December 3 Sunday – Sam wrote from the St. James Hotel in New York to Livy. James R. Osgood visited Sam at his hotel around noon. Mrs. T. B. Aldrich had also called and he would soon return her call. He wrote that he’d “used no whisky or other liquor to sleep on [but] was utterly tired out.” NYC temperatures ranged from 35-24 degrees F. with no precipitation [NOAA.gov].
December 2 Saturday – In the evening Sam dined with “those leddy-hets till 12, then went to bed” [MTLE 1: 149]. Note: The “leddy-hets” (Clara Clemens’ pronunciation of “leatherheads”) are unidentified.
NYC temperatures ranged from 24-15 degrees F. with no precipitation [NOAA.gov].
Chelsea is a city in Suffolk County, Massachusetts, United States, directly across the Mystic River from the city of Boston. As of the 2020 census, Chelsea had a population of 40,787. With a total area of just 2.46 square miles, Chelsea is the smallest city in Massachusetts in terms of total area. It is the second most densely populated city in Massachusetts, behind Somerville, and is the city with the second-highest percentage of Latino residents in Massachusetts, behind Lawrence.
Cambridge (/ˈkeɪmbrɪdʒ/[4] KAYM-brij) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States.
Bridgeport is the most populous city and a major port in the U.S.
n 1880s New York City, few hotels could match the elegance of Hoffman House, on Broadway between 24th and 25th Streets. And the hotel’s mahogany-walled grand bar and salon was famous in the city.
This was where New York’s titans of industry and political power brokers congregated. Boss Tweed was a regular, along with Grover Cleveland, William Randolph Hearst, and Ulysses S. Grant.
The Parker House Hotel was established by Harvey D. Parker and opened on October 8, 1855. [2] Additions and alterations were made to the original building starting only five years after its opening.
December 1 Friday – Isabella Beecher Hooker took a friend to see the Clemens’ home. Andrews observes that “the whole neighborhood felt free to show it to those who had not seen it” [86]. Isabella also ran into Bret Harte there, and “felt almost a dislike of him….” She had “an uncomfortable interview” during her visit with Sam that Andrews says “grew in importance as she thought about it, despite her realization that she might be oversensitively magnifying its significance.” From Isabella’s diary:
December – Sam’s story, “The Canvasser’s Tale,” was published in the December issue of Atlantic Monthly. Wilson calls the story “an extravagant burlesque of human eccentricities that depends upon hyperbole for its comic effect” [Wilson 21; Wells 22].
November 30 Thursday – Sam’s 41st birthday was also Thanksgiving Day. From Twichell’s journal:
“Called on M.T.’s and found Bret Harte there again (He and M. are writing a play together) and had some talk with him” [Yale 126].