Day By Day Dates

April 24 Wednesday – James Redpath wrote to Sam

Dear Mark: / Your order for Sibley just rec’d & delivered to him. He will attend to it promptly. / I started your item. I hear golden previews of the book. Nasby was here yesterday, & had read it, & praised it warmly. The Agent here says he is “1000 behind orders” “every day” & that all his canvassers are growling because they can’t get it. So, I have seen no copy yet.” On the bottom of the letter, Twain wrote to Bliss the note in the next entry [MTP].

April 25 Thursday – In Elmira, Sam wrote to Frank Bliss directing a ½ morocco copy of IA be sent to James Redpath [MTP, drop-in letters, corrects date range citation MTL 5: 82].

May – The Cape Monthly Magazine, Cape Town, South Africa, edited by Prof. Roderick Noble, ran a section (p. 295-360) reviewing IA and quoting many passages from the recently released book [Google books for Cape Monthly Magazine, July 2009; not in Tenney].

May 1 Wednesday – American Publishing Co. issued a royalties statement for the period from Aug. 1, 1871 to Apr. 1, 1872 for RI, enclosing total $10,562.12 and signed by Frank Bliss, who thought it a “splendid showing.” Elisha Bliss was still sick [MTP].

May 8 Wednesday – Routledge & Sons received 10,000 copies of A Curious Dream from their printers [MTL 5: 73n4].

May 9 Thursday – Sam wrote from Cleveland to his baby daughter Susy.

May 10 Friday – Routledge & Sons received 6,000 copies of Mark Twain’s Sketches from their printers [MTL 5: 73n4].

May 13 Monday – In Cleveland, Clemens wrote to John Henry Riley, letter not extant but referred to in Riley’s May 16 reply.

May 14 Tuesday – The Clemens family returned to Elmira [MTL 5: 86].

May 15 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Orion and Mollie Clemens.

“The new baby is as fat as butter, & wholly free from infelicities of any kind. She weighed 4 ¼ pounds at birth—weighs about 9 now.”

May 16 Thursday – John Henry Riley wrote to Sam: “Yours of Cleveland 13th inst. is recd today. I have managed to pass over my birthday (15th inst.) which is usually a turning point in my affairs. I am now taking electro-galvanic application with the view of arresting the progress of the disease and Dr. Grier expressed himself satisfied with the result of the first application” [MTP].

May 17 Friday – Livy and Sam wrote from Elmira to niece Annie E. Moffett. Livy sent some silk material for Annie to use and Sam denied newspaper reports that he’d made a fortune off his two books and lectures. “So you see we are not nearly so rich as the papers think we are” [MTL 5: 92].

Orion Clemens wrote a long reply to Sam’s May 15 about a possible lawsuit against Elisha Bliss.

May 18 Saturday – Screamers, a small collection of Mark Twain’s stories published without Sam’s full approval, was reviewed in the London Spectator. Welland writes and quotes from the review: 

May 20 Monday – Sam wrote “a hasty note” from Elmira to Mollie Clemens to hire a cook who had been referred, to put a cot in Sam’s study and that they would start home “about Thursday or Friday noon. Will telegraph” [MTL 5: 93].

May 21 Tuesday – Bill paid to Horace C. Deming, flour & grain dealer, for $11.40 [MTP].

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:

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 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 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 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]

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.

June 1 Saturday – Langdon Clemens, age 19 months, was diagnosed with diphtheria [MTL 5: 98].

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 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 4 Tuesday – After a “short simple service” in Hartford, Susan and Theodore Crane, left Hartford at 8 PM, taking the body of Langdon to Elmira [MTL 5: 100].

Bill dated May 14 paid to D.S. Brooks & Sons, Hartford for a grate, $1.25 [MTP].