August 14 Monday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Eustace D. Conway, Moncure’s seventeen-year-old son, who evidently had been working for his father and attempting to interest a play promoter named Taylor in producing The Adventures of Tom Sawyer on the stage. Sam agreed, as the story stood it was not dramatizable and explained:
August 13 Sunday – Louis E. Cooke of The Martino Troupe wrote from Buffalo to send Twain a circular for Yankee Robinson’s lecture tour—could he be induced to write a lecture for him? [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “From an ass about ‘Yankee Robinson’ .”
August 12 Saturday – Bill paid to D.S. Brooks & Sons, Hartford dealer in “hot air furnaces, cooking ranges, stoves and tin ware, low down grates and Marbelized slate mantles” $9.65 [MTP].
August 11 Friday – George W. Smalley wrote from Watertown, Mass. having just rec’d Sam’s telegram forwarded from NYC. They hadn’t made plans yet but hoped they might accept his “friendly and kind invitation” though Mrs. S. had been “very ill with bronchitis & fever.” They’d been out of the country [MTP].
David Gray wrote from Buffalo.
August 10 Thursday – Helen M. Chapin (Mrs. Thomas E. Chapin) wrote from Newton Centre, Mass. “Please do me the favor to accept the contents of a box which I send by the same mail, with the hope that they will amuse you. They are four ‘Illuminated Silhouettes’ …If you will hold them between your eye and the light you will be able to see through them, and perhaps read a moral lesson!” [MTP]. Note: sent to Hartford, not Elmira.
Moncure Conway wrote from Ostend, Belgium.
August 9 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to William Dean Howells after receiving his letter. Sam mentioned the Tilden club invitation and his answer, Susy’s larger shoes (which she used as an excuse not to be able to pray), the idyllic setting of Quarry Farm and this noteworthy item:
August 8 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Bliss. Sam had received a response from Bliss to his last letter and denied making propositions to Dustin, Gilman & Co. or any other publisher. Sam agreed to make The Adventures of Tom Sawyer a holiday book. Sam also wanted Howells’ Atlantic review to be put into the prospectus that went to editors.
August 7 Monday – Elisha Bliss wrote proof notes on TS to Sam: “Richardson made more trouble over every page than you do in a whole book. Your model MS is my standard to gauge others by, & must not be much better & cant be really” [MTP].
August 6 or 7 Monday – Sam responded from Elmira to a request by Hugh F. McDermott that he attend a flag raising for political candidates Samuel J. Tilden (1814-1886) and Thomas A. Hendricks (1819-1885) at a Jersey City, New Jersey club.
August 5 Saturday – In Townsend Harbor, Mass., Howells wrote to Sam. After some playful recriminations about sending a long letter and receiving back only a postcard, Howells told of their vacation, his writing, and his beginning of the life of Rutherford B. Hayes (1822-1893) for the campaign. He also asked about Sam’s “double-barrel novel” and would he sell it to the Atlantic for next year? [MTHL 1: 142].