December 11 Friday – In Cambridge, Mass., William Dean Howells wrote:
“Don’t you dare to refuse that invitation to the Atlantic dinner for Tuesday evening. For fear you mayn’t have got it, I’ll just say that it was from the publishers, and asked you to meet Emerson, Aldrich, and all ‘those boys’ at the Parker House at 6 o’clock, Tuesday, Dec. 14. Come! ” [MTHL 1: 51].
December 10 Thursday – Bret Harte gave a lecture in Farwell Hall, Chicago, titled “American Humor.” Though briefly treating Mark Twain, Harte offered praise:
“To-day, among our latest American humorists, such as Josh Billings, The ‘Danbury Newsman,’ and Orpheus C. Kerr, Mark Twain stands alone as the most original humorist that America has produced. He alone is inimitable” [Tenney, Supplement American Literary Realism, Autumn 1981 p162].
December 9 Wednesday – In Hartford, using a typewriter he’d purchased in Boston with the help of Petroleum Nasby (David Locke), Sam typed from Hartford to Orion. The typewriter cost Sam $125 and could only print upper case letters.
December 8 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to William Dean Howells, about work on the “pilot articles.”
“I could wind up with No. 4, but there are some things more, which I am powerfully moved to write. Which is natural enough, since I am a person who would quit authorizing in a minute to go piloting, if the madam would stand it. I would rather sink a steamboat than eat, any time” [MTL 6: 305-6].
December 5 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote to an unidentified person, that “Cannibalism in the Cars” had never been published in America, and directed the person to Routledge editions [MTL 6: 305].
December 4 Friday – Estes & Lauriat of Boston receipted Sam for two copies of Summer Sketches, unidentified book, one of which was sent to Joe Twichell. The bill was dated Dec. 2 [Gribben 678]. Howells inscribed a copy of his novel, A Foregone Conclusion, to Livy with this date [Gribben 329].
December 3 Thursday – In Cambridge, Mass., Howells wrote Sam that “The fotograf is a wonderful success, and Mrs. Howells and I are exultantly grateful. We’ve got it framed to match Warner’s, and it turns its eagle-eye away from me towards Boston, on my study mantel-piece” [MTHL 1: 46].
December 2 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Howells, sending a new photograph of himself [MTL 6: 300]. Note: see insert photo.
December 2? Wednesday – Sam sent a photograph (see insert) to Jahu Dewitt Miller [MTP].
December 1 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Miss Street, daughter of James Street, in 1861 agent for the Overland Telegraph Company in Salt Lake City. Street met Sam and Orion on their trip to Nevada. Sam also renewed the acquaintance in San Francisco, and Street is portrayed in Chapters 12 and 14 of Roughing It [MTL 6: 299]. Sam responded to a request, most likely for his autograph.
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].