March 8 Friday – Sam secretly signed a contract for the new travel book with Frank Bliss, son of Elisha. Sam had been somewhat dissatisfied with Elisha Bliss and the American Publishing Co. since Orion reported misgivings. Frank wanted to break away from his father and start his own company. The new contract was Sam’s way of increasing his control over publication [MTJ&N 2: 42]. (See Nov. 1879 entry.)
March 7 Thursday – Elinor Howells left the Clemenses and continued on alone to New York to visit relatives in New Jersey; William Dean Howells continued his visit, most likely returning home to Cambridge by Mar. 12 or thereabouts, as Sam then left for New York [MTHL 1: 222n1].
March 6 Wednesday – The Howellses arrived in Hartford as planned earlier in the week (see Mar. 3 entry) and spent the night [MTHL 1: 221-2n1].
Dan Slote for Slote, Woodman & Co. wrote to Sam that he was sending the “last signatures & completion of new book, then I don’t wish to annoy you about reading proofs…Have printed our first edition 5000 copies only” [MTP].
Sam wrote to Dan Slote, letter not extant but referred to in Slote’s of Mar. 8.
March 5 Tuesday – Dan Slote for Slote, Woodman & Co. wrote to Sam.
March 4 Monday – Dan Slote for Slote, Woodman & Co. wrote . “I send you today more signatures of new Book, all that our printer had completed thus far. / Our Mr Wilde leaves on the 23rd of this month & if that little affair takes place it will occur say two or three nights previous—Can you come & what notice do you need?” He suggested a second volume of Sketches [MTP].
March 3 Sunday – In Cambridge, Mass., Howells sent Sam a note revising his Mar. 2 suggestion.
“Mrs. Howells starts to New York on Wednesday [Mar. 6], and I propose to go with her as far as Hartford, where if convenient we will both stop off till one o’clock the next day. We shall leave Boston on the 3 p.m. train….Don’t bother to meet us at the station. We know the way” [MTHL 1: 222].
March 2 Saturday – In Cambridge, Mass., Howells sent Sam a postcard asking if “Saturday of next week” would “do for that projected visit?” [MTHL 1: 221].
March 1 Friday – Sayles, Dick & Fitzgerald’s Publishing House wrote to Sam, agreeing to take his “Speech on Women” out of the book in which it appeared. They thanked him for his conditional permission to use “Membranous Croup” [MTP].
February 28 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Bayard Taylor, who had recently been appointed as the new U.S. minister to Germany. Sam had learned that they would be shipmates on the Holsatia. Sam told him not to: “change your mind & leave us poor German-ignorant people to cross the ocean with nobody to talk to” [MTLE 3: 25].
February 27 Wednesday – Frank Fuller wrote to Sam on Woodruff Iron Works to Fuller Feb. 27 :