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].
February 28 Tuesday – W.S. Cassedy wrote from Rosston, Penn. to ask Clemens to read his MS about “the imaginary visit of a China man to this country” [MTP].
February 27 Monday – Edson C. Chick wrote from offices of The Aldine: “Dr. Mark / Telegram recd. Many Many thanks. [I] enclose manuscript. You have helped me out of my difficulty like a ‘big hearted boatman’ as you are…” [MTP].
February 26 or 27 Monday – Sam telegraphed from Buffalo to Edson C. Chick, managing editor of the Aldine, a graphic arts and literary magazine published by James Sutton & Co. of New York (1871-3). Sam had sent a portrait of himself but not an autobiographical sketch, which Sam felt was “too long, as it stands, to be modest” [MTL 4: 337].
February 25 Saturday – Bret and Anna Harte and their two sons, Woodie and Frankie, arrived in Boston around 11 AM. A crowd was at the train station to welcome Harte, including 33-year-old William Dean Howells, assistant editor of the Atlantic under James T. Fields.