January 13 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to James R. Osgood, answering his invitation to a Jan. 20 dinner at the Nautilus Club in Boston. Sam answered:
“Indeed I wish I could go, but the madam has made me promise that I wouldn’t absent myself from home until this epidemical & dreadful membranous croup has quitted the atmosphere hereabouts” [MTL 6: 349].
January 12 Tuesday – In Cambridge, Mass., Howells wrote Sam a two-line note that the last installment of “Old Times” was “extraordinarily good” [MTHL 1: 59].
January 11 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to John T. Raymond after hosting him and Kate Field for lunch (for a description of the lunch by Annie Moffett, See MTL 6: 347n4)
January 10 Sunday – In Cambridge, Mass., Howells wrote Sam, sending proof number two of his pilot series and writing mostly about the hoped-for New Orleans trip, and the possibilities and improbabilities of taking the wives along. Howells included the line:
January 8 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Louise Chandler Moulton about her article on his “pet detestation,” Rabelais.
“Did you know, I have often had more than half a mind to go over & dig up Rabelais & throw his bones” away? [MTL 6: 343].
James T. Fields wrote to Clemens after his visit of Jan. 7.
January 7 Thursday – James T. Fields, past editor of the Atlantic who remained active as a writer and lecturer, visited Sam in Hartford. Later that day Sam sent Fields the “original rough draft” of a poem, “Those Annual Bills,” together with a short note of thanks.
January 6 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford, again to the H.O. Houghton & Co., thanking them for the present of his subscription to the Atlantic Monthly. He added a PS:
“I appreciate the voluntary compliment of being paid more than better men, but then I am trying to deserve it. This is rare among writers.”
January 5 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to the H.O. Houghton & Co., owners of the Atlantic Monthly, sending a check for $4 and asking that 1875 editions be sent to his brother, Orion [MTL 6: 338]. Note: Though Sam often scolded Orion for incompetence, he was usually generous and expressed hope for his success.
January 1 Friday – Thomas Bailey Aldrich wrote from Ponkapog, Mass. after receiving some 70 pictures of Clemens in 45 envelopes:
January – The first of seven installments of “Old Times on the Mississippi” appeared in the Atlantic Monthly. Note: this was out in mid-December, 1874 as John Hay’s Dec. 16 to Clemens attests.