February 8 Tuesday – William A. Wood, atty. in Kingston, Mo. wrote to Sam, again pestering him for a copy of IA which Wood claimed had been promised. It would seem this time Sam never opened the letter, and someone later (Paine?) did so [MTP].
February 7 Monday – Western Union bill of Feb. 28 shows a message sent to New York, recipient unspecified.
Pamela Moffett wrote to Sam, noting she’d rec’d two letters from him on Feb. 6, and thanked him and Mr. Chamberlaine for their interest in Sammy Moffett, who was in Calif. She told of more friction with Ella Lampton—Orion was charmed by her but Mollie not so much. Ma sent her love… [MTP].
February 6 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James R. Osgood, announcing that Livy had informed him he was “going to the Papyrus orgie.”
“A remark of that sort, emanating from that quarter, has this resemblance to the moving of the precious question: it is not debatable” [MTP].
February 4 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells, who wrote on Jan. 17 that he was “heartily in for” the “Encyclopedia of Humor” project, if he could gain from $3-5,000 for his work, preferably the higher amount as it was “somehow more attractive to the imagination.” Sam wrote:
February 3 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to his sister Pamela Moffett, enclosing a letter from Augustus P. Chamberlaine, which recommended a California adviser for Samuel Moffett on his trip west, one Charles Hoar. Sam wrote “We are thriving here…” [MTP].
February 2 Wednesday – William Dean Howells ended his twelve-year run with Atlantic Monthly. Thomas Bailey Aldrich succeeded him. Henry Oscar Houghton gained control of the Atlantic. Howells would sign a contract with Sam’s new publisher, James R. Osgood, Howells to produce one novel a year plus shorter pieces for $7,500 annually.
February 1 Tuesday – Livy and Clara Spaulding went to the Gerhardts; they fell in love with the young couple and invited them to dinner a few nights later [MTLP 399].
February – Sam inscribed a copy of John Marshall’s (1818-1891) Anatomy for Artists (1878) to Karl Gerhardt, dating the inscription [Gribben 453].
Florence Finch’s (later Kelly) article, “Two American Humorists” ran in The Family Defender Magazine, p. 76-8. Finch compared Mark Twain with Artemus Ward:
January 31 Monday – Sam and his servant Patrick McAleer went to the Gerhardt apartment on “the second story of a little wooden house.” Sam inspected a statue of a young woman nude to the waist holding up a towel, “the expression attempted being a modified scare—she was interrupted when about to enter the bath.” (The work was titled “Startled Bather.”) It then became evident that the young wife Hattie Gerhardt had been the model for the statue.
January 30 Sunday – Based on Saturday Jan. 29 being “three weeks” prior, and from Sam’s account to Howells of Feb. 21, this is the day Charles Warner came to dinner at the Clemens’ home and urged Sam to help Hattie Gerhardt (b. 1863) [MTLP 397].