I hate it & won’t keep it. I can’t even handle these chuckle-headed Dutch with it.
Have blocked out a lecture on Artemus Ward, & shall write it next Saturday & deliver it next Monday in Washington [MTL 4: 474-5].
October 18 Wednesday – Sam lectured (“Uncommonplace Characters”) in Music Hall, Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Sam enlisted the help of “an old Californian friend” (unidentified) to cancel lectures in Easton, Penn., and Reading, Penn. for Oct. 19 and 20. The Easton Free Press had called the lectures in Bethlehem and Allentown a “failure,” so Sam was:
October 19 Thursday – Sam wrote from Wilkes-Barre, Penn. to Elisha Bliss. The typesetters had lost part of Ch. 18 of Roughing It, which described crossing the alkali desert. Sam could not focus to rewrite it and suggested perhaps they might have to omit the whole chapter [MTL 4: 477].
October 22 Sunday – W.L. Denning did work at the Hartford rental house; also provided feather bed, 2 feather pillows, and misc. See Nov. 17 entry for payment [MTP].
October 23 Monday – Sam gave the “Artemus Ward” lecture in Lincoln Hall, Washington, D. C. [One version of this speech is found in Mark Twain Speaking, 41-7]. The lecture attracted a record crowd for Lincoln Hall, some 2,000, with 150 crowded on stage. The reviews were mixed, and Sam found it difficult to lecture about a dead humorist, or to tell Ward’s jokes and make them funny [MTL 4: 480n3].
October 24 Tuesday – Sam lectured in Institute Hall, Wilmington, Delaware – “Artemus Ward. ”
In Washington, D.C. at the Arlington Hotel, Sam wrote to James Redpath:
(The only hotel in this town) {WILLARD’S—O, my!—seventh-rate hash-house.}
October 25 Wednesday – Sam lectured in Odd Fellows Hall, Norristown, Penn. – “Artemus Ward.” That morning Sam met Susan Dickinson, sister of the famous suffrage lecturer Anna E. Dickinson, who wrote to her sister:
October 26 Thursday – Sam spent the day traveling back to Hartford [MTL 4: 482n18].
October 27 Friday – Sam lectured in Sumner Hall, Great Barrington, Mass. – “Artemus Ward.” Sam wrote at midnight (into Oct. 28) from Great Barrington to Livy that the lecture “went off very handsomely.” But the Great Barrington Berkshire Courier of Nov. 1 claimed that of the crowd of 400, at least 390 went away disappointed and dissatisfied [MTL 4: 482-3].
October 28-29 Sunday – Sam probably spent the free weekend in Hartford, only 60 miles away, then traveled to Brattleboro, Vermont.
October 30 Monday – Sam lectured in Brattleboro, Vermont – “Artemus Ward.”
October 31 Tuesday – Sam lectured in Milford, Mass. – “Artemus Ward.” Sam wrote from Milford to Livy.
November – Sam’s article “A Big Scare” ran in American Publishing Co.’s in-house promotional monthly, American Publisher [Camfield, bibliog.].
November 1 Wednesday – Sam lectured in Music Hall, Boston, Mass. – “Artemus Ward.” Sam wrote from Boston to Livy:
November 2 Thursday – Sam went to the memorable lunch at Ober’s Greek Revival Restaurant on Winter Place, described by William Dean Howells as Sam’s introduction into the Boston literary circle. Ralph Keeler (1840-1873), a young bohemian Sam had known at the Golden Era, organized the lunch. In attendance: publisher James T.
November 3 Friday – Sam lectured in Town Hall, Andover, Mass. – “Artemus Ward”
November 4–5 Sunday – Clemens used Hartford as his base while lecturing in New England, so it’s likely that on this open weekend he returned home to Livy and “cubbie.” Newspapers were calling the Artemus Ward lecture “plagiarism,” and that “Mark Twain is capable of better things.” The critical responses to Sam’s lecture stayed mixed, though Sam tweaked the material.
November 5 Sunday – Elisha Bliss sent Sam a royalty check from the American Publishing Co. [MTP].
November 6 Monday – Sam lectured in Town Hall, Malden, Mass. – “Artemus Ward.”
November 7 Tuesday – Sam traveled the 125 miles back to Hartford.