February 24 Saturday – In Fairhaven, Mass. Sam woke at 8:30 a.m. and breakfasted. Afterward he and H.H. Rogers went down to the Millicent Library.

…it was bitter cold — thermometer 5° below zero. He asked me if I would do him a favor. I said he couldn’t mention anything I wouldn’t attempt. The favor he wanted was that I should write a letter to put under the engraving of me which is to be hung up in the room dedicated to authors, & which is to be the first one hung there.

February 23 Friday – At mid-day in Fairhaven, Mass., Sam wrote to Livy, relating the events of the past two days there (see Feb 21-22). Sam would skip a mid-day dinner choosing to eat in the evening. He wanted to save himself for another dance, expected to dance all night, and wished she was there. He related a conversation he had yesterday during a walk with Rogers, who offered to give him a vacant lot in Fairhaven if he’d build a home on it.

February 22 Thursday – In Fairhaven Mass., Sam was up at 9 a.m. had breakfast, and “superintended a while” in the setup for the dedication ceremony. He then rested until noon while H.H. Rogers worked to complete the preparations.

At 1 o’clock he [Rogers] went to his mother’s house (she is in her 84th year, & took her to the hall ahead of the crowd; the family left here for the hall at 1.30, & Mr. Rogers & I walked down at near 2. The place was crammed, of course.

February 21 Wednesday – In New York at the Players Club Sam’s wakeup call came at 8 a.m. He’d packed his valise before going to bed so had nothing to do except have coffee and shave. He went to the station and met Mrs. Annie Rogers with her sister and brother-in-law the Grinnells.

February 20 Tuesday – In New York at the Players Club, Sam wrote to Livy. The first part of the letter is lost. What remains opens with notes about a conference with Rogers:

He is fast coming to the opinion that I had better assume the debts & close up the concern [Webster & Co.] & turn over my own books to the Century Co on the best terms I can get. They want my books badly, but don’t value any of the others.

February 19 Monday – In Paris, Livy cabled Sam that daughter Susy was better [Feb. 20 to Livy]. Frederick J. Hall located the lost MS, “In Defense of Harriet Shelley,” [Feb. 20 to Livy] which Paine calls “one of the very best of his essays” [MTLP 590]. See also MTB 988. Note: North American Review would publish the essay in July 1894.

February 18 Sunday – The New York Times, p.2 “City and Vicinity” announced that “Mark Twain” and James Whitcomb Riley would give readings in Madison Square Garden on the evenings of Feb. 26 and 27.

In the evening in New York on Players Club stationery, Sam answered an invitation to breakfast (not extant) from Frank Fuller. Yes, he changed his program each time he gave it but didn’t know whether James Whitcomb Riley did or not; he hadn’t seen Riley.

February 17 Saturday – In New York Sam responded to a note of invitation from Helena de Kay Gilder (Mrs. Richard Watson Gilder). He’d not answered sooner because he anticipated seeing her the previous night, and was “at work nearly all night the night before [Feb. 15] on a gigantic letter to Mrs. Clemens.” Evidently, the event he was invited to was past, as he ended wishing he might have “better luck next time” [MTP].

February 16 Friday – Sam’s notebook in N.Y.:

Feb. 16. An ostensible gentleman sat at table in the grill room this morning & struggled with the excrement in his head, trying to cough it out, bark it out, snort it out, snuffle it out, hawk it out, till I was so sick that I was obliged to ask him if he wouldn’t please go to the privy & finish [NB 33 TS 56].

February 15 Thursday – At 11:30 p.m. at the New York Players Club, Sam wrote another long letter to Livy. Near the end he outlined the day’s activities:

It has been a mighty busy day. I had myself called at 9. At 10 I was down at Mr. Rogers’s office.

Samuel Clemens, H.H. Rogers, and J.M. Shoemaker met again to plan the sale of stock in the new Illinois company, the Paige Compositor Co.