December 3 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Pamela Moffett, irritated by Arden Smith’s missed visit of Dec. 2. He couldn’t remember the man at all, and feared he’d been “an envoy from Ella [Lampton].” Smith was staying at the Allyn House, but Sam refused to go back out into the storm.
December 2 Thursday – Arden Smith stopped at Sam’s house in a fifteen minute span when he was returning to the depot to bring a guest back. Sam had left for the wrong train and so went out into a “bitter blizzard” again. Smith, possibly a member of family friends, left this note:
December 1 Wednesday – Charles E. Lewis wrote from Washington, D.C. asking if HF had been dramatized and if was open to negotiating for such a play for a Miss Annie Lewis, an actress who made “a specialty of boys parts.” Miss Lewis was now in an Irish comedy [MTP].
S.C. and L.M. Gould of Notes and Queries with Answers magazine wrote to Sam asking for $1 due and an additional $1 should Sam wish to re-subscribe [MTP].
December – Karl Gerhardt’s statue of Nathan Hale was ready to be cast in bronze. Sam referred to it in his notebook during this month. It would be installed in the Conn. Capitol building on June 14, 1887 [MTNJ 3: 269n139].
November 30 Tuesday – Sam’s 51st Birthday.
In Hartford Sam wrote to James B. Pond, explaining that though they had room for Henry M. Stanley to stay with them while he lectured in Hartford, remodeling made “one of our guest rooms…uninhabitable,” so that Pond would need to stay at a hotel. Sam promised to make up for this with a later invitation for billiards.
November 29 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote a one-line acknowledgment of Webster & Co.’s check for $10,000.
Sam read a story at an Authors Reading event in New York City [Fatout, MT Speaking 657].
Charles P. Green wrote to Sam [MTP]. Green inscribed and sent Sam John Palmer’s Journal of Travels in the United States of North America, and in Lower Canada,…in 1817 (1818):
November 27 Saturday – Livy’s 41st birthday.
Charles Webster wrote to Sam “in great haste” enclosing an unspecified check, and would answer Sam’s letter Monday, Nov. 29 (he wrote on Nov. 30) [MTP].
November 26 Friday – Sam had heard from Edward H. House that both he and Koto were ill. Sam sent a letter of condolence, adding that to be “homeless at the same time — it is simply hell.” House had requested that Sam be the executor of his will, but this was an obligation Sam didn’t feel comfortable with, so he recommended his business agent, Franklin G. Whitmore. Beyond this, Sam made no direct offer of help, which suggests he may have had reservations about doing so [MTP].
November 25 Thursday – Thanksgiving – J.M.G. Wood (Jack G. Wood) wrote from White City, La. Wood had sent Sam a sketch; Sam recommended Wood send it to the Century, which he did. “I wish very much to obtain a position with some journal or some literary enterprise.” Sam wrote on the envelope, “Try to get him a literary job” [MTP]. Note: the letter was stamped “Missent” and also postmarked in New London, Conn. See Sept. 8.
November 24 Wednesday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam. Fanning sees Orion suffering from a “deliberate slight” at not being told that Sam was writing Connecticut Yankee. He quotes from the letter: