May 1 Saturday – William Dean Howells arrived at the Clemens home with daughter Mildred (Pilla) to stay the weekend [MTNJ 3: 230n8]. Note: the Hartford Courant May 3, p.2 under “City Briefs” reported: “Mr. W.D. Howells spent Sunday in Hartford with Mr. S.L. Clemens.”

After a delay of nearly two months, Volume II of Grant’s Memoirs was released this date [N.Y. Times, p.3, Mar. 23, 1886, “Lives of Distinguished Men”].

May 1-4 Tuesday – After months of negotiating, the Vatican agreed to Bernard O’Reilly writing and Webster & Co. Publishing the life of the reigning Pope Leo XIII. [Twichell’s Journal, Yale, copy at MTP; LLMT 247; See May 5 to Livy].