June 23, 1879 Monday

June 23 Monday  From Lucius Fairchild’s diary:

“Up in the balloon with Mark Twain – Mrs. Twain, Miss Spaulding & Guilwoodford” [Rees 8].

Mr. & Mrs. Fairchild were also in the balloon, which could accommodate 38 people [MTJ&N 2: 315n50]. See also May 3 entry.

June 17, 1879 Tuesday 

June 17 Tuesday  Sam wrote from Paris to Frank Bliss.

“Please ‘process’ that waiter with the bottle, & a few other of the pictures & send proofs for Brown to judge by” [MTLE 4: 80].

Sam also wrote to his brother-in-law, Charles Langdon, encouraging him to come to Paris. Evidently, Charley wrote he could not come. Sam added that their “present plan is to leave her for London in the first fortnight of July…” [MTLE 4: 81].

June 14, 1879 Saturday 

June 14 Saturday – Sam wrote a short note from Paris to Frank Bliss, this time about the reduction of pictures sent [MTLE 4: 77].

Sam also wrote Lucius Fairchild about tickets for the upcoming balloon trip:

I preferred to draw the line for Sabbath-outrages at horse-racing. I imagined a conversation like this—& it made me shudder.

      St. Peter. How did you come?

June 12, 1879 Thursday

June 12 Thursday  Sam wrote from Paris to Elizabeth S. Stevens, probably a fan, who asked if Sam had any poetry he might send. “My pen is bad, my ink is pale, / But my affection for you will / never fail / Yours/ S.L. Clemens” [MTLE 4: 75].

June 11, 1879 Wednesday

June 11 Wednesday – Thomas Bailey Aldrich wrote from Ponkapog, Mass. to advise he received Sam’s note just before a letter from Tauchnitz, offering to add Aldrich’s book Marjorie Daw to his series. He thanked Sam “heartily.” He expressed what a “charming time” they’d had in Paris with the Clemenses [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “unpublished, I believe / From T.B. Aldrich”

June 10, 1879 Tuesday

June 10 Tuesday  Sam wrote two notes from Paris to Frank Bliss on contract and illustration matters for the new book, TA [MTLE 4: 71-2].

Sam also wrote to Charles E. Perkins, letter not extant but referred to in Perkins’ June 26 reply.

Sam also wrote to Joe Twichell, writing “gossip” while a woman in the next room stopped coughing.

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