May 28 Saturday – In Hartford Sam responded to a request from Sylvester Baxter of the Boston Herald and chipped in $50 to a fund to help Walt Whitman build a summer cottage. Sam gave to a similar collection taken in Aug. 1885 to buy Whitman a horse and buggy (see Aug. 6, 1885 entry) [MTNJ 3: 269n140].
May 27 Friday – In Findlay, Ohio, his old stomping grounds, William Dean Howells wrote Sam all about the recent discovery there of natural gas.
May 25 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Charles Webster.
The new contract has arrived. Livy & I got more business-satisfaction & comprehension out of your visit than any amount of working through third parties could have furnished.
May 24 Tuesday – William M. May wrote from New York asking Sam’s aid in collecting $240 owed him by Karl Gerhardt for the marble portrait he’d done of Henry Ward Beecher; May quoted Gerhardt’s Mar. 19, 1886 response that Sam was responsible for the debt since he directed its creation [MTP].
Charles L. Webster wrote to Sam enclosing a copy of their recent contract [MTP].
Check # Payee Amount [Notes]
May 23 Monday – From Sam’s notebook:
Mrs. Stowe came on the Ombre & said “I am reading the Prince & Pauper for the sixth time.” She asked about such matters & I referred to Perkin Warbeck & Lambert Simnel.
She was already losing her mind [MTNJ 3: 290].
May 21 Saturday – Sam wrote to Richard Watson Gilder, editor of Century Magazine. He’d read three letters written in response to “English As She Is Taught” and suggested Gilder publish a supplement to the article in the Sept. or Oct. issue, including the letters in question.
May 18 Wednesday – Sam had planned to go to New York City [May 11 to Webster] and take Joe Jefferson’s MS for Webster to evaluate. No mention of a trip was made, although one week later, May 25, Sam wrote to Webster about the satisfaction of Webster’s visit, which likely was arranged when Sam could not get away (see May 25 entry).
May 17 Tuesday – Sam had received word from Frank D. Finlay (1838?-1917), which included the news that Finlay’s sons (Frank D. Finlay Jr. and Russell Finlay) were in the military. Sam met Finlay in Belfast, Ireland in 1873, and the two became fast friends (See MTDBD 1: several entries). Sam responded and wrote about a possible business trip to England next fall.
May 16 Monday – Edward H. House and his adopted daughter Koto arrived at the Clemens residence for a visit. House would house-sit the Farmington house while the Clemens family took their annual trek to Quarry Farm, where Sam would continue working on CY while House worked on the dramatization of P&P as encouraged by Sam [A. Hoffman 340].
May 15 Sunday – The Brooklyn Eagle, p.7, “Books & Magazines” included a paragraph on Sam’s latest readings:
Mark Twain is working “English as She is Taught” for all it is worth. He has been reading in public from it in Boston, the first instance, probably, of a joke book put to such a use, unless Artemus Ward and Josh Billings were before him.