June 3 Monday – The Cranes arrived in Hartford at noon to take the body of Langdon back to be buried in the Langdon plot in Elmira. Livy was in no shape to travel, and could not leave Susy. Sam could not leave Livy, so they stayed in Hartford [MTL 5: 100].
June 2 Sunday – Langdon Clemens, Sam’s only son, died in his mother’s arms [MTL 5: 98; Kaplan 150]. Sam blamed himself for not noticing the baby had been uncovered in an April carriage ride. Sam always blamed himself in some way for deaths that visited the family. He kept the carriage ride to himself until his autobiographical dictation in 1906.
June 1 Saturday – Langdon Clemens, age 19 months, was diagnosed with diphtheria [MTL 5: 98].
The Clemens family relocates in Elmira where Olivia preferred to give birth to their
June – William Dean Howells published a glowing review of Roughing It for the June issue of the Atlantic.
Probably an encyclopedia could not be constructed from the book; the work of a human being, it is not unbrokenly nor infallibly funny; nor is it to be always praised for all the literary virtues; but it is singularly entertaining, and its humor is always amiable, manly, and generous.
May 29 Wednesday – Sam, Livy and babies arrived home in Hartford. Sam had telegraphed ahead for Dr. Cincinnatus A. Taft (1822-1884) to be at the house for Langdon [MTL 5: 97]
May 28 Tuesday – Sam, Livy, Langdon, and baby Susy left Elmira bound for Hartford, accompanied by at least one nursemaid and Theodore Crane. They arrived in New York City and stayed one night at the St. Nicholas Hotel. During the trip, the cough that Langdon had developed worsened [MTL 5: 97].
May 27 Monday – Sam’s sketch, “A Nevada Funeral,” an extract from chapter 47 of Roughing It, appeared in The Salt Lake City Tribune. The article included an engraved portrait of Sam, who sent a copy to William Dean Howells [MTL 5: 106n5].
Susan Crane recalled that the day after Susy’s baptism, Langdon grew feebler [Powers, MT A Life 319].
May 26 Sunday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Elisha Bliss, asking that half-morocco copies of Roughing It be sent to William H. Clagett, one of Sam’s Nevada mining buddies, and Thomas Nast, artist and illustrator [MTL 5: 96].
Susan Crane noted in her journal that ten-week-old Susy was baptized.
May 22 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Orion and Mollie, about being delayed by having only one nurse and needing a few days to secure another [MTL 5: 94].
May 22–29 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira during this period to William Dean Howells, thanking him for the “satisfactory notice of ‘Roughing It’” in the Atlantic. Here is where Sam made his famous remark: