February 20 Sunday – Edward Hastings for the National Soldier’s Home wrote to thank Sam for books rec’d [MTP].

February 21 Monday – Charles W. Stayner wrote to Sam enclosing papers that announced his new lecture “American Humor,” in which he included “a biographical sketch” of Sam [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “No Answer”

February 22 Tuesday – Moncure Conway wrote from Cincinnati, Ohio:

February 23 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Frank Marx Etting (1833-1890), accepting his invitation of Feb. 19 to attend the Congress of Authors at Independence Hall, Phila. on July 2. Sam wrote he would bring “a brief biographical Sketch of Francis Lightfoot Lee of Virginia” [MTLE 1: 26].

February 25 Friday – Sam’s uncle John Adams Quarles, once a prominent and well-to-do man of Monroe County, Missouri, died a poor man [The Twainian, March 1942 p5].

Mary Mapes Dodge wrote from NYC asking for a piece of writing [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “Mrs. M.M. Dodge Editor St Nicholas”

February 26 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Moncure Conway, answering his Feb. 22 and confirming Conway’s visit for Mar. 9. Conway had finished a fall and winter lecture tour on “London,” [MTL 6: 600n1] and would leave for England on Mar. 11 to make a deal with a publisher for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.

February 28 Monday – George Barclay wrote from Edinburgh to inform Sam of the “precarious” nature of Dr. John Brown’s health. It was doubtful the good doctor could ever resume practice [MTP].

March – Harper’s Monthly printed “The First Century of the Republic,” by Edwin P. Whipple. This article described popular humorists like Artemus Ward, John Phoenix, and Mark Twain, who was said to be:

March 3 Friday – Francis Wayland wrote to Sam to pin down which evening he would “bask in your smile”—either March 22nd or 29th [MTP].

March 4 Saturday – Mary Mapes Dodge wrote to Sam: “People who do promise are so very uncertain that I eagerly pin my faith upon a man who doesn’t promise. Don’t promise—but please do write me a midsummer story for the boys” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “Mrs. M.E. Dodge, editor St Nicholas”

March 5 Sunday – In Cambridge, Mass., Howells wrote to Sam, declining Livy’s invitation for a visit [MTHL 1: 126].

March 6 Monday – Sam went to the American Publishing Co. to see Elisha Bliss and check on De Quille’s The Big Bonanza, and no doubt on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer as well. Bliss showed Sam a lot of the pictures that were going into De Quille’s book and told him that the compositors were ready to go to work. Sam may have learned at this point that the book could not be published by summer [MTLE 1: 28].

March 7 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to William Wright (Dan De Quille), beating him up some for waiting Mackey’s advice while the “California” stock rose from 81 to 92 dollars a share. Sam insisted Dan telegraph him; that he liked “that sort of expense, for it saves money.”

March 10 Friday – T.J. Mackay wrote from Boston to Sam. He was a stranger asking where he might find more of Twain’s stories, having given a public reading of “The Beef Contract” [MTP].

March 11 Saturday – William Dean Howells and son John Howells arrived at the Clemenses for an overnight stay [MTHL 1: 127n1].

Moncure Conway sailed for England with Tom Sawyer MS in hand [Norton 31].

William A. Seaver wrote to Sam:

March 12 Sunday – The Clemenses entertained William Dean Howells and son John. In a letter to his father, Howells described his son’s reaction to the Clemens’ home:

March 13 Monday – Back home in Cambridge Howells wrote thanking Sam for the visit [MTHL 1: 127].

March 15 Wednesday ca. – Around this time Sam began a “skeleton story”—a novelette he called A Murder, a Mystery, and a Marriage, which remained unpublished until the Atlantic re-discovered it and ran it in their July/Aug. issue of 2001!

March 16 Thursday – In Hartford, Sam wrote to Richard McCloud, attorney and president of the Hartford Knights of St. Patrick. (See Mar. 17 entry, as well as notes on this letter at MTPO on the political machinations alluded to.)

George Vaughan (whom Clemens had called “a fraud”) wrote a postcard to “Arthur Clemens (Mark Twain)”:

March 17 Friday – Sam’s letter of Mar. 16 to Richard McCloud was read aloud at the Hartford Knights of St. Patrick’s third annual banquet. It also ran Mar. 18 in the Hartford Courant and was in the New York Times on Mar. 19.

March 18 Saturday – James B. Adams wrote from St. Marys, Wyo. to Sam asking for writerly advice—which publications are best to start with? [MTP].

March 18? Saturday – In Hartford, Sam wrote to James T. Fields regarding his upcoming Hartford lecture [MTPO].

March 19 Sunday – Susy Clemens’ fourth birthday. Sometime during this next year, Sam wrote in The Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay, by Trevelyan: “Susie’s aphorism (age 4) ‘How easy it is to break things.’ Her first remark in the morning sitting up in bed” [Slotta 35].

March 20 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles D. Scully, who wrote Sam a month earlier. Sam had misplaced the letter, more than once. He made a mock-apology for “turning that article upon an unoffending people” and thanked Scully for a reading-circle naming their society after him. Which article Sam meant isn’t clear, nor is the identity of Scully, beyond being the member or leader of some reading-circle of Mark Twain fans.

March 22 Wednesday – Sam gave the “Roughing It in the Silver Regions” lecture, and “brilliantly inaugurated” the 1876 season of Kent Club lectures at Yale University. Tickets were “entirely by invitation” and “the Law School lecture room” was “filled to its utmost capacity by a delighted audience” [New Haven Morning Journal and Courier Mar. 22 and 23 p2 “Entertainments”].

March 24 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Mary Mason Fairbanks, who had just left his home for a visit. Sam ended the letter saying he was to lecture three times in New York “for a benevolent object next week,” and hoped “to go to [Thomas] Nast with Charlie [Langdon]” [MTP].