November – Sam reached a literary peak of sorts, when his article, “A True Story – Repeated Word for Word as I Heard It,” appeared in the “high brow” Atlantic Monthly. Sue Crane’s Negro cook—Auntie Cord—told Sam her experiences as a slave. After repeating the story to John Hay, William Seaver, and perhaps others, Sam had been encouraged to write and submit it [Wilson 267].
October 31 Saturday – Twichell pasted a New York Times article in his diary that mentioned his trip to Peru and his upcoming lecture on the topic, as well as Sam’s lecture “last winter” which raised money for the poor (Father David Hawley) [Yale, copy at MTP].
Owen S. McKinney wrote from Palatine, W. Va. to thank Sam. In part:
October 30 Friday – Sam began work on the first article, which became “Old Times on the Mississippi” [MTL 6: 256 to Howells].
October 29 Thursday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Augustin Daly, who tried to enlist Sam in writing a play. Sam dumped it off onto William Dean Howells, who was thinking of dramatizing his current novel, A Foregone Conclusion [MTL 6: 263].
October 27 Tuesday – In the evening, Sam and Twichell took a long walk [Twichell journals, Yale].
October 26 Monday – The New York Daily Graphic ran this cartoon of Mark Twain: see insert.
October 24 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote two letters to William Dean Howells. The men were developing a playful and intimate association through letters and mutual admiration. In the first letter Sam repeated that he’d hoped to write something for Howells’ January edition of the Atlantic, (as requested in Howells’ Sept.
October 21 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Elisha Bliss about Mrs. Moulton’s proposed book of stories and her availability at Pomfret, Conn. Sam sent best wishes for Harte’s book, Gabriel Conroy, and his hope that they could make the play run 200 nights in New York [MTL 6: 260].
From Twichell’s journal:
October 18? Sunday – Livy and Sam wrote from Hartford to Olivia Lewis Langdon. Twichell came by for Sam to go walking, and both Livy and Sam wrote of it. Sam took Susy in “her little carriage.” He wrote in the afternoon, after his walk while Livy was resting. “The customary Sunday assemblage of strangers is gathered together in the grounds discussing the house” [MTL 6: 259].
October 17 Saturday – Sam’s droll article, “Magdalen Tower” ran in The Shotover Papers (or Echoes from Oxford). The remarkable 145-foot tower at Magdalen College in Oxford had been one of the side-track subjects included in his Sandwich Islands lecture given in London during late 1873. The editors of the Papers requested that Sam write something about the tower for their publication.