November 27 Monday – Livy’s 31st birthday. Sam gave her a copy of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s (1772-1834) The Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1876): “To Livy L. Clemens / Nov. 27, 1876. / From S. L. Clemens” [Gribben 152].
November 26 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells while the rest of the family went to church, even Fanny Hesse, his personal secretary (Charles Dudley Warner’s sister-in-law). The letter touches a half-dozen topics, from Dean Sage trying to persuade Twichell to travel in Europe with him, to a sideboard Livy wanted, to Sam’s impulse shopping at D.P.
November 25 Saturday – In the evening Sam and Livy dined with Charles and Susan Warner. The Twichells “dropped in” as well. Sam read Winny Howells’ letter and poem, “and they were received with great & honest applause” [Nov. 26 to Howells].
November 24 Friday – Sam gave a reading in Providence, R. I., and then returned home to Hartford. The reading was similar to his Nov. 13 performance in Brooklyn. Sam and Livy entertained Charles and Susan Warner for dinner. Joe and Harmony Twichell dropped by [Schmidt; MTLE 1: 144].
November 22 Wednesday – Sam gave a reading at the Academy of Music in Chelsea, Mass., similar to his Nov. 13 performance in Brooklyn [Schmidt]. Note: MTHL 1: 166n5 lists this lecture as Nov. 23. Also notes with Oct. 19 to Tip Saunders MTPO.
November 21 Tuesday – Sam gave a reading at the Music Hall in Boston, similar to his Nov. 13 performance in Brooklyn [Schmidt: See Boston Daily Globe, “The Mark Twain Combination,” November 20, 1876, p.5; Boston Daily Globe, “On the Platform,” November 22, 1876, p.8].
While in Boston, Sam stayed with Howells, who recalled the visits in My Mark Twain:
November 18 Saturday – Bill paid to A.K. Talcott for a Nov. 14 purchase, $4.80 [MTP].
November 16 Thursday – Moncure Conway wrote from England, responding to Sam’s Nov. 2 alarm of the Belford piracy of Tom Sawyer. Conway wrote:
“I immediately held a council of war with Chatto, and…I send you the result of our cogitations….We considered it best to telegraph Belford yesterday with these words:—‘Tom Sawyer is English copyright. Chatto’” [MTPO Notes with Nov. 2, 1876 to Conway].
November 15 Wednesday – Andrew Chatto wrote from England, likely enclosed in Conway’s of the following day. “The telegram to Belford Bros. that Tom Sawyer is English copyright must strengthen Mark Twain’s hands….But I imagine the serious injury to Twain is their flooding the American market with copies—against this no one can stand so well as Mark Twain himself” [MTP].
November 14 Tuesday – Sam gave a reading at the Academy of Music, Philadelphia, for the Star Course of Lectures under Thomas B. Pugh. This reading was similar to his Nov. 13 performance in Brooklyn [MTPO: See advertisements in Philadelphia Public Ledger, Nov. 13 & 14, p1].