March 26 Friday – David Watt Bowser wrote from Dallas to thank Sam for answering his letter. Laura Hawkins Dake, his teacher, was “so glad that you are such a famous man, and that you remember her so kindly, for she remembers you as the best friend of her youth” [MTP].
March 25 Thursday – Sam’s letter to Mary Keily of Feb. 21 ran in the Towanda Pennsylvania Reporter, page one [MTLE 5: 24]. Note: why it was published is not clear, except that Mark Twain was now so famous and well known, that nearly any letter from him made news.
March 24 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells, thanking him for his complementary letter of Mar. 22. Howells’ letter and Sam’s response:
March 23 Tuesday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam, clipping enclosed from the Keokuk Gate City from Mar. 23 about a gold strike in Silver Cliff, Colo.
March 22 Monday – In Boston, Howells wrote to Sam about the “charm and the solid delightfulness” of A Tramp Abroad.
Well, you are a blessing. You ought to believe in God’s goodness, since he has bestowed upon the world such a delightful genius as yours to lighten its troubles [MTHL 1: 293].
William Haskell Simpson (1858-1933) wrote on Univ. of Kansas Chancellor’s Office, Lawrence, Kansas letterhead.
March 21 Sunday – An unknown boy wrote from Chicago to Sam; only the envelope survives [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “A Boy’s Request”
March 20 Saturday – This was the approximate issue date for A Tramp Abroad. Sam wrote from Hartford to Elisha Bliss. Sam liked the look of the book, but noted that both Roughing It and Gilded Age sold “nearly double as many copies, in this length of time, so I imagine the Canadians have been working us heavy harm.” He was also glad the newspapers hadn’t knocked the book.
March 19 Friday – Susy Clemens’ eighth birthday.
Sam’s Mar. 19 letter to Texas schoolboy, David Watt Bowser, includes the sentence, “I wrote all day yesterday…on the fifteenth chapter of a story for boys entitled ‘The Little Prince & the Little Pauper,’ —laid in the time of Edward VI of England…” [MTP].
March 18 Thursday – Emma J. Stafford wrote to Sam asking for a letter for their church “Evening with Mark Twain” as they’d done with several other famous men [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “No. A heavy curse fall on the particular devil who invented this most offensive form of persecution. / SLC”
March 16 Tuesday – In Hartford, Sam wrote a long inscription to Twichell in a copy of A Tramp Abroad, marking various pages where things happened, pointing out how imagination had “preposterously expanded” some things.
“We had a mighty good time, Joe, & the 6 weeks I would dearly like to repeat, any time—but the rest of the 14 months, never. With love, Yours, Mark” [MTLE 5: 45].