May 14 Tuesday – Sam wrote to John Stanton (Corry O’Lanus) city editor of the Eagle, asking if “a brother member of the press” might introduce him at his fourth lecture, which was later canceled [MTL 2: 44].
May 13 Monday – Alta California printed Sam’s article “HAPPY,” dated Mar. 15 [Schmidt].
Camfield lists this as “Letter from Mark Twain” Number XII [bibliog.].
May 10 Friday – Sam repeated his successful “Sandwich Islands” lecture at the Athenæum in Brooklyn [MTL 2: 40]. From the Brooklyn Eagle of May 11:
May 8 Wednesday – Charles Webb published a special railway edition of Jumping Frog with paper wrappers. It was only available at railway stations in New York City and was quickly discontinued [Slotta 20]. (See Dec.22, 1870 entry; Also A.D. notes AMT 2: 487 showing 4,076 books printed.)
May 7 Tuesday –The New York newspapers were complimentary, if brief, about Sam’s May 6 lecture at the Cooper Institute. Lorch says “The most extensive and perceptive” review was by Edward H. House of the New York Tribune [66]. Fatout says there were “ten lines in the Sun, twenty in the Herald, thirty-eight in the Times, a quarter of a column in the World” [Circuit 80]. Sam met “Ned” House shortly after arriving in New York; It was House who had accompanied Sam to sign up for the Quaker City excursion.
May 6 Monday – Upon his return to New York, Sam had been presented with an invitation (a “call”) by 200 Californians living in New York to give his Sandwich Islands lecture. Frank Fuller, a Comstock mining pal of Sam’s and later governor of Utah for a day, headed the California committee. Sam and Fuller set this as the date of the lecture and hired Cooper Institute’s Hall, one of the largest in the city. Nevada Senator and former Territorial Governor James Warren Nye was to introduce Sam.
May 5 Sunday – From the New York Dispatch:
Of the great army of humorists, we have always placed Mark Twain at the head, and it is, we believe, universally concluded that his quiet wit, forcible hits and unwavering pleasantry, combined with a certain gravity of expression peculiar to himself, are points not to be found in other funny writers of his day, and are as admirable as they are scarce (“New Publications” in the New York Dispatch, p7) [Budd, Reviews 26].
May 4 Saturday – Positive reviews of The Jumping Frog continued. From the Boston Evening Transcript, p.1:
As a humorist the author of these sketches has acquired a wide newspaper reputation, not only for his drollery, but for his sagacity of observation, his keep perception of character, and the individuality of his style and tone of thinking (“New Publications” in the Boston Evening Transcript, p1) [Budd, Reviews 25].
The New York Citizen agreed, adding:
May 2 Thursday – The second printing of Jumping Frog sold out [Slotta 20]. Over the next few days a third and fourth printings also sold out, but this information was never given to Sam. (See Dec.22, 1870 entry. Also A.D. notes AMT 2: 487 showing 4,076 books printed.)
May 1 Wednesday – Fuller and Sam had taken Cooper Institute’s hall at a $500 expense before they discovered the many competing attractions: Schuyler Colfax (1823-1885) speaking at Irving Hall; Adelaide Ristori (1822-1906), famous singer, at the French Theatre; Thomas Maguire’s “Imperial Troupe of Japanese Jugglers” at the New York Academy of Music; and “The Black Crook,” an act Lorch calls “the most daring girlie show of the time,” at Niblo’s Garden [Lorch 63].