January 14 Sunday – Clemens, Twichell, Charles and Susan Warner, Dr.’s Nathaniel J. Burton and Edwin P. Parker all went to hear a lecture by Joseph Cook of Boston. Twichell didn’t think much of the presentation [Yale, copy at MTP].
January 13 Saturday – The first substantial review following the American Publishing Co.’s release of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer on Dec. 8, 1876 ran in the New York Times. Unsigned and cursory, it noted:
…a truly clever child’s book is one in which both man and boy can find pleasure. No child’s book can be perfectly acceptable otherwise.
January 11 Thursday – H.W. Bergen wrote from NYC wanting to confer with Sam one day next week [MTP]. Note: Bergen was Sam’s road agent for Colonel Sellers play.
January 10 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford per Fanny Hesse to Moncure Conway. Sam wanted Andrew Chatto to prosecute the Belford Co., since the copyright belonged to Chatto and not to Sam.
January 6 Saturday –Twichell’s journal:
“Attended by invitation the ‘Saturday (girl’s) Club’ at M.T’s, at 10 o’clock am—a company to be much delighted in. Boyesen read an unpublished story with great applause” [Yale, copy at MTP].
January 5 Friday – Bret Harte and Charles Thomas Parsloe signed the contract for Ah Sin in New York. Sam signed on Dec. 30, 1876 [Duckett 127-8; MTP].
January 3 Wednesday – Twichell’s journal:
“Mr B.[oyesen] concludes not to go on to Boston for several days yet, but to accept M.T’s invitation to spend a season with him. / M.T. was in during the former’s asked of Charles Warren Stoddard’s [?illegible word] as actor on the stage in a manner that beggars description – so very funny” [Yale, copy at MTP]
January 2 Tuesday – Two copies of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer were placed with the Copyright Office, Library of Congress [Hirst, “A Note on the Text” Oxford edition, 1996].
January 1 Monday – After leaving Isabella Hooker’s failed medium party (see Dec. 31, 1876 entry), Sam and Livy went after midnight to the George Warner residence, where they finished festivities and learned of Isabella’s wacky, megalomaniac scheme [Willis 108]. Twichell, evidently did not go to the Hookers on New Year’s Eve, but stopped by the Warners after midnight.
January – Sam’s unsigned and untitled piece on Anna Dickinson ran in the January issue of the Atlantic Monthly, the Contributors’ Club [Camfield, bibliog.].