April 26 Saturday – Charles Webster wrote to Clemens: office stationery printed; would hold the drawings for him to see on Tuesday; Howells suggestion to print a book “about the adventures of a young country boy in Boston” in the fall; paper costs; Osgood money; office rent contract; Raubs trial postponed [MTP].
April 25 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster. He planned to go to New York City “next Tuesday” (Apr. 29) and stay at the Brunswick Hotel. He wanted Webster to either meet him there or at Laurence Hutton’s in the evening. Sam enclosed 300 shares of Oregon Trans-Continental stock, which he eventually took a huge loss on. Sam bought it at 73 and it was now worth only 15 or 16.
April 24 Thursday – Richard Watson Gilder wrote to Clemens with Mrs. Burnett’s suggestion about the story project (5 tales from 5 authors) [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “My skeleton novelettes”
April 22 Tuesday – From Hartford Sam replied to Charles Webster’s Apr. 21. He wanted the raft chapter, which was used in LM, “left wholly out” of HF. He badgered Webster about getting official pledges, called “acceptances” out of Osgood for money owed.
April 21 Monday – George E. Waring wrote to ask Sam to send him a copy of “Ambulina” [MTP]. Note: see Feb. 18 entry on Ambulina.
April 20 Sunday – Back home in Hartford, Sam wrote to Edgar W. Howe, reporting that Howells was “drunk with admiration of your book,” The Story of a Country Town (1883).
“As T.B. Aldrich was present during one whole evening [on the recent trip to Boston], & had to listen to so much talk about a book which he has not seen, he naturally got pretty well filled up with curiosity” [MTP].
April 19 Saturday – Lucius Seth Huntington wrote to Clemens, more about her book of the lost child. She asked for a letter from him to any press people, and she’d send him advance sheets [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Let press people alone / troublesome Huntington”
April 18 Friday – Charles Webster wrote to Clemens: rec’d MS all right (HF?); unable to find Parsloe or Aldrich; Osgood was there, Howells the next day [MTP].
April 17 Thursday – Sam and Livy were scheduled to travel to Boston on this day and be entertained at the Aldrich home (see Apr. 10 entry). They may have gone on Apr. 16 as Sam wrote to his mother, Jane Clemens, on Apr.15. See Apr. 22 for Twichell’s journal entry for Apr. 17.
April 16 Wednesday – In his letter to Aldrich of Apr. 10, Sam cited a dinner engagement with that he and Livy could not get out of for this evening, where they were to “meet some strangers who will be unmeetable later.”
Sam wrote a one-liner to Charles Webster: “Find out where Parsloe is, & drop a line & tell him I’ve got a play to show him which may possibly suit him & Louis Aldrich” [MTP].