January 6 Friday – The Players Club was founded at 1.P.M. in the Red Room at Delmonico’s, New York City. Fatout writes that Sam gave a speech, but this was more of adding comments to the others, all speaking informally from their chairs after the lunch.
January 5 Thursday – Charles J. Langdon wrote a note that the Cone Bonds had been received and a check was enclosed, no amount given [MTP].
January 4 Wednesday – L.W. Gage wrote a jumbled postcard to Sam asking for his “best book in publication for good sound reading” [MTP].
Webster & Co. Per Arthur H. Wright enclosed three letters to and from Chatto & Windus regarding the forthcoming Library of Humor [MTP].
January 3 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Augustin Daly:
Schon gut! I’ll be there [MTP].
From Sam’s notebook: Bal., Jan 3/88 — 13,293.28 [MTNJ 3: 362].
Stocks and./or bonds were returned to Charles J. Langdon for the Clearfield Bituminous Coal Corp. [Apr. 3, 1891 to Kelly]. See also July 11, 1889.
January 2 Monday – London Pall Mall Gazette, p.4 ran a paragraph about the recent exchange between Sam and Brander Matthews over copyright. Items from London writers often lend a different perspective on events in Sam’s life.
January 1 Sunday – In Hartford a first issue of the first edition of Mark Twain’s Library of Humor, Illustrated by Edward Windsor Kemble, was signed, “Mark Twain, Hartford, Jan. 1, 1888.” This edition contained the first appearance of “Warm Hair” by Sam, but his name was erased from the heading of the sketch in later editions, as if he was not the author. Inserted in this edition was a facsimile of the “Compiler’s Apology”:
January – Die Meisterschaft, a 3-act bilingual play Sam wrote in 1886-7 for family entertainment ran with a few changes in Century Magazine [MTNJ 3: 333n95].
December 31 Saturday – In the morning, Sam left Hartford for New York, and “another troublesome dinner,” which he referred to in his Dec. 28 letter to Webster.
In the evening, Sam read a story (unknown) at the Author’s Club, Watch Night [Fatout, MT Speaking 657].
New York newspapers, including the Brooklyn Eagle, p.2 announced the January Century Magazine would contain,
December 30 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote to James B. Pond, calling himself the “burnt child” who “shuns the fire” — he didn’t want the “remotest thing to do with a Hartford entertainment again.”
I think too much of the profession to help it hurt itself here [MTP].
December 29 Thursday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Webster & Co. That it would be best not to bind the Custer book just yet as it could not be canvassed; the better use of the money was elsewhere [MTP].
Meanwhile, Charles Webster answered Sam’s suggestion of Dec. 28 that he take a $800 hit on his salary to hire W.E. Dibble: