Day By Day Dates

October 18 Friday – Sam wrote to an unidentified person about his plans to lecture in Great Britain.

“I think it will be 2 or 3 weeks before I shall really know whether I can lecture in Great Britain or not. So I am obliged to be thus indefinite in my reply. I certainly shall lecture about 8 or 10 times in this country if other & more necessary business shall permit” [MTL 5: 197].

October 19 Saturday – Bill paid to Putnam Phalanx Market, Hartford grocers; steak, halibut, oysters, veal, chicken, etc. $15 [MTP].

Sam inscribed copies of “A Curious Dream”(issued this year in a pamphlet) and RI to Henry Lee: “To Henry Lee / From his friend /Mark Twain /Oct. 19, 1872” [MTP].

October 23 Wednesday – In Hartford, Hatch & Tyler delivered coal to the Clemens home [MTP].

October 24 Thursday – Bill paid to Arnold, Constable & Co. New York for cashmere, hat, five bibs $20.75 [MTP].

October 25 Friday – Sam telegraphed from London to Henry Lee, also in the city.

“Can’t. I am in the family way with 3 weeks undigested dinners in my system, & shall just roost here & diet & purge till I am delivered. Shall I name it after you?” [MTL 5: 198].

October 26 Saturday – Mary Mason Fairbanks wrote to Sam [MTP]. COPY VIC

October 29 Tuesday and/or November 1 Friday – Sam attended one or both of the stag hunts on these dates near the village of Wargrave, and wrote about the experience to Mary Fairbanks on Nov. 2 [MTL 5: 207n3].

November 1 Friday – Bill paid to The Farmington Creamery Co. for deliveries made Oct. 4,11,18,25, and Nov. 1 $12.50 [MTP].

November 2 Saturday – Sam wrote from London to Mary Mason Fairbanks:

“I hunted that stag in a wagon—but I didn’t catch him. Neither did the red-coated, pigskin-breeched hunters—but it was fine to see the 250 scour over the hills & fields & sail over the hedges & fences like so many birds” [MTL 5: 205].

Sam was learning about the English:

November 3 Sunday – In London Sam wrote to James Redpath.

“I am revamping, polishing & otherwise fixing up my lecture on Roughing It & think I will deliver it in London a couple of times about a month from now, just for fun.”

Sam also asked for news of Bret Harte, not knowing about Redpath and Harte’s very public breakup over Harte’s failures to show for scheduled lectures [MTL 5: 208].

November 4 Monday – Sam received a cable from Livy, saying “come home,” that she would return to England with him in the spring [MTL 5: 214n2]. 

Sir Sydney Hedley Waterlow (London Lord Mayor) sent Clemens an engraved invitation to dine at Stationer’s Hall on Monday, Nov. 4 [MTP]. Note: likely this invite was earlier than Nov. 4.

November 5 Tuesday – Sam attended the opening of the New Guildhall Library and Museum. Sam wrote from the Langham Hotel in London at midnight to Henry Lee. “I sail in first steamer after Lord Mayor’s dinner on Nov.

November 6 Wednesday – Sam wrote from London to his mother and sister that Livy was going to return to England with him in April and stay several months. He bought his nephew, Sammy Moffett, a steam engine and himself a stereopticon, which he initially had considered buying Sammy [MTL 5: 215-6].

November 7 Thursday – Sam attended a dinner for the Linnean Society of London, with Henry Lee, who was a member. The society commemorated Swedish naturalist Carl Linneaus (1707-1778) [MTL 5: 214n3].

Sam inscribed a copy of Innocents Abroad to Sir John Bennett: “With the warm regards of The Author” [McBride 7].

November 8 Friday – Clemens sent another announcement to the editor of the London Telegraph, of his return home and plans for lecturing in the spring [MTL 5: 219].

John Camden Hotten wrote to Clemens, who went to Piccadilly to call on him. Hotten’s letter, noted only in 1st ed. MTDBD I for this date, is now supplied by Welland:

November 9 Saturday – Sam attended the Lord Mayor’s Banquet. Sir Sydney Waterlow was the new Lord Mayor. The banquet was held for 800-900 guests [MTLE 5: 221n1]. On each plate was a plan of the hall with the position of each person numbered. A reading of the names of those present was made, as Sam later told during a journalistic breakfast in 1879.

November 10 Sunday – At midnight on Nov. 9, after the Lord Mayor’s Dinner, Sam wrote Livy:

November 11 Monday – Sam left London bound for Liverpool and home to Hartford [MTL 5: 214n2].

November 12 Tuesday – Sam sailed from Liverpool on the steamship Batavia of the Cunard Line, bound for Boston and New York [MTL 5: 214n2]. Note: see July 3, 1907 from C.F. Wood to Clemens. Also Nov. 26, 1872.

November 15 Friday – Thomas Nast wrote from Morristown, NJ to Sam. “I shall be glad to see my young ‘adorer’, but I am not to be found in New York usually, I only go in once a week, to see to things, and do all my work at home….Poor deluded boy! He needs but to behold, to be completely cured of his infatuation” [MTP]. Note: The boy referred to was Charley Fairbanks who idolized Nast.

November 17 to 18 Monday – From Sam’s letter of Nov. 20 en route to Boston from Liverpool, to the Royal Humane Society:

November 18 Monday – Bill paid to A. Schmidt & Co., 842 Broadway, New York, $55.50 portfolio, box, easels, vase, paper cutter, tray [MTP].

November 19 Tuesday – More from Sam’s letter of Nov. 20:

November 20 Wednesday – Sam wrote en route to Boston from Liverpool, to the Royal Humane Society about the storm and rescue, and recommending Captain John E. Mouland (b. 1828) and crew for “that reward which a sailor prizes & covets above all other distinctions, the Royal Humane Society’s medal.” Sam and nineteen passengers signed the letter [MTL 5: 223].

November 23 Saturday – Sam wrote a congratulatory letter to Captain John E. Mouland for his “brave and good deed” and for his handling of the crisis of the storm. Again, signed by many other passengers [MTL 5: 227-9].