May 21 Friday – F.B. C. “a young man” (no fuller name given) wrote from Hartford begging for $125. “Please don’t blame me for wishing to conceal my name” [MTP].
Fred McIntosh wrote from Phila. to ask who “Gilderoy” was in Ch. 25 of IA [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “Bid for autograph letter. ‘Too thin.’ ”
May 20 Thursday – In Cambridge, Mass., Howells wrote Sam, praising the seventh and last installment of “Old Times”: “This is capital—I shall hate to have you stop!” [MTHL 1: 84].
William James Lampton (1851?-1917) wrote from St. Louis.
May 19 Wednesday – Back in Hartford, Twichell came by Sam’s house and met Bret Harte. Twichell wrote in his journal he “…was a little disappointed in his looks” [Yale, copy at MTP].
May 18 Tuesday – Sam and Joe Twichell were on the way to a baseball game between the “Hartfords” and the “Bostons” (Hartford Dark Blues and the Boston Red Stockings) when they met Elisha Bliss and Bret Harte on their way to look at a house for Harte to rent [MTL 6: 483n3]. At the baseball game, Sam’s umbrella was stolen, leading him to write an announcement to
May 15 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote to George Cumming, a Western Union Telegraph operator who had written an article in the Telegrapher, a union publication. George observed how ancient jokes are, tracing one back to the Greeks. Sam had read the article and it had made him think.
May 14 Friday – Rebecca Gibbons Beach (Mrs. John Sheldon Beach; 1823-1893) wrote to Sam:
Dear Sir /Altho’ I have not the honor of yr acquaintance, I, take the liberty of remonstrating against yr refusal to contribute to the “Spirit of 76.”
May 13 Thursday – Sam sent John T. Raymond $1,500 at seven per cent interest. John’s approach may have been brazen, but Sam generously offered a lower rate and made the loan [MTL 6: 479].
May 12 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Howells, saying he’d “send along” the altered proof of No.7, the last of his Atlantic series, “Old Times on the Mississippi.” He complimented Howells’ review of the Gilded Age play and expressed some bitterness at Raymond, who’d written him asking for the rest of the season’s profits, a few week’s worth.
May 10 Monday – In Cambridge, Mass., Howells wrote Sam that “It’s ‘most time—quite time—for your seventh number: send what you’ve got; I know it’s good” [“Old Times,” the last installment] [MTHL 1: 82].
Mary Mason Fairbanks wrote to Sam.
May 9 Sunday – Livy wrote from Hartford to her mother: “Mr. Clemens is reading aloud in ‘Plato’s Dialogues’—so if I write incoherently you must excuse it.” Sam’s library included the four-volume 1873 edition [Gribben 549].