August 1 Sunday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Howells asking him to locate a book at a Boston store for him. He added a short paragraph on the new baby’s progress, saying they’d hoped for twins [MTLE 5: 139].
Sam also wrote to Frank E. Bliss, forwarding a letter and enclosures intended for the American Publishing Co.
August – Sam’s sketch, “Edward Mills and George Benton: A Tale” ran in the August issue of the Atlantic Monthly [Wells 23]. Wilson calls this “a humorless moral tale that satirizes several aspects of nineteenth-century American culture” [68]. $50 check from Houghton, Mifflin & Co. dated Aug. 2 and deposited Aug. 6 for this article is in the MTP, 1880 financial file.
July 31 Saturday – Charles E. Perkins wrote an accounting of Sam’s bank account having deposited $18,392.12 from American Publishing Co. and $386.66 from interest. He paid out $906 to Geo. Warner’s note & interest, 619.54 to Taxes for city town & school; church debt subscription 101.50; Insurance on home 234.25; Mrs. Jane Clemens $50 and Orion $50, for total outgoing of $2,961.29 [MTP].
July 30 Friday – Mary Keily wrote from the Lancaster Insane Asylum, Penn. “I have written to you at one time by the influence of the stars & now I am writing to you by the influence of the thunder.” Another very long, rambling, often incoherent letter from “the lunatic” as Twain called her [MTP].
July 29 Thursday – Susan L. Warner (Mrs. Charles Dudley Warner) (1831?-1921) sent congratulations on the birth of Jean [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Mrs. Warner re Jean’s birth”.
Roger Marvin Griswold, M.D. (1852-1935) wrote from North Manchester, Conn.
Samuel L. Clements [sic], / Hartford, Conn, / Dear Sir:
July 28 Wednesday – Helen Buckingham Mathews (“H.B. Mathers”) wrote to Sam, so “delighted” with TA that she asked if he might “see your way to giving us poor Britishers a mouthful at a time, say in a series of papers or letters …over a few months?” [Vassar]. Note: Mathews (Mathers) was an author in her own right.
July 27 Tuesday – Sam paid a July 17 bill from Estes & Lauriat, Boston publishers and book dealers for a five-volume set of Young Folks’ History of England (1879?) [Gribben 793].
Pamela Moffett wrote to Sam.
July 26 Monday – Livy gave birth to a seven pound baby girl. They named her Jane Lampton Clemens, after Sam’s mother, but from the first she was called Jean. She was the last child Sam and Livy would have. The delivery was without complications; Livy began to recover in a few days [Powers, MT A Life 444]. Sam wrote to Howells about the new baby:
July 24 Saturday – Sophie Degen billed Sam $36.00 for June and July daily milk? Deliveries. Bill marked paid [MTP].
July 23 Friday – Sam wrote from Elmira to his sister, Pamela Moffett. Sam had lumbago (general lower back pain). Evidently a clergyman named Adams had done something outside the bounds of his church rules and Sam offered that the man would be “worsted in his fight” [MTLE 5: 136].
Sam made a $75 loan to Patrick Francis of Bloomfield Conn., who made his “X” mark on the agreement [MTP, 1880 financial file].