May – William Dean Howells ran a very favorable review of A Tramp Abroad in the May issue of the Atlantic Monthly. Also, Sam’s “Speech at the Holmes Breakfast” ran in a supplement.

His opinions are no longer the opinions of the Western American newly amused and disgusted at the European difference, but the Western American’s impressions on being a second time confronted with the things he has had time to think over. This is the serious undercurrent of the book… [Wells 23].

April 30 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Miss Mary Russell Perkins, confirming the identity of the “poet lariat,” a label first heard in his Nevada days, but which he later applied to Bloodgood H. Cutter (1817-1906), a passenger on the Quaker City excursion, because Dr. Edward Andrews “distorted the phrase ‘Poet Laureate’ into Poet Lariat” [MTNJ 1: 334n77]:

April 29 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells about sending a copy of the proposed Atlantic piece “A Telephonic Conversation” to an English magazine. Sam enclosed a copy “enveloped & stamped for transmission at the proper time”. Publication of an article first in America and soon after in England would cover copyright considerations.

April 28 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Lucius Fairchild, congratulating him on being named U.S. minister to Spain [Rees 8; MTLE 5: 88]. Sam related missing a visit with Fairchild’s brother Charles in Boston during their recent weeklong stay there. Sam enclosed a photograph of himself and recalled the “good times we had that day at St.

April 27 Tuesday – Evelyn S. Allen, “plain cook” wrote from Buffalo, NY.

April 26 Monday – Sam gave a reading “at a private house” of “A Telephonic Conversation” in Hartford. (See Apr. 23 entry) [MTLE 5: 85; MTPO]. The piece ran in the June 1880 issue of the Atlantic [Budd, “Collected” 1018].

April 25 Sunday – Howells answered Sam’s letter and submission of Apr. 22:

“My dear Clemens, I sent the Conversation by Telephone to the printers at once, with orders to set it and send you proofs instantly. It is one of the best things you have done and we both think it shows great skill in the treatment of female character. It’s delicious” [MTHL 1: 303].

April 24 Saturday – Sam received an “unillustrated edition” of A Tramp Abroad from Chatto & Windus. He wrote the next day that it was “very handsome, & the proofs were well read” [MTLE 5: 86].

Walter L. Milliken wrote from Boston to ask for Mark Twain’s autograph [MTP].

April 23 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Hjalmar Boyesen. He thanked Boyesen for “those pleasant praises” of A Tramp Abroad, and expressed surprise that the first quarter sales were going “as great as that of any previous book of mine.” Sam told of giving a reading at Twichell’s church.

April 22 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Frank Fuller. He talked of a “vaporizer” investment (“Mr. Furbish’s stimulant”). “About a fortnight hence,” Sam planned to “run down to Washington for a few days, on a sort of copyright-law project.” Would Frank like to go with him? [MTLE 5: 82].