January 22 Saturday – Sam and Livy returned to Hartford, Sam playing whist (probably with Irving Bacheller and others) while Livy rested in the “palace car” [Jan. 25 to Bacheller].

January 21 Friday – Sam went to New York with Livy, (or perhaps the day before), judging from his letter to Batcheller on Jan. 25 that reveals his return on Saturday, Jan. 22.

January 20 Thursday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Rev. C.D. Crane (1849- ) of New Castle Maine, who had written asking three questions: what were the best books he might recommend for boys, for girls? And also what Everett Emerson calls the “desert island question” — that is, which books would Sam save if he could only save a few? (Crane’s incoming not extant.) Crane was evidently polling various authors for their choices for the purpose of publishing the results, since Sam wrote again on Jan.

January 19 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Charles Webster about the Henry Ward Beecher biography and the status of William Thompson Walters’ art book, which William Mackay Laffan had suggested. Sam wanted to limit an advance to $5,000 for Beecher, and $1,000 to James B. Pond, who was Beecher’s tour manager [MTP]. (See Jan.

January 18 Tuesday – Sam telegraphed Worden, Webb & Co., N.Y. stockbrokers, with a buy order for 100 shares of WV at $80 [Jan. 19. from Worden].

Charles Webster wrote from the office in N.Y.:

Pond was just in and says Beecher has placed the whole thing absolutely in his hands, both the Life of Christ and the autobiography [MTP]. See also MTLTP 212n1&2.

January 17 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Belle C. Greene of Nashua N.H. about her book.

In my judgment the Sketches are pretty good, but not very good. But mind, now, don’t make the mistake of overvaluing my opinion; for I am the oyster who said (& continues to say) that “Helen’s Babies” was the very worst & most witless book the great & good God Almighty ever permitted to go to press in the world — & behold, it has sold 200,000 copies, & is far from dead yet [MTP].

January 16 Sunday – The Brooklyn Eagle, p.9 ran an article from a Toledo, Ohio newspaper about a rags to riches in reverse story, and a connection with Sam that has yet to be verified:

FROM WEALTH TO A WORKHOUSE

A Man Distinguished in War and in Journalism Sentenced as a Tramp

Cincinnati, O., January 15

January 15 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Brown & Gross, Hartford Bookseller, ordering Thomas Babington Macaulay’s History of England (1869) and John Richard Green’s one-volume version of A Short History of the English People; both books in half-morocco [MTP; Gribben 274 & 437]. See Jan. 20.

January 14 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote to his sister, Pamela Moffett. This letter confirms the short trip to New York, probably to escort Olivia Lewis Langdon on the first leg of her trip to Elmira.

January 13 Thursday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Charles Webster, excited about a new book possibility, that of William Thompson Walters, proposed by William Mackay Laffan — a full color art book. Walters was “a Baltimore merchant and railroad and steamship developer,” who had a “vast art collection” [MTNJ 3: 273n157].