April 23 Tuesday – In Paris at 169 rue de l’Universite, Sam wrote to J. Henry Harper, about the planned Uniform Edition of his works, about a 3,000 word short, “Mental Telegraphy Again,” he was sending to Henry Loomis Nelson for Harper’s Weekly, and about a contract he was about to sign:
April 20 Saturday – The New York Times, p.3 “Literary Notes,” ran the following, which shows how quickly Sam’s style was recognized by readers of PW in serial form in Harper’s Monthly:
April 15 Monday – Sam signed the agreement with Harper & Brothers sent by Henry M.Alden on Apr. 3 to publish JA and TS,Detective. At the foot of the third page Sam wrote,
If at any time during the serial publication of Joan of Arc my nom de plume should be appended to it as author, I am to receive, after that, $15 per 1000 words additional, thence to the end. This is the only omission I notice in the above [contract] S.L. Clemens, Paris Apl. 15/95 [MTP].
April 14 Sunday – In Paris at 169 rue de l’Universite, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers.
Yours of the 2d [not extant] has come, and it is a very genuine pleasure to me to know that I am missed. I had such a good homelike time there that I missed the house and everybody in it and found it lonesome in the ship and hard to reconcile myself to the change.
April 10 Wednesday – Joe Twichell wrote to Sam sending an address of a N.Y. boarding house (Mrs. Rufus McHard, 61 West 17th St.) advising Sam to apply some time in advance at $25 per week. Joe referred to a “longish letter” he’d sent Livy, but he didn’t want her to answer it, just to know he’d mailed it. Joe offered cheer:
April 9 Tuesday – In Paris, France Sam wrote to his nephew Samuel E. Moffett after receiving Samuel’s book, Suggestions on Government (1894). Moffett was still on the San Francisco Examiner staff.
April 8 Monday – Frank Mayo inscribed a publisher’s copy of PW: “Yours truly, Frank Mayo. First representation of Pudd’nhead Wilson. Hartford, Conn., April 8th, 1895”. The occasion was the Hartford opening of the dramatization of PW at Proctor’s Opera House. At some later time Sam wrote under Mayo’s inscription: “The above signature is genuine & is that of a genuine man, too. Truly yours, Mark Twain” [MTP; Fatout, MT Speaking 276]. Note: see Sept.
April 7 Sunday – In Paris at 169 rue de l’Université, Sam wrote to H.H. Rogers. He was “in a sweat” and spent a page or two wondering how his royalties from Frank Mayo’s dramatization of PW might be calculated. As per the contract, Sam should have had no worries:
April 6 Saturday – Sam’s letter of Apr. 7 reveals he was in Paris, when he wrote “Clara and I thought we had discovered exactly the flat” for Mrs. Clarence Rice, “last night” (Apr. 6). Sam also saw Mr. Macgowan and Mr. Southard, according to his Apr. 7 to H.H. Rogers.
April 5 Friday – The dinner and gathering at Henry M. Stanley’s ran past midnight into this day. Later in the day Sam likely traveled on to Paris and 169 rue de l’Université to reunite with his family.