Day by Day entries are from Mark Twain, Day By Day, four volumes of books compiled by David Fears and made available on-line by the Center for Mark Twain Studies.  The entries presented here are from conversions of the PDFs provided by the Center for Mark Twain Studies and are subject to the vagaries of that process.    The PDFs, themselves, have problems with formatting and some difficulties with indexing for searching.  These are the inevitable problems resulting from converting a printed book into PDFs.  Consequently, what is provided here are copies of copies.  

I have made attempts at providing a time-line for Twain's Geography and have been dissatisfied with the results.  Fears' work provides a comprehensive solution to that problem.  Each entry from the books is titled with the full date of the entry, solving a major problem I have with the On-line site - what year is the entry for.  The entries are certainly not perfect reproductions from Fears' books, however.  Converting PDFs to text frequently results in characters, and sometimes entire sections of text,  relocating.  In the later case I have tried to amend the problem where it occurs but more often than not the relocated characters are simply omitted.  Also, I cannot vouch for the paragraph structure.  Correcting these problems would require access to the printed copies of Fears' books.  Alas, but this is beyond my reach.

This page allows the reader to search for entries based on a range of dates.  The entries are also accessible from each of the primary sections (Epochs, Episodes and Chapters) of Twain's Geography.  

Entry Date (field_entry_date)

May 22, 1876 Monday

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May 22 Monday – Charles S. Babcock wrote again (see his of May 17), pressing his request for to use Mark Twain’s name in a publication [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the letter, “This is the Orion style of ass.” No record of a publication by young Babcock was found. See May 17 from Babcock.

May 23, 1876 Tuesday

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May 23 Tuesday – William Hamersley wrote to Sam: “Gladding’s case will not come up for trial before July—possibly not till August…the court may give him 15 or 20 years…” [MTP].

May 27, 1876 Saturday 

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May 27 Saturday  Sam wrote from Hartford to Moncure Conway who had written Sam of an early publication date by Chatto of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Sam asked for prospective newspaper reviews from England and mentioned a postal card he’d received from Bliss over a week ago. Sam asked for two or three early copies of the book. In a teasing barb to Conway, Sam ended by saying the family would:

May 29, 1876 Monday 

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May 29 Monday – Miss Ave Nick wrote from Chicago to Sam, clipping enclosed. She asked for an autographed photo of Twain. The clippings were unusual events around the various states [MTP].

May 31, 1876 Wednesday

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May 31 Wednesday – Sam gave a reading at the Asylum Hill Congregational Church [Andrews 50]. Also, Twichell’s parish scrapbook, described by Messent, contains a notice of “Concert and Readings by the Park Church Quintette and ‘Mark Twain’ at the chapel of the Asylum Hill Congregational Church,” scheduled for this day [386]. Note: the church had 186 pews, seating 930 people [Strong 49].

June 1876

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June  Sam’s sketch, “The Facts Concerning the Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut”” ran in the June issue of the Atlantic [Wells 22].

June 3, 1876 Saturday

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June 3 Saturday  Sam wrote from Hartford to Mary Mason Fairbanks that he had decided to “remain away from the Centennial [in Philadelphia] altogether, for an interruption of my work is disastrous to it.”

June 4, 1876 Sunday 

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June 4 Sunday – Information Wanted and Other Sketches by Mark Twain was published by George Routledge and Sons, London during the year. [Johnson 41-2]. Note: He gives June 4, 1876 as the earliest presentation copy found.

June 9, 1876 Friday 

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June 9 Friday  Chatto & WindusLondon issued the English edition of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, a full six months ahead of the U.S. release [MTPO Notes with Nov. 2, 1876 to Conway].

Sam wrote a short note “To Whom It May Concern” introducing his mother, Jane Clemens, and his sister Pamela Moffett, who would be traveling [MTLE 1: 67].

June 10, 1876 Saturday

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June 10 Saturday  Sam must have heard from John RoBards, the boyhood friend he’d contracted to move his brother and father’s remains to the newer cemetery. He wrote from Hartford to RoBards, thanking him and asking to send any left over money to his mother in Fredonia, New York [MTLE 1: 68].

Duckett gives this as the date the English version of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was ready [106].

June 13, 1876 Tuesday

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June 13 Tuesday – In Cambridge, Mass., Howells wrote a postcard to Sam. Howells was going to Philadelphia on July 3, so he couldn’t attend the Congress of Authors there on July 1. Did Sam get the long letter he’d written that week? “We go into the country this week: Shirley Village, Mass.” [MTHL 1:141].

June 14, 1876 Wednesday 

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June 14 Wednesday  Sam wrote from Hartford to “Miss Harriet” responding to an autograph request. Even in a knock-off line, Sam could be hilariously brilliant:

“I am a long time answering your letter, my dear Miss Harriet, but then you must remember that it is an equally long time since I received it—so that makes us even, & nobody to blame on either side” [MTLE 1: 69].

June 15, 1876 Thursday 

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June, before the 15th  Sam wrote from Hartford to James Hammond Trumbull, enclosing Frank Etting’s reply to Sam’s questions about the Centennial event in Philadelphia. Etting had urged Sam and Trumbull to come; that there would be 150 authors and that not every one could read every piece but many would read part. Trumbull had provided the multilingual chapter epigraphs for The Gilded Age.

June 16, 1876 Friday 

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June 16 Friday – George Bentley wrote from London, England

Dear Sir / I enclose a cheque … with many thanks.

      Your article came very late, & only by displacing one, & making a slight curtailment of the commencement could I get it in time. You will therefore forgive this curtailment It is a quaint article & I shall hope to hear from you again, especially when gd fun runs riot with you.

June 18, 1876 Sunday

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June 18 Sunday – Frank M. Etting wrote from Philadelphia to Sam.

Dear Sir / I have been so overwhelmed by the details of our celebration of 7th June & of 2d July as to be unable to attend to the duty of correspondence at all— You must therefore make due allowance for my delay in replying to your favor of 8th inst—

June 20, 1876 Tuesday

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June 20 Tuesday – Sam wrote to James Hammond Trumbull on Etting’s June 18 letter: “I think I’ll go, Trumbull, & I hope you will stick to your intention of going, too” [MTPO].

June 21, 1876 Wednesday 

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June 21 Wednesday – Frank Soulé wrote from San Francisco to ask Clemens’ help in publishing his poem in 5 cantos, nearly 4,000 lines; he complained of working at the Alta where he was just a “machine not well oiled” and being unable to make a living after 17 years in SF [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “Frank Soule Poet”. See Sept. 3, 1880 to Howells for more on Soulé.

June 22, 1876 Thursday

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June 22 Thursday  Sam and Livy wrote from Elmira to John Brown in Scotland. Sam made efforts to cheer Brown up, to urge him to travel and visit, and to bring others with him. Livy wrote hope for Brown’s health to improve and gave news of her children.

June 24, 1876 Saturday 

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June 24 Saturday  Sam wrote from Elmira to Elisha Bliss. He was ready for the proofs to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but would be “better ready a week or ten days hence.” Sam suggested that American Publishing Co. could show better profits if it tried to do less, print fewer books (meaning more of his as well):

June 26, 1876 Monday 

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June 26 Monday – The Cincinnati Commercial printed Moncure Conway’s “London Letter,” which contained several quotations, extracts and bits of plot summary for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. It also contained the entire fence-painting scene. From this publication many other newspapers picked up the article. Sam liked this method of publicity, of giving the public teasers before the book was issued [MTPO, notes on Sam’s July 24 to Conway].