March 10 Friday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to Orion. Sam reported that he had sent 160 pages of manuscript out to be copied and would ship them to Elisha Bliss. Bliss had offered to find a storage place for Sam and Livy’s furniture, which Sam wrote would not be needed:
March 9 Thursday – Sam wrote a short note from Buffalo to Orion, promising to send Bliss “a chapter from the new book every month or nearly every month.” He had 168 pages of manuscript completed [MTL 4: 346]. Sam also wrote a short note to Samuel S.
March 8 Wednesday – Orion Clemens wrote from Hartford to Sam.
My Dear Brother:– / Your very welcome letter contains a great deal of pleasant information.
1. That Livy will soon be well enough to move.
March 7 Tuesday – Sam completed entering, crossing out, and filling out his 1870 income tax forms (state or local taxes). He claimed a salary of $1,200 with other income of $8,200 and a net tax of $77.55 at 2 ½ per cent after deductions. Livy showed no income for the year. The forms bear penciled entries, some in black ink, and others in bright purple ink. Lengthwise between the folded form, Sam wrote:
March 6 Monday – Bret Harte signed his record-breaking contract with the Atlantic for $10,000. Duckett and others argue that this accolade stimulated Sam’s desire to “get out of the public view for a while,” (Mar. 4 letter to Orion) in order to get ahead of Harte [62].
March 4 Saturday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to Orion, answering his insistent request for an article for the monthly circular, American Publisher. Asking to be left out of the Publisher for a time, he wrote:
March 3 Friday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to John Henry Riley praising him for his letters, “satisfactory as letters could be.” Then in a frank revelation of his frustration with how life was going, Sam blamed his misfortunes on Buffalo:
March 2 Thursday – Sam advertised his Buffalo house for sale at $25,000, what it cost Jervis Langdon a year before [MTL 5: 338].
In a letter to his brother on Mar. 4, Sam identified this day as when he decided to “go out of the Galaxy” with a last “Memoranda” column [MTL 4: 341].
Frank Church wrote to Sam on this day, trying to placate him about the column:
March 1 Wednesday – Sam sold his one-third interest in the Buffalo Express to George H. Selkirk for $15,000, to be paid over five years. Sam still owed Thomas A. Kennett (1843-1911). Sam repaid Jervis Langdon’s estate by the end of 1871, but by 1878 Selkirk had still not completed payment [MTL 4: 338].
March – Mark Twain’s (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance was published (Note: Rasmussen gives February, p.49). “First Romance” was joined with the work but was first published on Jan. 1, 1870 in Buffalo Express [Budd, “Collected” 1008].