December 23 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells.

My sense of disgrace does not abate. It grows. I see that it is going to add itself to my list of permanencies—a list of humiliations that extends back to when I was seven years old, & which keep on persecuting me regardless of my repentancies.

December 24 Monday – This is the date Sam gave as having returned Bret Harte’s I.O.U.’s totaling $3,000, only to receive an indignant reply that “permanently annulled the existing friendship.” As Duckett explains, “If Mark Twain’s date is correct, the return of the notes occurred within a week after Mark’s humiliation at the Whittier Birthday Dinner. During this period, Mark Twain felt increasingly penitent and friendless” [168].

Sam Bernard wrote to Sam; not found at MTP, but catalogued as UCLC 48597.

December 25 Tuesday – Christmas –­ William Dean Howells wrote to Charles Dudley Warner about Sam’s letter of Dec. 23: “This morning I got a letter from poor Clemens that almost breaks my heart. I hope I shall be able to answer it in just the right way” [MTHL 2: 212n3].

He then wrote to Sam that being in the Atlantic would “…help and not hurt us many a year yet…” He then began to repair Sam’s wounds:

December 27 Thursday – In Hartford, Sam wrote individual apologies to Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Oliver Wendell Holmes for his embarrassing speech at Whittier’s Dec. 17 birthday party. He claimed he’d given the speech “innocently & unwarned,” and spoke of his mortification. He wrote of Livy’s “distress”; that:

December 28 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells, thanking him for his letter of Dec. 25 which “was a godsend.” Sam was particularly grateful for Howells:

“…consent that I write to those gentlemen; for you discouraged my hints in that direction that morning in Boston—rightly, too, for my offense was yet too new, then”

December 29 Saturday – Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote to reassure Sam he hadn’t taken offense to his remarks at Whittier’s birthday dinner [MTP]. Note: on the env., “Publ. In part in Paine Biog, II pp 607-8.”

December 31 Monday – Charles E. Perkins wrote to advise of a credit to Sam’s account for $450 as “interest on your western loan.” He lists: W.S. Bland, M T Burwell, R Miller, and N Wethersby [MTP].

Aftermath of Disgrace – Orion Apes Jules Verne – Bliss Contract for Europe Travel Book Quick
Jaunts to Fredonia & Elmira – Family Sails for Europe
Frankfort, Hamburg to Heidelberg – Mannheim Operas – Speech at Heidelberg University Twichell
Joined in Baden Baden – Excursions by Foot, Boat, Rail, and Cart – The Alps Twichell Departs – Italy
– Munich for the Winter

January – The last of a four-part, 15,000 word article on Sam and Joe Twichell’s trip to Bermuda, ran in the Atlantic Monthly: “Some Rambling Notes of an Idle Excursion” [Wells 22].

January 1 Tuesday – Livy’s visitor book was signed by Carrie L. Brown, Frank T. Brown, and Ella F. Brown [MTP].

Moncure Conway wrote to wish Sam a happy new year and to say:

January 2 Wednesday – Sam and Livy went to the Hartford Opera House with Lilly Warner to see Howells’ play, A Counterfeit Presentment. Charles Dudley Warner’s unsigned review of the play in the Hartford Courant was positive, comparing Howells’ writing with Goldoni’s “pure comedy of unexaggerated real life” [MTHL 2: 217n2].

January 4 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells that his play, A Counterfeit Presentment, was “enchanting. I laughed & cried all the way through it” [MTLE 3: 1]. The play ended in Boston. Howells wrote more than 30 works for the theater and this was his best, though only moderately successful.

January 6 Sunday – In Cambridge, Mass., Howells wrote to thank Sam for his Jan. 4 letter praising the play. Howells was discouraged by the play’s draw in New England and didn’t suppose it paid expenses in Worcester, Providence, Springfield or Hartford; and he didn’t blame Lawrence Barrett for withdrawing. Howells supplied some feedback from the Brahmins to whom Sam had written apologies for Whittier’s birthday debacle:

January 7 Monday – The New York Sun, on page 2, ran a spurious interview titled, “Mark Twain’s Enterprise / The Celebrated Humorist Takes Editorial Charge of the Hartford COURANT.” This was a false report that Sam had become editor of the Courant based on the fact of the telephone line connected to his home from the newspaper’s offices (See Jan. 24 entry to Daggett.) [Budd, “Interviews” 1].

January 10 Thursday – Phineas T. Barnum wrote from Bridgeport to Sam: “This is a begging letter! Awful!! … Now my dear boy I come to you for a character!” he hoped it was not in vain [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Answered Jany 13th/78”. Phineas wanted Sam to create a character useable for Barnum’s shows. Sam’s reply is not extant, but evidently he declined; see Barnum’s Jan. 14 follow up.

January 11 Friday – The New York Times reported on:

THE ONE THOUSANDTH PERFORMANCE OF

MARK TWAIN’S DRAMA—AN EXCEPTIONALLY INTELLIGENT JURY

January 12 Saturday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Kate V. Austin of Richmond, Indiana, who was trying to verify a rumor that Sam would gain ownership of another newspaper. Sam wrote that this rumor was “not only untrue but absolutely & permanently impossible” [MTLE 3: 2]. Note: it’s uncertain why Sam was in Elmira at this time.

Slote, Woodman & Co. wrote to Sam with a breakdown on amounts due him for Scrap Book sales, totaling $1,071.57 [MTP].

January 13 Sunday – Sam wrote to Phineas T. Barnum, answering Barnum’s request that Sam create a character for his use. Sam’s letter is not extant but referred to in Barnum’s Jan. 14 reply.

January 14 Monday – Phineas T. Barnum wrote a scrawled letter to Sam, “All right …It’s only a matter of taste anyhow—& I am content” [MTP]. Note: see Barnum’s request, Jan. 10.

January 16 Wednesday – The Hartford Society of Decorative Arts, in which Livy was active, opened the doors to their new art school in the Cheney Building (See June, 1877 entry, and Elizabeth Normen’s article on the web at http://www.hogriver.org/issues/v01n04/art_school.htm)

January 17 Thursday – George H. Selkirk wrote to Sam:

Friend Mark. / I am now in hope of commencing soon to pay on my indebtedness to you. I have been unfortunate in my newspaper experience, and part of what I have already paid you I had to borrow from my father. I am now giving all my attention to the job printing business, which opens and promises well. Let me pay on your claim against me as I can at the coal office here… [MTP].

January 18 Friday – Edward Lauterbach (1844-1923) NY attorney telegrammed asking Clemens to lecture for a private club in NY for $150 on Saturday evening Jan. 26. He followed it up with a letter the following day [MTP]. Note: evidently Sam telegraphed an answer, judging from Lauterbach’s reply on Jan. 19; on Jan. 26 Sam spoke at Geselischaft Harmonic in NYC.

January 19 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Heber Clark (Max Adeler or John Quill, 1847-1915), a humorous journalist who had evidently asked if Sam was a millionaire.

January 20 Sunday – Joseph G. Hickman (b. 1838) wrote from Florida, Mo. to Sam.

Mr Saml Clemens—

January 21 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Chatto & Windus, his English publishers, with corrections for Punch Brothers, Punch! And Other Sketches; that the article would be in the March issue of Atlantic, released Feb. 15 [MTLE 3: 4].