March 22 Monday – In Boston, Howells wrote to Sam about the “charm and the solid delightfulness” of A Tramp Abroad.
Well, you are a blessing. You ought to believe in God’s goodness, since he has bestowed upon the world such a delightful genius as yours to lighten its troubles [MTHL 1: 293].
William Haskell Simpson (1858-1933) wrote on Univ. of Kansas Chancellor’s Office, Lawrence, Kansas letterhead.
March 21 Sunday – An unknown boy wrote from Chicago to Sam; only the envelope survives [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “A Boy’s Request”
March 20 Saturday – This was the approximate issue date for A Tramp Abroad. Sam wrote from Hartford to Elisha Bliss. Sam liked the look of the book, but noted that both Roughing It and Gilded Age sold “nearly double as many copies, in this length of time, so I imagine the Canadians have been working us heavy harm.” He was also glad the newspapers hadn’t knocked the book.
March 19 Friday – Susy Clemens’ eighth birthday.
Sam’s Mar. 19 letter to Texas schoolboy, David Watt Bowser, includes the sentence, “I wrote all day yesterday…on the fifteenth chapter of a story for boys entitled ‘The Little Prince & the Little Pauper,’ —laid in the time of Edward VI of England…” [MTP].
March 18 Thursday – Emma J. Stafford wrote to Sam asking for a letter for their church “Evening with Mark Twain” as they’d done with several other famous men [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “No. A heavy curse fall on the particular devil who invented this most offensive form of persecution. / SLC”
March 16 Tuesday – In Hartford, Sam wrote a long inscription to Twichell in a copy of A Tramp Abroad, marking various pages where things happened, pointing out how imagination had “preposterously expanded” some things.
“We had a mighty good time, Joe, & the 6 weeks I would dearly like to repeat, any time—but the rest of the 14 months, never. With love, Yours, Mark” [MTLE 5: 45].
March 15 Monday – Sam wrote to Christian Tauchnitz in Leipzig, Germany; the letter not extant but mentioned in Tauchnitz’s May 3 reply.
March 14 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to an unidentified person about responses to distressed nation appeals.
“…it is only when she [a nation] asks for bread, that creed & party are forgotten & the whole world rises to respond” [MTLE 5: 43].
March 13 Saturday – Two copies of A Tramp Abroad were placed with the Copyright Office, Library of Congress [Hirst, “A Note on the Text” Oxford edition, 1996].
March 11 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells, sharing the plot of Prince and the Pauper, and noting: