Day By Day Dates

April 9 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Whitelaw Reid of the New York Tribune. He enclosed a letter about the necessity of securing sufficient life rafts on ships instead of lifeboats. Sam’s “crusade” on the subject was sparked by the loss of 481 passengers and crew when the Atlantic sank on the coast of Nova Scotia on Apr. 1, 1873 [MTL 5: 335-9].

April 11 Friday – Sam’s letter dated Apr. 8 “Life-Rafts. How the Atlantic’s Passengers Might Have Been Saved” ran in the New York Tribune [Camfield, bibliog.].

April 12 Saturday – Alexander & Mason, patent solicitors wrote to Sam: “Your models and favor of 9th instant have been received. We believe a patent can be obtained for the improvement having carefully examined the Patent Office, found nothing like it” [MTP]. Note: Sam’s patent application for the “Improvement in Scrap-Books” was filed on May 7.

April 14 Monday – Mary Mason Fairbanks wrote from Cleveland this day or Apr. 13.

My dear Hartford children— / Why do I hear nothing from you? So often of late have my thoughts turned questioningly towards you only to come back unanswered, that I am constrained to send this little messenger out of my ark, in search of you.

April 15 Tuesday – Sam signed a description to be filed with a patent application for his “Mark Twain’s Self-Pasting Scrapbook” [MTL 5: 145n4].

April 16 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Mary Mason Fairbanks, who, in her letter of Apr. 14, scolded Sam for not writing. Sam explained his working “6 days a week—good full days” on the new book, The Gilded Age. This letter established Livy & Susan Warner’s contribution to the collaboration:

April 17 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to David G. Croly (1829-1889), editor of the New York Daily Graphic. Sam included a list of telegraph headings to show how “dull” things had become, leading him to “get the fidgets” and want to travel. He included news of his collaboration with Charles Dudley Warner. The letter was published in the Graphic on Apr.

April 20 Sunday – Sam wrote a long “screed” from Hartford to Whitelaw Reid. Sam was upset by the short review in small type that appeared in the Tribune on Apr. 19.

April 21 Monday – Sam and Charles Dudley Warner wrote a note and the title page from The Gilded Age with fees for copyright to the Librarian of Congress, Ainsworth R. Spofford (1825-1908) [MTL 5: 350].

Whitelaw Reid wrote two notes to Sam. The first asking him to come to the Lotos Club for the closing dinner of the season on Saturday. The second note advising enclosed check for his “life-raft letter” [MTP].

April 22 Tuesday – Sam’s letter dated Apr. 17 to David G. Croly, editor of the New York Daily Graphic ran in that paper [MTL 5: 343n1]. The headings Sam pointed to: “solemn peacefulness” and “general stagnation, the profound lethargy that broods over the land” included:

April 24 Thursday – Livy and baby Susy accompanied Livy’s mother and cousin Hattie Lewis to Elmira. Sam remained in Hartford to finish The Gilded Age [MTL 5: 354]. What valuables did he place in his Hartford bank vault? A receipt in Sam’s financials for the year reads:

April 25 and 26 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Livy in Elmira.

April 26 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Colton Greene, a passenger on the Batavia during the rescue at sea. In relating a visit by Captain John E. Mouland earlier that month, Sam wrote:

“We talked a deal about you & your disheartening habit of cursing & swearing at the table while the ladies & the ministers needed quiet & silence wherein to coax their sustenance to go down—& stay.”

April 27 Sunday – In Hartford, Sam had lunch with Joe Twichell [Letter to Livy, Apr. 26].

April 28 Monday – In Hartford, Sam wrote to his sister, Pamela Moffett, about checks sent, her St. Louis letter received, and sending Orion some English newspapers he wanted. Sam observed about Orion’s late employment to Bliss:

Dear Sister:

April 29 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Captain John E. Mouland, sending Samuel Chalmers Thompson with the letter.

“The bearer is my friend and London helpmeet…He would like to sail with us, May 17 in the ‘Batavia’ & I would exceedingly like it myself. I hope that the ship is not so full but that a shelf can be found for him to dispose himself upon.”

May 1 Thursday – Sam wrote a short note from Hartford to Livy in Elmira. Sam asked if she was well because he’d only had two letters since she left and he figured he’d written fifteen or sixteen [MTL 5: 360]. Sam often exaggerated; Livy had only been gone a week.

Sam signed a receipt dated May 1, 1873:

May 3 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Elisha Bliss that he and Charles Dudley Warner would “be ready to talk business by about Tuesday, Wednesday, or, at latest, Thursday” (May 8). Sam also used a bit of leverage by passing on the judgment of Sheldon & Co. that he would make “a serious & damaging mistake” trying to sell a novel by subscription.

May 5 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Orion and Mollie Clemens.

Dear Sister & Bro:

Your letters received today—am very glad indeed for the news they brought. We finished revamping & refining the book tonight—ten days’ labor. It is near midnight & we are just through.

May 6 Tuesday – Bill paid to American Publishing Co. for IA books mailed $3.48: to Thomas P. McMurry (Pet), Colony, Missouri, and to Colonel Cooley at depot [MTP]. Notes: Pet McMurry was Sam’s old workmate and printer in St. Louis, and may have been the author of The Free Grant Lands Of Canada (1871). Col. Cooley was probably a Connecticut hero of the Mexican war.

May 7 Wednesday – Sam’s patent application for the “Improvement in Scrap-Books” was filed [MTL 5: 145n4]. Date of receipt from Hawley, Goodrich & Co. for Hartford Courant for period Oct. 6 ‘72 to May 1 ‘73; $4.56 [MTP].

May 8 Thursday – Elisha Bliss arrived in Hartford and met with the collaborating authors. He agreed to a 10% royalty, 5% for each author. George Routledge was also in Hartford that day and probably joined in the negotiations for publication in England.

May 12 Monday – Sam wrote from Elmira to James Redpath with his sailing date on the Batavia from New York and the possibility of him lecturing next October in “3 or 4 large eastern cities—but nowhere else.” [MTL 5: 364]. Note: Sam would not lecture in the U.S. again until Mar. 1874

May 13 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Dudley Warner about taking the 600-page requirement out of the contract with Bliss. Susy had been sick most of the night [MTL 5: 365].

May 15 Thursday – Sam, Livy, baby Susy, nurse Nellie Bermingham and Clara Spaulding, accompanied by Mrs. Fairbanks, who’d been invited by Mrs. Langdon in April to see the couple off, all left Elmira and traveled to New York.