November 15 Sunday – Sam’s LETTER FROM “MARK TWAIN” dated Hartford, Oct. 22, ran in the San Francisco Alta California. Subtitles: International Boat Race; The “Wickedest Man”; At Large; Legend; Personal [Schmidt].
November 9-12 Thursday ca. – Sam left New York and arrived in Cleveland, Ohio early to work on his first lecture with Mary Fairbanks. A great deal was riding on Sam’s success as a lecturer in the East—Jervis Langdon’s approval, for one.
November 7 or 8 Sunday – Sam again called on the Wiley family, since George Wiley had not been able to spend more than a few minutes with him the prior Tuesday. Sam confessed his love for Livy, who was “quite an invalid” and “unfortunately very rich.” Sam told George he had proposed at least a dozen times. George asked Sam if he was crazy.
November 7 Saturday – Sam’s article “Private Habits of Horace Greeley” was printed in Spirit of the Times [Camfield, bibliog.]. This was a weekly newspaper published in New York City, which aimed for an upper-class readership made up largely of sportsmen. The Spirit also contained humorous articles, much of it based on frontier folklore. Theatre news was also a major component. Emerson calls the Greeley article “one of the funniest pieces yet written,” and “good-natured fun” [56].
November 4 Wednesday – Sam wrote from New York to his mother of his visit to the Wiley home the day before, and on a visit this day to another Hannibal family acquaintance, Mrs. Garth in Brooklyn, mother of John H. Garth (1837-1899), whose pretty wife, Helen Kercheval (1838-1923), had been a schoolmate of Sam’s. Sam had hoped to see John and Helen but they had moved to Baltimore [MTL 2: 279; Sanborn 408-9].
November 3 Tuesday – Sam made social calls in NYC to a friend of Livy’s, Fidele (Mrs. Henry) Brooks (b.1837), and to longtime Hannibal friends of the family, the George Washington Wiley (b.1813?) family. He ate dinner there and walked back to the Everett House, some 28 blocks in “weather cold as the mischief” [MTL 2: 278].
November – George Routledge & Sons, later Sam’s authorized British publisher, published Sam’s story, “Cannibalism in the Cars” in an English journal, Broadway: A London Magazine [Wilson 15]. Note: George Routledge (1812-1888); Edmund Routledge (1843-1899); Robert Warne Routledge (1837?-1899).
October 31 Saturday – Sam wrote from New York to Mary Mason Fairbanks: “I’ll be in Cleveland Nov.8—lecture there Nov. 17—so you can get ready to scratch. I’ll expunge every word you want scratched out, cheerfully” [MTL 2: 277].
October 30 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Livy about his outing of the previous Monday, more raves about Twichell, spiritual matters, and his upcoming plans to lecture. About Mary Fairbanks, Sam wrote: “I like to tease her because I like her so.” He added a P.S.
October 24?–27 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to his mother and family about Twichell, his book’s scheduled publication in March, and his desire to begin lecturing soon at Cleveland [MTL 2: 270-1]. Lorch says Sam had received an invitation to lecture there from Colonel John F.