August 4 Friday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Mary Mason Fairbanks urging her to visit. He claimed his “pet book, which lies at home one-third done & never more to be touched…Destroyed by a vacation,” so that he could not leave Quarry Farm to visit anyone since he was “tearing along on a new book” and that each time Livy took a trip down the hill it laid her up for two days [MTLE 1: 93].
August 2 Wednesday – Thomas C. Noble, Jr. wrote from Cumberland Centre, Maine to offer his services as an “old and experienced hand” of a playwright who would “be most happy to give…all the instruction” he needed. He’d been a teacher, and added, “If you do not answer me I shall write you twice a day for the next three months” [MTP]. Note: any answer is not extant.
August 1 Tuesday – In Elmira, Sam sent a post card to the American Publishing Co. requesting two cloth copies of Charles Dudley Warner’s book, Mummies or Moslems [MTLE 1: 89; Aug. 8 to Bliss].
August – Sometime during the month at Quarry Farm, Sam began “A Record of the Small Foolishnesses of Susie & ‘Bay’ Clemens (Infants)”. The document would grow for nine years [MTNJ 2: 365n32]. (See July 1880 entry.)
July 31 Monday – Charles E. Perkins wrote to Sam acknowledging his of the 27th with the $3,000 to be invested for Livy. He complained of “infernal hot weather” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “The 21st Thousand invested.”
July 31-August 7 Monday – Sam and Bliss wrote proof notes for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer [MTPO].
July 30 Sunday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Montgomery Schuyler, journalist and architectural critic for the New York World, answering his letter of July 25. Sam had done a squib for the World but burned it, and would write another “in coming months.” No doubt he was responding to a request for an article [MTLE 1: 88].
July 29 Saturday – Abraham Reeves Jackson wrote from Chicago, transcript of July 22 Evening Post editorial enclosed. Jackson passed on a letter from J.H. Dowling who wanted Sam to lecture there [MTP].
July 27 Thursday – Sam wrote to Charles E. Perkins, sending $3,000 to be invested for Livy. This letter not extant but referred to in the July 31 acknowledgment from Perkins.
July 26 Wednesday – The Hartford Courant printed “The Boy, the Beetle and the Dog. A Sketch from Mark Twain’s ‘Tom Sawyer,’ in Press.” This was taken from chapter 5 and was independent of Conway’s “London Letter” first sent to the Cincinnati Commercial (See June 26 entry.) It was reprinted Aug. 28 in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch [MTPO notes on July 24 to Conway].
July 25 Tuesday – Sam’s article “The Secret Out” ran in the NY Evening Post [Camfield, bibliog.].