June – Sometime during the month, Sam wrote from either Hartford or Elmira to Charles Webster, suggesting the text and layout for business envelopes, which included “Personal Memoires of General Grant” in red ink [MTP].
May 30 Saturday – In Hartford, Sam and Livy wrote to Hattie Gerhardt. Hattie had been ill, so coordinating a visit was the object of this letter, the body by Livy with PS added by Sam.
May 29 Friday – E. Evans wrote a begging letter from London [MTP].
Karl Gerhardt wrote: “Have Woodruff see Mr Green at Tiffany’s. They wish to control the bronze bust—The ‘Courant’ article changed their eyes” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Tiffany wants bust”
Slote, Woodman & Co. wrote sending paper and gum samples “as we understand your description given us yesterday” [MTP].
May 28 Thursday – In Hartford, Sam also wrote to Karl Gerhardt, answering a letter of May 27. Paraphrase: “Answered him with ‘No’—with thanks” [MTP]. From Sam’s notebook:
“May 28—At Western Union building was introduced to Jay Gould & lunched with his son. Damned insignificant looking people” [MTNJ 3: 155-6].
May 27 Wednesday – From New York City, Sam wrote a letter of introduction for Charles Webster to take with him overseas, in the securing of foreign publishers for the Grant book. Although Grant owned the foreign rights to the memoirs, Sam wanted to establish contracts with foreign publishers to protect copyright. This letter was not to any specific person [MTP].
From Sam’s notebook:
May 26 Tuesday – Joel Chandler Harris’ unsigned review of Huck Finn ran in the Atlanta Constitution (p4, cols 2-3) [Griska 585]. In answering those critics who had followed lockstep with the Concord Library’s indictment of the book as “coarse, crude and inartistic,” Harris pointed out the falseness of that view and the true value of the book:
May 25 Monday – In his notebook, Sam drafted a letter in German in response to a letter from her sister asking if Rosina Hay, their ex-governess, was still alive. Sam answered of course she was still alive, happily married and now Mrs. Horace Terwilliger, Elmira New York. The letter may not have been sent. [MTNJ 3: 150 & n78].
In his Autobiography, this date is given for more dictation about Grant’s book, and the startling fact that without advertising, Sam wrote:
May 23 Saturday – The Graphic (London) ran a notice:
“Humourists will delight in ‘The Mark Twain Birthday Book,” edited by ‘E.O.S.’ (Remington), which contains excerpts from Mr. Clemens’ writings. Each day is allotted several sentences, presumably summarising the character of the person who writes his name on the opposite page, such as ‘A Meddling Old Clam,’ or ‘She was attractively attired in her new and beautiful false teeth’” [Tenney].
May 22 Friday – Sam typed a letter from Hartford to Orion in Keokuk, Iowa, admonishing him not to send “any letter from the Gogginses or anybody else,” that he had no “interest in relatives born to me,” due to the fact that such interest required correspondence.
CORRESPONDENCE IS THE CURSE AND BANE OF MY LIFE, AND I CAN’T BEAR THE THOUGHT OF YOUR DIGGING UP RELATIVES GRATUITOUSLY TO ADD TO IT.
May 21 Thursday – Karl Gerhardt wrote to Sam & Livy: great hopes for Josie’s getting well; more about the Grant busts—he offered to sell “outright my share of royalty in Grant bust (Terra Cotta) for $10,000…and cancellation of indebtedness to you, reserving the right to withdraw this proposition after June 15, 1885, is that fair?” [MTP].