February 26 Sunday – Charles H. Clark for Hartford Courant wrote to ask Sam’s advice. He’d been invited by a friend in London to join him for 4 or 5 weeks. Clark had never been abroad. Did Clemens think he might get some work done on board? [MTP]. Note: this may be on the Encyclopedia Of Humor
February 25 Saturday – Christian Tauchnitz, Jr. wrote: “Accept my best thanks for your amiable letter of the 18th of January…” He’d paid £75 on Dec. 5 to Chatto & Windus for the right to publish P&P on the continent, and asked about the binding Sam preferred [MTP]. Note in file: “SLC replies to this on 30 March 1882 (see Tauchnitz to SLC, 15 April 1882) / Postmark on back of envelope may be Feb 25”
February 24 Friday – Sam gave a reading at Twichell’s Asylum Hill Congregational Church, Hartford, Reported in Hartford Courant, Feb. 25, page 3: “Additional City News” [Schmidt].
February 23 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Edward House. Koto left her shawl behind and Livy was getting it ready to mail as Sam typed the letter.
February 22 Wednesday – In Hartford, Sam inscribed a portrait of himself to an unidentified person: “There isn’t any merit in doing a thing which it is a pleasure to do: & therefore none is claimed by / Ys Truly / SL. Clemens / (Mark Twain) / Hartford, Feb. 22, 1882” [MTP].
February 21 Tuesday – From Hartford, Sam typed a letter to Lieutenant Charles Wood at West Point. Wood had mentioned “Miss Terese Blackburn, a charming Kentucky schoolgirl,” who was anxious for a “genuine talk” with Mark Twain.
February 20 Monday – M.B. Bennett wrote from Cleveland to ask Sam “events of his life” for their club [MTP].
February 19 Sunday – In Hartford, Sam wrote to an unidentified person:
“The expression of the reverence & admiration which I feel for our great poet could not be compressed into the narrow limits of a toast or a ‘sentiment;’ so I will not make the attempt. / Ys Truly / Mark Twain” [MTP]. Note: in what appears to be another hand, in pencil at the top: “Re: Longfellow.”
February 18 Saturday – According to the New York Times, page 8 under “PERSONAL INTELLIGENCE,” Sam was staying at the Hotel Brunswick. Note: Sam may have thrown off the Times by some sort of ruse—the Clemens family stayed at the Gilsey House; see bill at end of this entry.
February 17 Friday – A.A. Vantine & Co., New York, billed Livy $29.75 for “1 set tea toys[?], 2 trays, 5 boxes magic flowers”; paid same day [MTP]. Note: This purchase by Livy and the Feb. 18 Times notation (see entry) support the idea that Sam and Livy made another trip to New York sometime after Feb. 12, (at least by the Feb. 14 purchase of glass case) and returned by Feb. 19.