July 1870

July  In the Galaxy for this monthMARK TWAIN’S MEMORANDA – Included:

“How I Edited an Agricultural Paper Once”
“The ‘Tournament’ in A.D. 1870”
“Enigma”
“Unburlesquable Things”
“The Late Benjamin Franklin”
“The Editorial Office Bore”
“Johnny Greer”
“A Daring Attempt at a Solution of It”
“To Correspondents” [Schmidt].

June 27, 1870 Monday 

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 23, 1870 Thursday

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, 1870 Wednesday

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, 1870 Sunday

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, 1870 Sunday

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.

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