December 14 Friday – In Hartford, Sam inscribed 1601, Conversation As It Was By the Social Fireside in the Time of the Tudors to George Iles (1852-1942), American author and editor in Montreal. “Dear Iles— I beg a thousand pardons, but I had forgotten all about it. / . Truly Yours / S L C. / Dec 14/83” [MTP].
December 13 Thursday – Karl Gerhardt wrote; only the envelope survives [MTP].
December 10 Monday – Chatto & Windus wrote thanking him for Osgood’s memorandum on LM. Much of the letter is smeared and illegible [MTP].
December 8 Saturday – Joe Goodman wrote Sam, praising LM. and offering other news:
December 4 Tuesday – Sam’s letter which argued for changing the under-construction Statue of Liberty into one for Adam ran on page 2 of the New York Times [Budd, “Collected” 1020].
MARK TWAIN AGGRIEVED.
WHY A STATUE OF LIBERTY WHEN WE HAVE ADAM!
December 3 Monday – Howells wrote to explain his inability to leave for Hartford—his sister, Annie Howells Fréchette was coming with her two little children. He offered a few more ideas for the Sellers play and expressed hope that Raymond would agree to play the part. He told of Cable’s lectures at Chickering Hall in Boston on Nov. 26 and 28 and holding a “blow out” for him [MTHL 1: 452-4].
December 1 Saturday ca. – About this day, Sam also wrote to the Bartholdi Pedestal Fund, a group raising money for the base of the Statue of Liberty [MTP]. The letter ran in the Dec. 3 edition of the New York Times (see Dec. 3 entry).
November 30 Friday – Sam’s 48th birthday. He wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster. Sam and Howells had written a new play, American Claimant, and though Sam didn’t really want to hire John T. Raymond again, he realized the benefit of doing so. Yet, he did not fully trust Raymond.
November 29 Thursday – Dora Knowlton “a stranger to you” and an actress, wrote from NYC to ask if he’d allow her to dramatize P&P [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Can’t / P&P”
November 27 Tuesday – Livy’s 38th birthday.