December – Sam inscribed the half of each title page on four volumes of The Dialogues of Plato:

“For Livy Clemens / 1874. /S. L. CI.I” [Gribben 549].

He also inscribed A Child’s Poems, by Lucy Catlin (1872) “Saml. L. Clemens, Hartford, Dec. 1874” [585].

November 30 Monday – Sam’s 39th birthday. Livy presented Sam with a copy of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s The Hanging of the Crane (1875), signing her name and the date and Sam’s name [Butterfield auction catalog, July 16, 1997, p. 25 item # 2680].

November 29 Sunday – Sam’s sketch, “Sociable Jimmy,” written from his letter home in 1872 was printed in the New York Times [MTL 5: 20n6; Fatout, MT Speaks 88]. An excerpt:

November 27 Friday – Livy’s 29th birthday.

Phineas T. Barnum wrote from Bridgeport to advise he would send what begging letters he had laid aside, though he felt “some will be of no use to you probably” [MTP].

November 25 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Howells, responding to the editor’s “amendment” to his “pilot days” installment sent on Nov. 24 [MTHL 1: 43-4]. Sam, reading over the proofs, objected to the poor hyphenating done at the ends of lines. He also felt he shouldn’t appear in print too often. “…newspapers soon get to lying in wait for me to blackguard me.

November 24 Tuesday – William Dean Howells wrote again to Sam, adding, “The only thing I’m doubtful of is the night watchman’s story” (in the first installment of “Old Times on the Mississippi”). “…seems made-up, on your part” [MTHL 1: 43].

November 23 Monday – Howells wrote to Sam and responded to his Nov. 20 letter that his wife was “simply absurd” about the “Limerick” letter and he wished to keep it. About the “pilot days” installment, Howells said it was “capital—it almost made the water in our ice-pitcher muddy as I read it.” Howells opted not to “meddle with it much in the way of suggestion,” which was high praise [MTL 6: 294].

November 20 Friday – Sam wrote two letters from Hartford to Howells. The first is an interesting fantasy, set in Boston (called Limerick) in the future, Nov. 16. 1935:

November 19 or 20 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote to cousin Emma Parish.

November 18 Wednesday – From Twichell’s journal:

“Lectured at Insane Asylum to the patients on my So American travels. M.T. went with me to study the audience” [Yale, copy at MTP].