December 26 Wednesday – Sam also telegraphed from Hartford to Charles Webster: “Get up here before new years any day will do” [MTP].
U.M. wrote (no further name given) [MTP].
December 25 Tuesday – Christmas – In Hartford, Sam, acting for Susy and Clara Clemens inscribed a book? to Margaret Warner [MTP].
Sam inscribed a copy of Howard Pyle’s Yankee Doodle, An Old Friend in a New Dress (1881) to daughter Jean Clemens:” Merry Christmas / to the Only Jean / from Papa / 1884” [Gribben 565].
December 24 Monday – Annie M. Barnes for Atlanta Acanthus wrote asking what he’d like to do for their juvenile publication enterprise [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Beggary”
December 23 Sunday – Orion and Mollie Clemens wrote to Clemens & Livy: who was Ben? Christmas presents & wishes [MTP]. Note: “Ben” was a nickname for Clara.
December 21 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James R. Osgood, offering a rare apology for his remarks. Evidently, he had questioned Osgood’s integrity. Powers points out that sales of LM “languished at 30,000 copies” [MT A Life, 469]. In a letter now lost, Sam accused Osgood of mismanaging the book. Osgood was “astonished” and defended himself; he’d written on Dec.
December 20 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster about a gift Livy was purchasing for her mother [MTBus 230].
Sam also wrote to Howells with the idea to write “a tragedy” together for the new Sellers play and enclosed a scene based on Thomas Carlyle’s Oliver Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches.
December 19 Wednesday – Sam wrote two letters from Hartford to Charles Webster. The first enclosed $271 and asked him to go to George Jones (editor of the N.Y. Times) and ask for the same amount and tell him that it’s an interview and that Sam wants to “build a magazine article & get that money back without any trouble.” Samuel Webster calls this mystery “intriguing.” Sam’s second letter may explain:
December 18 Tuesday – Clemens sent $3,000 to Worden & Co.; letter not extant; referenced in Dec. notes on Worden’s letter.
December 17 Monday – Sam took a train for Boston, where he spent a day or two with Howells [MTHL 1: 454n2]. In his Dec. 19 letter to Webster,
“I went to Boston, but I had no ‘business’ to talk, & didn’t talk any” [MTBus 229]
December 15 Saturday – Worden & Co. wrote requesting $2,500 as “additional margin” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Sent $3000 Dec. 18”
M.U. wrote from Hartford urging Clemens “to turn away from your vanities, and seek with all earnestness the Lord God of Hosts” [MTP] Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Religious fanatic / Self-righteous Rot"