July 5 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Howells that he’d finished The Adventures of Tom Sawyer but “didn’t take the chap beyond boyhood,” a development that Howells had recommended. Sam doubted that any magazine could pay him enough to publish the book, and used figures Harte had received from Scribner’s for comparison.
July 3 Saturday – In Cambridge, Mass., Howells wrote Sam not to “waste it on a boy”—that is, his “chief work,” The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which Howells thought should be carried on into Tom’s adult years [MTHL 1: 90]. Note: even Howells got it wrong now and then.
July 2 Friday – In Hartford Clemens wrote a check to the Evening Post Association for $4; a subscription [JG Autographs eBay item # 370952848214; February 2014].
July – Sam inscribed a copy of Queen Mary, A Drama. Author’s Edition (1875): “Saml. L. Clemens, Hartford, July, 1875” [Gribben 695].
June 30 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Dr. Cornelius Agnew, asking if a summer at the seaside for Nell Kinearney would be a good thing. Nell was a neighbor with the diseased eye that doctors had recommended removing [MTL 6: 502]. Note: The Clemenses may have paid some of the medical expenses for the operation done in the fall.
June 29 Tuesday – Jack Van Nostrand, Quaker City friend, wrote from Manitou, Colo.
June 28 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Pamela Moffett. Only part of the letter exists. Sam wrote that Livy had been sick for a week but now was up and around again and that they would go to Newport, R.I., for August and part of September, taking the kids and two nurses.
June 26 Saturday – Rev. Dr. Charles E. Tisdall (1820-1905), Chancellor of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. wrote to Sam.
June 25 Friday – In Hartford Sam replied to Howells about the typewriter that Howells wanted to borrow. Sam had traded the machine to Bliss for “a twelve-dollar saddle worth $25.”
“…the machine is at Bliss’s, grimly pursuing its appointed mission, slowly & implacably rotting away another man’s chance for salvation” [MTL 6: 499].
June 23 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Dr. Cornelius R. Agnew that he’d shipped the books. After Agnew came up and examined Nell Kinearney’s eyes, Sam was the one to break the news that nothing could be done [MTL 6: 498].
In Cambridge, Mass., Howells sent Sam a postcard: