April 12 Thursday – James R. Osgood wrote that they didn’t need to start the 8th for Chicago. “Clark seemed to think about 10 days necessary in the other case, but I guess if we leave here the morning of the 9th it will be time. You come here Tuesday the 8th and dine with me and will start Wed. a.m. We can return the following Monday or Tuesday. / Glad you like the book” [MTP].
April 13 Friday – Funk & Wagnalls wrote an offer to publish Sam’s 80,000 word MS to be included in a series of 12 books by representative American authors [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Not Answered”
April 14 Saturday – Karl Gerhardt wrote to Sam & Livy including an accounting page of March expenses [MTP].
Charles Webster wrote estimating 3,000 LM books would be sold by June 1. Another rundown of numbers of old books sold. Orion had written that there was no general agent in Keokuk [MTP].
April 16 Monday – In Hartford, Sam wrote to George W. Cable. Livy was not getting better and didn’t eat much so couldn’t get stronger. Sam intended to have her “travel on a mattress” to Elmira and “see if her mother can nurse her back to health.” Again Sam cautioned George to require money in advance from “those thieves” (probably the Mallory brothers) for a performance Cable had agreed to:
April 17 Tuesday – In Hartford, Sam wrote to James R. Osgood. A dispute had arisen between Charles Webster, Sam and Osgood. Sam held to the belief as almost a maxim, that the big sale took place before issue, not after. Though once true for subscription books, it no longer was certain. Webster wrote on Apr.
April 18 Wednesday – James R. Osgood replied to Sam’s Apr. 17: “Perhaps you are correct: but I don’t quite believe it. The sequel will show” [163]. Sam did give way a bit, allowing Osgood and Webster to do as they preferred on The Stolen White Elephant [MTP].
April 20 Friday – Edward Jump, one-time favorite caricaturist of San Francisco, and possibly Sam’s roommate there for a time [Taper xxv], committed suicide. Note: See Schmidt’s site: for a Chicago Daily Tribune article: http://www.twainquotes.com/edjump.html . Robert Hirst of the MTP did not know where Taper got the idea from that Clemens had roomed with Jump, and no evidence was found.
April 21 Saturday – From Lilly Warner’s pen: “Livy is doing well now, under a nurse’s care, and the sweet soft air of these good days” [Salsbury 164].
April 22 Sunday – In Hartford, Sam wrote to Laurence Hutton, advising that he would not be able to stay with him Apr. 25 and attend the Salvini banquet on Apr. 27 due to Livy’s condition.
April 23 Monday – James R. Osgood wrote: “I have your gloomy communication [not extant], and will respond to your invitation to stop over and brace you up. I will leave here either to-morrow (Tuesday) afternoon by 4.30 train and pass the night with you, or else I will go by 8.30 a.m. train Wednesday morning and arrive at 12.25 and stop over one train. Will telegraph you to-morrow which I will do” [MTP].
April 24 Tuesday – Sam and Livy wrote from Hartford to Charles Langdon of sickness, gaining strength, Olivia Lewis Langdon’s improved health, and Hartford’s “death-list” which had “reached the startling & disgraceful figure of 89” [MTP].
April 25 Wednesday – James R. Osgood arrived at Sam’s [Apr. 24 to Webster].
April 28 Saturday – James R. Osgood wrote (envelope only survives) [MTP].
April 29 Sunday – Hattie J. Gerhardt wrote a short note to Sam & Livy, concerned about Livy’s illness. She added, “…one thing I know will make you happy—every one says Karl has made a decided jump in his art & he is received in the salon & I am happy” [MTP].
May – Sam inscribed LM to Edwin P. Parker: “With kindest regards of Mark Twain” [MTP].
May 1 Tuesday – Sam began a letter from Hartford to Karl & Hattie (“Josie”) Gerhardt, that he finished May 3. Sam questioned Josie about her remark that Charles Ethan Porter had “gone to the dogs,” a remark he said for which “she gave no details.” Porter, a Negro, was to be forgiven sins more than a white person, he said, which says a lot about Sam’s evolution on race matters:
May 3 Thursday – Sam finished the letter of May 1 to the Gerhardts. He confessed that Livy was “not well enough yet, to write, but will be, soon….” He’d received the bronze portraits from Karl and thought the one of him was “very fine.” He didn’t think Warner’s was a good likeness, but excused it because “the artist needs the living model, not the dead & flat photograph” [MTP].
May 7 Monday – In Hartford, Sam typed a letter to Mary Mason Fairbanks, gently accusing her of not “caring any great deal about us or our sufferings” since she’d made several trips east without stopping by then retiring “stealthily west again without ever coming near us.” Livy had suffered through a bout of diphtheria, then quinsy (inflamed tonsils) and “several minor things,” and was now emaciated.
May 8 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Boston to Livy.
“Livy Darling, I grew so uneasy, before I reached Boston, that I determined to go back home unless I got news that you were better. I have just received your answering telegram, & am greatly relieved” [Note: Livy’s telegram to Boston suggests Sam spent at least one night there].
May 9–16 Wednesday – Sam made a flying trip to Montreal during this period to protect copyright of Life on the Mississippi [LLMT 215]. In his May 18 letter to Howells, Sam wrote “When I was in Montreal three or four days ago…” would put the date there a bit later than the May 14 date which Osgood had estimated.
May 10 Thursday – George MacDonald wrote from Bordigera, Italy, once again urging Sam to join him in writing a novel [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Your Ph. Is very lovely. 2 plays & 3 books. & the whole summer engaged. Can’t forecast the future with all these (& other proposed) books (& Hamlet) in my head.”
May 12 Saturday – Life on the Mississippi was published in England by Chatto & Windus [MTHL 1: 433n2]. Prior publication in the Empire was necessary to secure copyright there.
May 13 Sunday – In an unknown place (probably Ottawa or Montreal) Sam inscribed LM to an unidentified person [MTP].
John Irwin wrote a begging letter from Berkshire, Ohio as he couldn’t afford Sam’s latest book [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “No Answer”; Sam rarely complied with such requests, unless he knew the person.
May 15 Tuesday – Robert Hirst gives this as the date the “earliest copies of the first edition [LM] were published” [“A Note on the Text” Oxford edition, 1996]. The first review, this from the Hartford Courant, p.1:
May 17 Thursday – Life on the Mississippi was issued by the James R. Osgood & Co. (Two copies were deposited with the Copyright Office of the Library of Congress). Sales before issue barely reached 30,000, a number that enraged Sam [Powers, MT A Life 469; Hirst, “A Note on the Text” Oxford edition, 1996]. Note: under old subscription models, it was thought 40,000 sales before release was a good result.