May 5 Friday – In Hartford, Sam wrote to Moncure Conway (answering his May 2 postcard) about Bliss sending The Adventures of Tom Sawyer pictures to Chatto by the end of May. Sam enclosed the new picture of the children and told of Susy’s brush with death from diphtheria. Sam closed with the news that James T.
May 6 Saturday – Moncure Conway wrote from London, England that TS was close to publication there: “The last revise of the last proof of ‘The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, By Mark Twain’, passed out of my hands three days ago and it cannot be long before that hero walks into my study in a dress neat enough to excite the Huckleberrian disgust” [MTP].
May 7 Sunday – Sam traveled to Boston along with Joe Twichell; Livy stayed home to nurse Susy, who was recovering from “about the savagest assault of diphtheria a child ever did recover from” [MTHL 1: 117; 133; 136]. They probably met at the Parker House as planned and enjoyed dinner.
May 8 Monday – Sam invited the Howellses and the Aldriches to join the Clemenses and Joe Twichell to share his box for Anna Dickinson’s “disastrous performance” of A Crown of Thorns, or Ann Boyleyn in Boston [MTHL 1: 134]. Neither Livy nor Twichell made the trip, the latter canceling due to arriving house guests, Dean and Sarah Sage.
May 9 Tuesday – No further Boston activities were found.
Mary (Mollie) B. Shoot (stage name: Florence Wood) wrote from NYC, enclosing a playbill for her upcoming appearance there. She’d noticed Sam’s recent stage role:
I saw in the “Herald” that you were a grand success as “Peter Spyk”. Pray accept my congratulations (though it is late in the day to offer them.)
May 10 Wednesday – Sam returned home at midday [Twichell to Sam May 8; Lilly Warner to George Warner May 9 and 10; cited MTPO].
Sam wrote to E.B. Hewes, warden at the Conn. State Prison at Wethersfield, inquiring about one Ira Gladding, whom he’d been encouraged to underwrite with a second chance. Sam’s letter is not extant but referred to by Hewe’s reply of May 12. See Hewe’s reply and also A.H. Mead’s request of May 12 and reply of May 15.
May 11 Thursday – James R. Osgood wrote, having missed Sam when he was in Boston on Monday. He’d just read Sam’s “conscience article” [Carnival of Crime; see May 16] and, like everything he wrote, seemed to be the best. “Why don’t you let me put some of your short articles into our Vest Pocket Series? It would do us both good” His “object” was to invite for an excursion by rail where they “can play euchre all night Friday!” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on top of the letter, “Request granted for Vest Pocket Series”
May 12 Friday – Reginald Cholmondeley wrote on the S.S. Argo. “When you come to England next year I wish you would be kind enough to bring me a collection of live North American birds & you had better on your arrival come on straight to me in March or April” [MTP]. Note: evidently Reginald was serious; see July 2 letter.
May 15 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Casey in Ireland. Casey was the supposed president of the “Mark Twain Club” of Pollerton Castle, Carlow, in Ireland. Casey had even sent detailed “official proceedings.” Sam saw through Casey’s “club” and guessed that he was the only member.
May 16 Tuesday – Sam sent a postcard from Hartford to Elisha Bliss, asking if the pictures were ready to ship and giving Moncure Conway’s London address. Sam received a postal card reply, sometime shortly thereafter as mentioned in his next letter to Conway [MTLE 1: 61-62].
The front page of the New York Evening Post of May 16, 1876:
The Atlantic Monthly.
May 17 Wednesday – Eighteen-year-old Charles S. Babcock wrote from Cambridge, Mass:
Mr. Clemens / Dear Sir, / I am going to make bold to ask of you a great favor. I wish to publish a small sheet, say, about 16×22 inches—divided into four pages of three columns each.
May 18 Thursday – A.H. Mead wrote from New Haven to say he was going to “let the law take its course in Gladding’s case.” He theorized that Ira Gladding had intercepted Sam’s letter and took the money [MTP].
May 20 Saturday – A.H. Mead wrote for The Prisoners Friends’ Corp., Hartford, to Sam.
May 22 Monday – Charles S. Babcock wrote again (see his of May 17), pressing his request for to use Mark Twain’s name in a publication [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the letter, “This is the Orion style of ass.” No record of a publication by young Babcock was found. See May 17 from Babcock.
May 23 Tuesday – William Hamersley wrote to Sam: “Gladding’s case will not come up for trial before July—possibly not till August…the court may give him 15 or 20 years…” [MTP].
May 27 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Moncure Conway who had written Sam of an early publication date by Chatto of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Sam asked for prospective newspaper reviews from England and mentioned a postal card he’d received from Bliss over a week ago. Sam asked for two or three early copies of the book. In a teasing barb to Conway, Sam ended by saying the family would:
May 29 Monday – Miss Ave Nick wrote from Chicago to Sam, clipping enclosed. She asked for an autographed photo of Twain. The clippings were unusual events around the various states [MTP].
May 31 Wednesday – Sam gave a reading at the Asylum Hill Congregational Church [Andrews 50]. Also, Twichell’s parish scrapbook, described by Messent, contains a notice of “Concert and Readings by the Park Church Quintette and ‘Mark Twain’ at the chapel of the Asylum Hill Congregational Church,” scheduled for this day [386]. Note: the church had 186 pews, seating 930 people [Strong 49].
June – Sam’s sketch, “The Facts Concerning the Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut”” ran in the June issue of the Atlantic [Wells 22].
June 1 Thursday – Mary Mason Fairbanks wrote from Cleveland, Ohio to Sam.
June 3 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Mary Mason Fairbanks that he had decided to “remain away from the Centennial [in Philadelphia] altogether, for an interruption of my work is disastrous to it.”
June 4 Sunday – Information Wanted and Other Sketches by Mark Twain was published by George Routledge and Sons, London during the year. [Johnson 41-2]. Note: He gives June 4, 1876 as the earliest presentation copy found.
June 7 Wednesday – Eugene Holby wrote from Springfield to invite Sam to lecture there [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “NO”
June 8 Thursday – Clara Clemens’ second birthday.
June 9 Friday – Chatto & Windus, London issued the English edition of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, a full six months ahead of the U.S. release [MTPO Notes with Nov. 2, 1876 to Conway].
Sam wrote a short note “To Whom It May Concern” introducing his mother, Jane Clemens, and his sister Pamela Moffett, who would be traveling [MTLE 1: 67].