September 17 Wednesday – Sam wrote two letters to Howells. Even though Howells wrote on Sept. 15 and had not commented on Sam’s opinion of Blaine and Cleveland, Sam didn’t let the subject go.
September 16 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Joe Twichell, who evidently had written recently.
On the contrary, the summer has been lost time to me. I spent several weeks in the dental chair, coming down the hill every day for the purpose; then I made a daily trip during several more weeks to a doctor to be treated for catarrh & have my palate burnt off. The remnant of the season I wasted in ineffectual efforts to work. I haven’t a paragraph to show for my summer.
September 15 Monday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster. John T. Raymond had backed out of doing the new Sellers play. The heliotype was acceptable to Sam at a cost of two cents each. Livy had been:
“…sick—is sick—& will not be able to travel for a week or ten days yet. Keep the Sellers play in your safe until I am done with the platform—then I will send for it & turn it into a novel” [MTP].
September 14 Sunday – James B. Pond wrote to Clemens [MTP].
September 13 Saturday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster.
“The bust was made in Elmira & is just finished. The photos were taken here & I have the negatives myself. But do nothing in the matter unless you find advantage for us in it. —I thought it would advantage the book” [MTP].
Charles Webster wrote twice on various business matters [MTP].
September 12 Friday – In Boston, Howells wrote to Sam having finished Sellers final speech, though he wasn’t “proud of it.” Some bad news about his opera, the manager had fallen and died getting on his yacht and Howells didn’t “know whether it will go on or not” [MTHL 2: 505]. Note: the opera was A Sea-Change and was finally performed in 1929, nine years after Howells’ death, by the BBC.
September 11 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Karl Gerhardt, advising him to let some unspecified matter “wait till another time.” Livy was “sick, & we may be here 10 or 12 days yet” [MTP]. Note: the matter to wait might have been Gerhardt’s bill, which upset Clemens on Sept. 9.
A. Edwards, Hartford billed and receipted Sam $25 for “Pasturing 1 pr. Horses 10 weeks at $2.50 pr week” [MTP].
September 10 Wednesday – Sam wrote Buffalo Bill Cody: “I have now seen your Wild West show two days in succession, and have enjoyed it thoroughly. It brought back vividly the breezy, wild life of the great plains, and the Rocky Mountains and stirred me like a war song” [MTP].
George W. Cable wrote to Clemens that he was leaving for Saratoga where he would read there the following day. On Friday he would return to Simsbury ready to meet Sam & Livy. “We shall greet you with a hurrah” [MTP].
September 9 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster, sending what he thought looked like a bill for “more hellfired statuary.” Gerhardt had “just gone to Philadelphia. I wish it was in hell. / If this is a bill, step in there & pay it. It looks like a bill” [MTP]. Gerhardt had made the trip to cast the bust in bronze (Sept. 16 to Twichell).
September 8 Monday – Sam wrote a short note from Elmira to George Iles, the Canadian editor.
“You have my best thanks; & when Pond has fixed my dates I will drop you a line; & shall hope that they fall as you have suggested” [MTP].