April 18 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Livy at the Radnor House, Bryn Mawr College, Penn.
Livy darling, Your welcome letter came, & I have talked to Jean & forbidden her to see Bessie to-day.
I am just home from the dancing-class, where I spent an hour & a half. It was very enjoyable. Jean danced well.
The Bryn Mawr packer left all of Susie’s things in the desk when he packed it. You can divine the result.
April 16 Thursday – According to Sam’s Apr. 23 to Kravchinsky, Livy left this day for Bryn Mawr College to retrieve Susy since the family was leaving for Europe in early June. She may have traveled with a servant or with Mrs. Beach, as before. See entry.
In Hartford Sam wrote a short note of introduction for Sergei Mikhailovich Kravchinski to Richard Watson Gilder of the Century [MTP].
April 15 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam sent a note to Joe Twichell:
Dear Joe —
Stepniak is spending the evening with us — an interesting man. Come over, won’t you [MTP]. Note: Sam’s spelling for the pen name of Sergei Mikhailovich Kravchinski.
April 14 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall, stressing that the news he was giving was to be kept to himself.
…we are going to Europe in June, for an indefinite stay. We shall sell the horses & shut up the house. We wish to provide a place for our coachman [Patrick McAleer] who has been with us 21 years, & is sober, active, diligent, & unusually bright & capable [MTP].
April 13 Monday – Arthur Crabtree wrote from New Britain, Conn. inviting Sam and Livy to an “exhibition of fancy dancing” on Apr. 28. Sam wrote on the envelope, “No answer, I think” [MTP].
April 12 Sunday – Sergei M. Stepnyak (Sergei Mikhailovich Kravchinski), a Russian revolutionary, wrote to Sam from the Alvorton Hotel in Boston, including a brief letter of introduction (Apr. 11) from William Dean Howells. Stepnyak asked if he might call on Sam when he passed through Hartford in a few days [MTHL 2: 643n1].
April 11 Saturday – Howells sent a brief letter of introduction for Sergei M. Stepnyak (Sergei Mikhailovich Kravchinski). “I am sure you and he will not fail to be great friends” [MTHL 2: 643]. The source notes identify Kravchinski as a “Russian Nihilist and exile,” who wrote under the pseudonym Stepnyak (Often spelled Stepniak). In Nov. 1888, Howells had issued a positive review of Stepnyak’s The Russian Peasant. Stepnyak lectured on Siberian exiles, Tolstoi, and the need for revolution in Russia [n1].
April 10 Friday – Sam had received a phonograph from the New England Phonograph Co., but it came with a repaired seal to a battery. Franklin G. Whitmore wrote for Sam that the battery had been shipped back for replacement [MTP].
April 9 Thursday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall asking him to:
…ransack your safe for my old contracts with American Publishing Co. and if you can’t find them require them of Webster, who has without doubt carted them off in obedience to his native disposition to smouch all unwatched property. I think the contracts may enable me to forbid those people to issue cheap editions without my privity and consent…We will issue cheap editions — especially if they do not approve [MTLTP 271-2].
April 8 Wednesday – Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam’s about Frank Bliss’s Apr. 4 letter which objected to the issuance of a cheap edition of HF: