January 3 Friday – In Hartford, Sam telegraphed a response to Whitelaw Reid’s letter of Dec. 28, asking him to “write something, no matter what, over your own signature within the next week,”: “Will write the article today.” The untimely death of Horace Greeley had thrown the Tribune into chaos, and politics over ownership evolved into Reid buying controlling interest (with the help of Jay Gould).
January 2 Thursday – Handwritten receipt signed John Hooker $300 for house rent for quarter ending Jan. 1 [MTP].
January 1 Wednesday – Two bills paid to Drs. Taft & Starr for professional services for the same period, July 1 ‘72 to Jan. 1 ’73, for $7 and $46. Bill for $3 paid to Wm. Wander, Steinway & sons’ Celebrated Pianos, for timing and repair of piano. Bill paid to Mansury & Smith, carriage manufacturer for $23.15 in repairs [MTP].
January – By this month, Roughing It had earned Sam about $20,600 in royalties [MTL 5: 271n7]. Sam understood that writing brought in more money than lecturing, though it’s clear that both activities energized and pleased him.
December, end – Sam remained in Hartford with his family during this period and no letters from Dec. 22 to Jan. 3 have been found. Clemens may have gone to Elmira, where George MacDonald was visiting Livy’s mother [Lindskoog 26]. After returning from England, Sam was drafting an English book, so it’s probable he worked on it over the holidays. Sam got the book about a third completed and stopped.
December 28 Saturday – Whitelaw Reid wrote asking for a writing sample over Sam’s autograph [MTP].
December 27 Friday – Elisha Bliss wrote a royalty check to Sam for $1,718.36 [MTP].
George H. Fitzgibbon wrote on a Morning Post article, Dec. 27 about the Batavia episode: “Delighted to hear from you – All my family join unanimously and heartily in wishing you & yours a very happy & a very prosperous New Year. I enclose you a photograph of my two little daughters.” Autograph & photo requested [MTP].
December 26 Thursday – In Morristown, New Jersey, Bret Harte wrote to Sam, complaining about William A. Kendall, the past “sick & needy poet” who Sam had taken up a collection for to gain passage from New York to California. Kendall had accused Harte of swindling contributors to the Overland.
December 24 Tuesday – Camfield gives this as the day the poem, “The New Cock-Robin “ ran in the Hartford Evening Post [bibliog.] and cites [Vogelback, “Control of Tribune” 377-80], but Vogelback only cites the Jan. 2 reprint in the Chicago Tribune [377]. Still, it is likely the Dec. 23 verse ran within a few days. Evidently, copies of the Evening Post are not available.
December 23 Monday – Sam wrote a poem for the Hartford Evening Post, “The New Cock-Robin” Answering the repeated question, “Who’s to be Editor of the Tribune” Sam suggested a different man for each verse. The Tribune had always been a favorite and even a critical paper for Sam’s need of good reviews. The poem ran in the Post on either this day or the next, and was reprinted later in several other major newspapers [MTL 5: 262]