December 16 Saturday – Bret Harte wrote from New York to Sam about Parsloe showing up for a 10:30 A.M. appointment at 3 P.M. Bret read Parsloe “those portions of the 1st & 2d acts that indicated his role, and he expressed himself satisfied with it, and competent to take it in hand.” Harte was conciliatory, knowing he had ruffled feathers while staying with the Clemens family:

December 18 Monday – Xantippe (“Tip”) Saunders wrote and accepted Sam’s invitation to stay with the family over the holidays. She agreed to meet him “at the appointed time & place,” which MTPO (Notes with Dec. 20 to Perkins) says was “probably Grand Central Station, in order to take the 11 A.M. train.” Note: It’s unknown which day Sam met her there, but he went to New York on Dec. 21 and returned Dec.

December 20 Wednesday – Upon receipt of Harte’s Dec. 16 letter about Parsloe’s interest, Sam wrote a postcard from Hartford to his attorney, Charles E. Perkins. Sam was going to New York the next day and return Saturday. He hoped the Charles Parsloe contracts would be ready then and would try to bring Parsloe back to Hartford.

December 21 Thursday – This is the day Sam planned on going to New York, where he likely conferred with Parsloe and Harte on the pending contract for Ah Sin (see Dec. 20 entry). NYC temperatures ranged from 19-12 degrees F. with 0.06 inches of precipitation [NOAA.gov].

December 22 Friday – Sam gave a speech he called, “The Weather” at New England Society‘s Seventy-First Annual Dinner in New York City [Fatout, MT Speaking 100-3]. Budd calls this speech “The Oldest Inhabitant—The Weather of New England” [“Collected” 1017].

NYC temperatures ranged from 31-15 degrees F. with 0.20 inches of precipitation [NOAA.gov].

December 24 Sunday – Sam returned to Hartford, accompanied by Xantippe (Tip) Saunders (see Dec. 18 and 20 entries).

The New York World ran a page two interview with Sam titled, “A Connecticut Carpet-bag.” Sam sidestepped a reporter’s questions in a humorous way [Scharnhorst, Interviews 7-9].

December 25 Monday – Christmas – The Clemens family celebrated Christmas in their Hartford home, with Xantippe (Tip) Saunders as a house guest for a week (see Dec. 18 and 20 entries; Saunders to Sam Dec. 23, 1877).

December 27 Wednesday – The Hartford Courant reviewed The Adventures of Tom Sawyer [Hirst, “A Note on the Text” Oxford edition, 1996].

Mark Twain’s Adventures of Tom Sawyer was published in England last June, and immediately many of the most easily detached and quotable portions of it found their way into the American press, and a wide circulation. The COURANT printed at the time two or three extracts from the book—Tom’s adventure with the beetle in church, a most delightful study…

December 29 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford per Fanny C. Hesse to Moncure Conway.

“Hart and I have written a play, the chief character in which, is a Chinaman, and we have leased it for life to a man who will play that part. We give him the sole right for the entire world.”

December 30 Saturday – Sam signed a contract in Hartford for the play Ah Sin. Bret Harte and Charles Thomas Parsloe signed on Jan. 5, 1877 in New York [Duckett 127-8]. The three men were to share equally in the gross profits after deductions for certain expenses, such as printing and agency contracts with stage managers [See Duckett, p 128-9 for the main details].

December 31 to January 1, 1877 Monday – New Year’s Eve. Sam and Livy attended a party at Isabella Beecher Hooker’s Nook Farm home, packed with neighbors and friends. Reflective of 19th Century obsession with paranormal and spiritual pursuits, plus Isabella’s megalomania, several mediums waited in an upstairs room for the new year to reveal Isabella’s vision, that she was to usher in a new order of government. “Spirits” had told her that she would rule the world.

Sam’s Portrait – Bayard Taylor – Nephew Sammy – Duncan’s Lawsuit
Lobbying for Appointments – Alexandroffsky Marvels – Ah Sin Opened
Bermuda! with Twichell – Rambling Notes – John T. Lewis, Hero – Tramp of the Sea
The “First Home” Telephone – Whittier Birthday Debacle – Written Apologies

1877 – Paine gives this year for an additional excerpt written for Mark Twain’s Autobiography, “Early Years in Florida, Missouri” [7-10].

Sam’s sketch on Francis Lightfoot Lee ran in Pennsylvania Magazine, 1, No. 3 [Gribben 539].

January – Sam’s unsigned and untitled piece on Anna Dickinson ran in the January issue of the Atlantic Monthly, the Contributors’ Club [Camfield, bibliog.].

January 1 Monday – After leaving Isabella Hooker’s failed medium party (see Dec. 31, 1876 entry), Sam and Livy went after midnight to the George Warner residence, where they finished festivities and learned of Isabella’s wacky, megalomaniac scheme [Willis 108]. Twichell, evidently did not go to the Hookers on New Year’s Eve, but stopped by the Warners after midnight.

January 2 Tuesday – Two copies of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer were placed with the Copyright Office, Library of Congress [Hirst, “A Note on the Text” Oxford edition, 1996].

January 3 Wednesday – Twichell’s journal:

“Mr B.[oyesen]  concludes not to go on to Boston for several days yet, but to accept M.T’s invitation to spend a season with him. / M.T. was in during the former’s asked of Charles Warren Stoddard’s [?illegible word] as actor on the stage in a manner that beggars description – so very funny” [Yale, copy at MTP]

January 5 Friday – Bret Harte and Charles Thomas Parsloe signed the contract for Ah Sin in New York. Sam signed on Dec. 30, 1876 [Duckett 127-8; MTP].

January 6 Saturday –Twichell’s journal:

“Attended by invitation the ‘Saturday (girl’s) Club’ at M.T’s, at 10 o’clock am—a company to be much delighted in. Boyesen read an unpublished story with great applause” [Yale, copy at MTP].

January 10 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford per Fanny Hesse to Moncure Conway. Sam wanted Andrew Chatto to prosecute the Belford Co., since the copyright belonged to Chatto and not to Sam.

January 11 Thursday – H.W. Bergen wrote from NYC wanting to confer with Sam one day next week [MTP]. Note: Bergen was Sam’s road agent for Colonel Sellers play.

January 13 Saturday – The first substantial review following the American Publishing Co.’s release of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer on Dec. 8, 1876 ran in the New York Times. Unsigned and cursory, it noted:

…a truly clever child’s book is one in which both man and boy can find pleasure. No child’s book can be perfectly acceptable otherwise.

January 14 Sunday – Clemens, Twichell, Charles and Susan Warner, Dr.’s Nathaniel J. Burton and Edwin P. Parker all went to hear a lecture by Joseph Cook of Boston. Twichell didn’t think much of the presentation [Yale, copy at MTP].

January 17 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Hjalmar H. Boyesen (1848-1895), Norwegian born American writer and literary critic. Boyesen had visited the Clemens family over the holidays. Sam wrote how much they had all enjoyed the visit, extending an open invitation to return. Sam shipped Boyesen’s overshoes and some pamphlets left behind to Boyesen’s home in Ithaca, New York.

January 19 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford per Fanny Hesse to his sister Pamela Moffett recommending St. Paul’s, a preparatory school in Concord, New Hampshire for his nephew Samuel Moffett. Sam anticipated the visit of his nephew, now seventeen [MTLE 2: 8].

January 21 Sunday – Sam purchased books from the Osgood & Co., including Bayard Taylor’s The National Ode: The Memorial Freedom Poem (1877), and Centennial Ode (Author, year unidentified), and Richard Irving Dodge’s The Plains of the Great West and Their Inhabitants [Gribben 687; 134; 197].