January 12 Thursday – Sam wrote at 1 AM from Cleveland, Ohio to Livy about the Fairbanks-Gaylord wedding. “About four to six or seven hundred people have asked after your & the cub’s health & the latter’s progress” [MTL 4: 301].
January 11 Wednesday – Cleveland, Ohio. Sam attended the evening wedding of Alice Fairbanks and William H. Gaylord at the Fairbanks’ home [MTL 4: 302n1].
January 9 Monday – John M. Hay wrote from the Astor House in NYC to Sam; the letter was sent with another of Jan. 14.
“My Dear Mr Clemens / I owe you many thanks for your kind letter. I think the pilot is a much more appropriate and picturesque personage and should certainly have used him except for the fact that I knew Jim Bludso and he was an engineer and did just what I said…” [MTL 4: 299]. Note: see the rest of the letter in source.
January 7 Saturday – Clemens was elected to membership in the elite Buffalo Club. He resigned his membership two months after leaving Buffalo [Reigstad 187-188]. Note: William G. Fargo was president of the club.
In “The Literature of the United States in 1870,” the Athenæum, p.15, briefly mentioned IA, but gave higher plaudits to Bret Harte for The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Sketches [Tenney 3-4].
January 6? Friday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to John M.
January 4 Wednesday – Elisha Bliss wrote to Sam:
Have not heard from you for some time—am anxious for your safety—let us know how you are. &c—& how goes the latter. Have looked for advt. of your pamphlet also. Your brother & myself have expected to see it advertised. What is the trouble? Did you get my contracts sent? / Our paper gets on now just perfectly, & will be out by & by, in good shape I think [MTP].
January 3 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to Joseph Twichell, praising Charles Dudley Warner’s new book, My Summer in a Garden [MTL 4: 294].
He also wrote to Elisha Bliss about the proposed pamphlet, the sketchbook and Roughing It, which Sam planned to be out by August. It wasn’t published until Feb. 1872 [MTL 4: 295].
January 2 Monday – Laura E. Lyman (Kate Hunnibee) wrote on NY Tribune notepaper [MTP].. She wrote the “Home Interest” column. Basically a fan letter in praise of IA.
January 1 Sunday – James T. Fields announced his retirement as editor-in-chief of the Atlantic. William Dean Howells took over the job of the faltering publication. From a peak of 50,000 circulation, the Atlantic fell to 35,000 in 1870 after the publication of Harriet Beecher Stowe’s attack on Lord Byron for adultery.
January – In the Galaxy for this month – MARK TWAIN’S MEMORANDA – Included:
“The Portrait”
“The Facts in the Case of George Fisher, Deceased”
“A ‘Forty-niner’ ”
“Doggerel”
“Goldsmith’s Friend Abroad Again, Letter VII”
“Mean People”
“A Sad, Sad Business”
“Concerning a Rumor”
“Agassiz” [Schmidt].