June 28 Tuesday – Charles Langdon sailed from Liverpool on the Abyssinia. It arrived in Boston on July 8, not New York as Sam had thought in his letter of the previous day [MTL 4: 161n1].
June 27 Monday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Elisha Bliss, complimenting him on a circular claiming 150,000 sales for Innocents Abroad (a stretcher, for sure. 60,378 is more accurate.)
“Mr. Langdon is very ill. Sometimes we feel sure he is going to get well, but then again hope well nigh passes away. This morning the case looks so well that all are pretty cheery again” [MTL 4: 159].
June 25 Saturday – Sam wrote from Elmira to his mother, and sister:
“We were called here suddenly by telegram 3 days ago. Mr. Langdon is very low. We have well nigh lost hope—all of us except Livy.”
June 24 Friday – Sam’s article “Buffalo Female Academy” was printed in the Buffalo Express [McCullough 211].
June 23 Thursday – Female Academy, Buffalo, New York – Commencement Exercises Speech. Clemens wrote the speech, though David Gray (1836-1888), poet and editor of the Buffalo Courier, read it [McCullough 211].
Sam’s article, “MARK TWAIN IN NEW YORK” was printed in the Auburn, California, Stars and Stripes [Fatout, MT Speaks 62].
June 22 Wednesday – Sam and Livy returned to Elmira to help nurse Jervis Langdon [MTL 4: 155n1]. They took turns at a bedside vigil. Sam took a shift in the middle of the day and from midnight to four in the morning. Livy and sister Susan Crane sat with their father for seven or eight hour stretches, waving a palm-leaf fan over him during the hot summer days [Willis 61].
June 19 Sunday – Sam and Livy wrote from Buffalo to Jervis & Olivia Langdon. Jervis had improved somewhat and the newlyweds expected them to visit [MTL 4: 153]. Note: Jervis’ condition must have worsened after this, because they did not make the trip to Buffalo.
June 12 Sunday – Sam & Livy wrote from Buffalo to Pamela A. Moffett, now living in Fredonia, NY.
We were snatched away suddenly by an urgent call to come to Elmira & help nurse Mr Langdon for a couple of weeks at some Pennsylvania springs he was going to visit. But he decided not to go, & so we simply rested a moment & then hurried back here.
June 11 Saturday – Sam wrote a note from Elmira to Ellen White, the family housekeeper to have a carriage ready in Buffalo at “half past eleven tonight—Erie Depot.” The time means that Sam & Livy left Elmira on the 7:07 PM Erie Railway’s “Day Express,” which took four and a half hours to reach Buffalo [MTL 4: 150].
June 9 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Elisha Bliss, asking him to send an enclosure with a “nice copy of the book” to Edward H. House, Occidental Hotel, San Francisco. House was traveling to Japan. When he was critic for the New York Tribune he wrote an important and glowing review (May 11, 1867) of Sam’s first NY lecture, and Sam was thankful.