November 4 Monday – Dean Sage wrote to Sam that Parsons promised to join him the next day on his trip to Hartford to see the typesetter; Parsons would stay at the Allyn House [MTP]. Note: this implies that Sage and wife would stay at the Clemens home.
Clara Spaulding Stanchfield wrote to Sam [MTP]. A card in the MTP file says this letter “missing as of 1-87”
November 3 Sunday – William Dean Howells spent the day as Sam’s guest. He likely read the first part of his short experimental novel soon to be published in Harper’s, The Shadow of a Dream (Mar.-May 1890) [MTHL 2: 618n1].
Howard P. Taylor wrote to Sam that he’d called several times at Webster & Co. but failed to catch him in.
November 2 Saturday – William Dean Howells wrote his father, “I am going down to spend Sunday with Mark Twain…” [MTHL 2: 618 n1].
Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam that he was “stirring up our general agents…Yesterday, November 1st — which was by the way my twenty-ninth birthday — we sent out 500 volumes Sheridan; 680 volumes Literature [LAL]; secured an order from Watson Gill for 2500 more Grant…” Monthly report enclosed but not extant [MTP].
November 1 Friday – Colonel John M. Wilson, Superintendent at West Point wrote to Sam:
Since I had the pleasure of meeting you in Washington, I have been assigned to the command of this post, and I am anxious to do something this winter for the entertainment of the Cadets.
November – Sam and Charles Webster wrote to New York Governor David Hill) urging that Frank M. Scott, former bookkeeper at Webster & Co., serving a six-year sentence for embezzling, be pardoned [MTNJ 3: 497n49]. Up until this time Sam was adamant and hostile for punishment of Scott, so the turnaround suggests someone else’s influence, say Livy’s?
October 31 Thursday – William Dean Howells penciled a postcard to Sam: “I expect to start for Hartford at four o’clock Saturday afternoon. Stop me if you can’t bear it. W.D. Howells” (not in MTHL) [MTP].
October 30 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Bruce Weston Munro, who as a 21-year-old hopeful writer in 1881, contacted Sam for advice and occasionally sent him writing to review. He evidently did so again because Sam responded:
I’m going to read the preface sure — & you have the word of an honest man for it [MTP].
Note: Sam never offered much to Munro in the way of advice, which may say something about his opinion of Munro’s writing. See also Mar. 17, 1887.
October 29 Tuesday – Frederick J. Hall wrote, “The Yankee is all in type.” Complete sheets were printed by Nov. 15; Last week’s report enclosed (not extant); “As you will seeby these reports, we have been taking in considerable money, and of course, our expenses now are heavy, as we are manufacturing both the Conkling book and your book [CY], putting most of our energies on your book. As yet the money returns from these works are not very heavy” [MTLTP 258n2; MTP].
October 28 Monday – In Hartford Sam responded to Howells’ letter of the day before:
Don’t be afraid. As I have given my word to the canvassers that my book will be out & in their hands Dec. 10, nothing can stop it from coming out on that date. It is true I have a passion for lying to rich people, but I do not lie to men who get their bread by thankless hard work [MTHL 2: 617].
October 27 Sunday – William Dean Howells wrote again, unable to come for the visit he’d planned.
I am awfully sorry to put myself off; but we are blistering under the curse of house-hunting, and till something is decided, we are mere shrieks of agony. May I ask myself on a little later?
The book is glorious — simply noble. What masses of virgin truth never touched in print before!
Would the book make it out by Dec. 20? He didn’t want to “make a fool of the Study” [MTHL 2: 617].