July 31 Friday – Phineas T. Barnum wrote from Bridgeport to thank Sam for his “favor of Monday. I have destroyed bushels of curious begging letters. Hereafter they will all be saved for you. I am off for Canada—return about 6th of August” [MTP]
July 30 Thursday – S. Robert, Jr. wrote to sell fancy furnishings, having heard of the Hartford house the Clemenses were building. He used Mrs. Samuel Colt as reference [MTP].
July 29 Wednesday – Photographer Elisha M. Van Aken (1828-1904) arrived at the Quarry Farm and was mentioned in Sam’s letter to Orion: “…& it is a faultless, cloudless day, & he will have good success no doubt.” Van Aken had set up a studio in Elmira in 1873. See also Sept. 2, 1874 when he presented his bill for various photographs [MTL 6: 196-7 & n2].
July 28 Tuesday – The New York World reported, “Mark Twain has just leased his last literary production, a five-act drama which he has just finished, called ‘Colonel Sellers,’ to John J. Raymond” [MTL 6: 185n4].
July 22 Wednesday – James Hammond Trumbull wrote to Sam about the “dream” feature of Sam’s play of Col. Sellers. The noted philologist talked of Sanskrit and Hawaiian legends of dreams [MTP].
July 21 Tuesday –Mary Margaret Field wrote from Woodstock, Vt. with a long “sob story” asking for a “loan” of $100 from Clemens [MTP]. Note: see Sam’s reply of July 29, which may not have been sent.
July 20 Monday – The Library of Congress granted Sam copyright No. 9490E for Dramatic Compositions, which was The Gilded Age as a stage play [MTL 6: 190n4].
Charles P. Pope wrote to Sam that he’d met Howells and came to terms with him; that he liked him [MTL 6: 195n5].
July 18 Saturday – Dr. John Brown replied to the June 15 letter informing him of Clara’s birth, and also to a non-extant from Clemens introducing Anna Dickinson and also updating sales numbers for GA:
July 17 Friday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Joseph J. Albright, an iron manufacturer in Scranton, Penn. His son, John Joseph Albright (1848-1931) was connected by marriage to the Langdon family (he married the former Harriet Langdon (1847-1895), Livy’s first cousin.
July 16 Thursday – In Elmira, Sam wrote to his 1854 St. Louis roommate, Jacob H. Burrough.
My Dear Jake:
Have just received two papers from your town. Are the Misses Ida & Emma Burroughs any kin to you? And who is Dean?—my old mud clerk comrade?
My boy, don’t you ever come East? I wish you would stop in on us next winter. (We are house-building & shant be well settled till the middle of the fall.)
Why don’t you die?—Are you going to live forever? You must be about 80 or 90 now.