April 15 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Henry G. Carleton (unidentified). Evidently Carleton had sent Sam a story for evaluation.
“In my opinion isn’t mainly a ‘humorous work’ at all…it is a fine & stately & beautiful tragedy” [MTP].
Sam also wrote a paragraph to his mother, Jane Clemens:
April 14 Monday – Sam gave a reading of an unfinished paper to be completed by each member at the Hartford Monday Evening Club [Fatout, MT Speaking 656].
April 12 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster, in a rather scolding tone:
“The book is to be issued when a big edition has been sold—& not before…Now write it up somewhere, & keep it in mind; & let us consider that question settled, and done with…Write it up, & don’t forget it any more” [MTBus 248].
April 10 Thursday – Sam wrote from New York City to Thomas Bailey Aldrich about being unable to come to Boston until Thursday next, due to a dinner invitation for Wednesday (Apr. 16), but would plan on being at the Aldrich home about 4 PM on that day [MTP]. Sam purchased a copy of Faust. A Tragedy, translated by Bayard Taylor (1879) [Gribben 264].
April 8 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells.
“It took my breath away, & I haven’t recovered it yet, entirely—I mean the generosity of your proposal to read the proofs of Huck Finn” [MTP].
April 7 Monday – Celeste A. Hendricks wrote from Boston, thanking Sam for his of Apr. 3. “I talked with Mr. Marshall about it and he advised me to go and see you and state my case. / As soon as I have read before critics and managers—I hope to write you again” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “This fool again”
April 6 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster, telling him to “come up & bring the pictures.” He also directed that a cloth P&P and a cloth LM be sent to Mrs. Olmsted’s Southern school or charity [MTP].
April 5 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to the Gerhardts, advising when they return to America, to make some connection with Augustus Saint-Gaudens or John Quincy Adams Ward [MTP].
Sam’s letter to Karl Gerhardt was sold at auction by Sotheby’s on June 19, 2003, and this addition expands the short explanation at the MTP:
A lengthy letter in which Clemens gives the artist advice:
April 3 Thursday – Charles Webster wrote to Clemens: enclosed Am. Exchange stock; Hooper, artist for Life and the Graphic, “a very cheap man” so he gave him 2 chapters on trial to illustrate; Edward W. Kemble quoted $1200; offered to bring drawings up Mon or Tues to see who they would hire [MTP].
April 1 Tuesday – George W. Cable, in a stunt “to pay off his debt of gratitude for his recent entertainment in the Clemens’s home,” [MTB 768-70] arranged for 150 friends of Sam’s to write him on April Fool’s Day requesting his autograph.