Day By Day Dates

June 5 Wednesday – The Cranes arrived in Elmira while it was still daylight. As the sun set, Langdon Clemens was buried in the Langdon plot, Woodlawn Cemetery, close to his grandfather Jervis Langdon [MTL 5: 100]. A death mask of the child was made, which Livy placed in her keepsake box. Sam later had a bust made from the mask.

June 10 Monday – Bill paid to Horace C. Deming, flour & grain dealer, for two bales hay, 100 lbs meal, six buckets oats $11.15 [MTP].

June 11 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Adolph H. Sutro, a mutual friend of John Henry Riley’s. Sam had heard from Sutro about Riley’s failing health, but due to Langdon’s death and Livy’s condition, Sam had mot been able to get away. Sutro had sent Riley $100 and visited him. Since Sam could not visit, he also sent $100 [MTL 5: 101].

June 13 Thursday – Bret Harte traveled to Hartford and spent the night with the Clemenses. In 1907 Sam claimed that Harte was broke, borrowed $500 and “employed the rest of his visit in delivering himself of sparkling sarcasms about our house, our furniture, and the rest of our domestic arrangements” [MTL 5: 105n2].

June 15 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to William Dean Howells. Sam enclosed a newspaper portrait of himself and begged for a portrait of Howells that appeared in Hearth & Home. He added that 62,000 copies of Roughing It had been sold and delivered in four months [MTL 5: 102-3].

June 17 Monday – Bret Harte wrote from NYC to thank Sam for his concern. He added: “I liked Slote greatly. He is very sweet, sensible and sincere. I think he is truly ‘white’ as you say, or quite ‘candid’ as Mr Lowell would say in his Latin-English. / I enclose your diamond stud, wh. I wore in the cars. …Let me hear from you about Bliss. Tell Mrs. Clemens I deputize you to kiss the baby for me…” [MTP].

June 18 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Louise Chandler Moulton. Sam thanked the Boston correspondent for the New York Tribune, for her kind review of Roughing It and her sympathies for his “irreparable loss” [MTL 5: 108].

June 21 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Joseph L. Blamire, NY agent for George Routledge & Sons publishers. Sam made 400 revisions to a copy of Innocents Abroad, in attempt to make the book more palatable to English tastes. He wrote that he expected to be in New York the next Wednesday, staying with Dan Slote.

June 22 Saturday – Sam signed a new contract with Elisha Bliss, superceding his 1870 contract which called for the African diamond mine book. The new contract gave Sam his ten percent royalty, thus solving the problem he’d had with Roughing It. The contract was not fulfilled until 1879, when Sam and Bliss agreed that The Adventures of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) would be used to satisfy the contract [MTL 5: 101-2].

June 23 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Joseph L. Blamire, enclosing the preface for Innocents Abroad, which Routledge would publish in two volumes [MTL 5: 110].

June 24 Monday – Sam receipted $5,000 advance from Elisha Bliss for copyright on Roughing It [MTP].

June 26 Wednesday – Date of letter to Sam from J. Langdon & Co. with statement of Livy’s account and enclosed check for $1,018.18 [MTP].

June 27 Thursday – John Henry Riley wrote from Phila. to Sam: “Friend Clemens / My dear fellow, Are you going to make an effort to come and see me?…I may hold on for a month or so, (who knows?) and I may go off any night.” He was dying of cancer [MTP].

June 30 Sunday – Sam arrived in New York and stayed at the St. Nicholas Hotel. He may have gone to Boston during this week to attend the Boston World’s Peace Jubilee and International Music Festival. James R. Osgood & Co. was a major underwriter of the Jubilee.

July – Sam’s sketch “Mark Twain at the Grave of Adam” (Innocents Abroad, Ch. 53) ran in American Publishing Co.’s in-house promotional monthly, American Publisher [Camfield, bibliog.].

July 1 Monday – Bill paid to The Farmington Creamery Co., $10.80, for purchases/deliveries made June 11, 14, 21, 28. Also, bill paid to Drs. Taft & Starr for professional services for period Jan. 1, ’72 to July 1, ’72. $67.82 paid to E.D. Roberts for one “No. 4 Extension Top ‘Peerless’” and parts [MTP].

July 2 Tuesday – Bill paid for James Ahern, Practical Plumber and Gas Fitter, 272 Main St. Hartford for work done Apr. 12, May 18, 21, 29, and June 13; total 17 man hours work, $15.76.

Sam send an engraved card in script font to an unknown man:

Dear Sir:

      I thank you for the compliment of the invitation, but am compelled to decline, since my lecture has permanently closed.

Yours truly,

July 3 Wednesday – Bill paid to McNary & Co., chemists and druggists Hartford 246 Main St. for “3 doz Scotch ale $9” [MTP].

July 4 Thursday – During Sam’s last day in New York, over an inch of rain fell [NOAA.Gov].

July 5 Friday – Sam was back home in Hartford by this date and packing up to leave Hartford’s summer heat for the Connecticut shore [MTL 5: 112]. Sam probably wrote Bret Harte before leaving Hartford, inviting him to New Saybrook, because Harte wrote back on July 6 [MTL 5: 118].

July 6 Saturday – Sam, Livy, and baby Susy with nursemaid Nellie left Orion and Mollie in charge of the Forest Street house and left to Fenwick Hall Hotel at Saybrook Point, Saybrook, Conn. It was a two-hour train ride from Hartford.

July 8 Monday – Pamela Moffett wrote from Fredonia to Sam: “My dear Brother. / Sammy succeeded in getting only three subscribers before he left home. It seems the Dunkirk agent did canvass this village but not very thoroughly, so there is still a chance for Sammy” [MTP]. Note: See July 9-12 entry.

July 9 Tuesday – Joseph L. Blamire agent for Routledge & Sons wrote to Sam:

July 10 Wednesday – Sam wrote from New Saybrook to Joseph L. Blamire of Routledge & Sons, who had sent a receipt and disclaimer for Sam to sign along with $250. Blamire had asked for an additional preface (see MTL 5: 117n1 for Blamire’s letter).

July 11 Thursday – Sam wrote from New Saybrook to Frank Bliss. Sam asked if Elisha Bliss was at home and if he ever came down to Saybrook. Sam had heard from Bret Harte, who he’d invited to Saybrook. He had been trying to get Bliss and Harte together since June for a new book from Harte. Harte wrote on July 6: he had a “dangerously sick” baby and was unable to leave [MTL 5: 118].