Day By Day Dates

January – By this month, Roughing It had earned Sam about $20,600 in royalties [MTL 5: 271n7]. Sam understood that writing brought in more money than lecturing, though it’s clear that both activities energized and pleased him.

January 1 Wednesday – Two bills paid to Drs. Taft & Starr for professional services for the same period, July 1 ‘72 to Jan. 1 ’73, for $7 and $46. Bill for $3 paid to Wm. Wander, Steinway & sons’ Celebrated Pianos, for timing and repair of piano. Bill paid to Mansury & Smith, carriage manufacturer for $23.15 in repairs [MTP].

January 2 Thursday – Handwritten receipt signed John Hooker $300 for house rent for quarter ending Jan. 1 [MTP].

January 3 Friday – In Hartford, Sam telegraphed a response to Whitelaw Reid’s letter of Dec. 28, asking him to “write something, no matter what, over your own signature within the next week,”: “Will write the article today.” The untimely death of Horace Greeley had thrown the Tribune into chaos, and politics over ownership evolved into Reid buying controlling interest (with the help of Jay Gould).

January 4 Saturday – Bill paid to H.A. Botsford for four bales of straw, etc., $15.68 [MTP].

January 5 Sunday, before – William Dean Howells visited Sam and took a “frightful cold,” as mentioned in a letter from Howells to Charles Dudley Warner [MTHL 1: 12].

January 6 Monday – Sam sent another telegram from Hartford to Whitelaw Reid: “Have mailed second & concluding paper” [MTL 5: 266].

Sam’s letter dated Jan. 3, about the Sandwich Islands, “Death of King Kamehameha” ran in the New York Tribune [MTL 5: 264n1].

January 7 Tuesday – Sam’s letter to the editor of the Hartford Courant ran on page one:

SIR: When you do me the honor to suggest that I write an article about the Sandwich Islands, just now when the death of the king has turned something of the public attention in that direction, you unkennel a man whose modesty would have kept him in hiding otherwise. I could fill you full of statistics, but most human beings like gossip better, and… [Courant.com].

January 8 Wednesday – Bill paid to Isaac Glazier & Co. of New York for three watercolors by “Miss Whiting.”(possibly Lilian Whiting of Boston) Also frames, misc., totaling $36.60 [MTP].

January 9 Thursday – Sam’s letters to Whitelaw Reid on the Hawaiian question were published in the New York Tribune [MTL 5: 266].

January 10 Friday – Sam’s article arguing for annexation of the Sandwich Islands ran on the front page of the Hartford Courant.

January 11 Saturday – A humidor with this date engraved was purported given to Sam at a banquet, most likely in New York. The humidor is said to have been presented to Mark Twain at a banquet on January 11, 1873. The presenter was his good friend Charles Tiffany. Charles Tiffany and his son Louis Comfort Tiffany supplied many of the decorations for the Hartford home.

January 12 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Ira F. Hart, secretary for the Elmira YMCA. Sam declined to lecture in Elmira or Towanda [MTL 5: 267]. He was determined to finish The Gilded Age before leaving for England in May. Sam also wrote to John M.

January 13 and 17 Friday – Sam wrote again from Hartford to Whitelaw Reid, acknowledging receipt of $100 for his two letters on the Sandwich Islands. Sam wrote about buying a lot in Hartford, but then crossed out the passage. On Jan. 17 Sam added:

January 14 Tuesday – Sam wrote a revision insert about missionary work in his Sandwich Islands letters to Whitelaw Reid, which were to be reprinted in the Tribune the following day.

January 15 Wednesday – Whitelaw Reid responded that the insert was received 24 hours too late, even for the extra sheet, but that he’d have a new plate made for what he might print later [MTL 5: 272n1].

January 16 Thursday – Sam paid $10,000 for a 544’ x 320’ lot in Hartford deeded this day [MTL 5: 271, 277]. Andrews states it was “later enlarged by a second purchase…for $20,000” total [81].

For three days the area was covered with ice; Livy wrote about it in her Jan. 19 diary entry.

January 17 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to his old friend Will Bowen, commiserating about the loss of a child [MTL 5: 273]. Sam also wrote to James Redpath, declining to lecture in Philadelphia, but saying he might talk the “Sandwich Islands” lecture in New York and Brooklyn for the Mercantile Library [MTL 5: 274].

January 19 Sunday – From Livy’s diary:

“Mr. Chamberlin let us have the low land for less than $9 a foot—but in measuring the land there proved to be more of the bank than Mr. C. thought, so that by taking a hundred and thirteen (I believe) of the table land seventy five did not bring us to the flat land, so Mr. C. sold us the rest of the bank for $50 a front foot [Salsbury 13]. Note: Franklin Chamberlin.

January 20 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Thomas B. Pugh of Phila., owner of the “Star Course of Lectures and Concerts,” touting the idea of establishing a lecture circuit entirely on the Eastern seaboard in big cities with only big-name speakers [MTL 5: 275].

January 21 Tuesday – John E. Mouland wrote from Boston to reply to Clemens’ Dec. 3, 1875 invite.

January 22 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Captain John E. Mouland about the awards the captain and crew received for the rescue at sea on Sam’s trip home. Again he invited Mouland to visit Hartford on his next trip, and wrote about the lot he purchased and his plans to have a house built there while he was in England [MTL 5: 277].

Sam also wrote to his sister Pamela:

January 24 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James Redpath about his somewhat revised Sandwich Islands lecture he was to give twice in New York and once in Brooklyn and Jersey City. Sam decided to end the lecture on a serious note, rather than a joke. The serious note was a summary of Hawaii as a:

January 25 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Whitelaw Reid, enclosing a manuscript printed in the Tribune on Jan. 27 as “British Benevolence,” about the gold medal awarded to John E. Mouland for the rescue on the Batavia [MTL 5: 282].

January 26 Sunday – Whitelaw Reid wrote to Sam on Lotos Club stationery.

My Dear Twain: /Wont you come to New York next Saturday, and “be dined” as the guest of the Lotos? The members of the Club will give you a hearty welcome, and I will see that your dinner is not wholly indigestible. You will have to endure the solemnity of my society during the dinner, but at its close you can find some relief. / Very truly Yours, / Whitelaw Reid [MTPO]. Note: Sam telegraphed reply on Feb. 1