Day By Day Dates

March 14 Saturday – Charles Kingsley, canon of Westminster, and unmarried elder daughter, Rose Georgiana, visited the Clemens family. Kingsley had come to America on a lecture tour [MTL 6: 32n1]. Note: Kingsley returned to England exhausted from the American tour, and died the next year, 1875.

March 15 and 16 Monday – Sam wrote to Thomas Bailey Aldrich, best known for his 1869, The Story of a Bad Boy, a sort of forerunner to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Sam read the book but claimed not to have been influenced by it and did not like the prose style [Rasmussen 7]. Aldrich had visited earlier in the month and had sought Sam’s help on his current work, Prudence Palfrey. After several pages of suggestions, Sam wrote the next day (Mar.

March 18 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Orion. Captain Edgar “Ned” Wakeman had written to Sam asking him to write the story of Wakeman’s life. Sam’s response has been lost, but he wrote his brother:

“I have written him that you will edit his book & help him share the profits, & I will write the introduction & find a publisher” [MTL 6: 82].

March 19 Thursday – Susy Clemens’ second birthday. See insert age 2-3.

Sam wrote from Hartford to Ainsworth R. Spofford, the Librarian of Congress. Sam wanted to publish a pamphlet (Mark Twain’s Sketches. Number One) and copyright both the contents and the engraved design on the cover. Would one copyright suffice? [MTL 6: 85].

March 20 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to William Dean Howells to advise him of a house for sale near where the new house was being built. Sam wanted Howells or Aldrich to move to Hartford. The reply is not known, but neither man moved [MTL 6: 85].

Sam also wrote to Frank Fuller about making money from buying and publishing a manuscript:

March 23 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Jerome B. Stillson (1841-1880), managing editor of the New York World and a native of Buffalo.

March 24 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Thomas Bailey Aldrich, telling him to “send along the proofs” for Aldrich’s book, Prudence Palfrey. Sam would also help Aldrich get the book published by Elisha P. Bliss—what’s more, Sam’s strategy was to approach Bliss with the manuscript, and ask if he could pay a ten per cent royalty or should Sam go to a “hated rival”?

March 25 Wednesday – Sam again wrote from Hartford to Thomas Bailey Aldrich, clarifying prior advice on a revised section of Aldrich’s book [MTL 6: 94].

March 26 Thursday – The London Standard ran Sam’s letter, “The Temperance Insurrection” [MTL 6: 66].

March 27 Friday – In Hartford, Sam wrote to James Redpath.

“Dear Redpath: / If you’ve got that old Postmaster monologue by you, please send it to me—I want to revise & publish it in the Atlantic Monthly, & see if I like it upon re-reading” [MTP, drop-in letters]

March 28 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to William S. Andrews, a fellow lecturer and member of the Lotos Club.

Spring of 1874 – Sam’s pamphlet of ten sketches, Mark Twain’s Sketches. Number One, was ready but was withdrawn before distribution [MTL 6: 49n6].

April 3 Friday – Sam paid an Apr. 1 bill of $2.45 from Geer & Pond, Hartford booksellers for a subscription of Littell’s Living Age for the period Dec. 6, 1873 to Mar. 21, 1874 [Gribben].

April 4 Saturday ­– C. Gleim wrote to Sam [MTP]. (See Apr. 9-12 entry)

April 6 Monday – David Gray wrote from Buffalo, NY. In part:

April 7 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Annie F. Fuller (1840?-1906), 2nd wife of Frank Fuller:

My Dear Mrs. Fuller:

April 8 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Chatto & Windus, English publishers who had taken over John Camden Hotten’s company upon his death. Responding to a request for a blurb to promote Ambrose Bierce’s new book, Nuggets and Dust Panned Out in California by Dod Grile; Sam had known Bierce in San Francisco in the 1860s. Sam wrote:

April 9 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Jerome B. Stillson, editor of the New York World, asking him to save all the exchanged newspapers that carried the lie that he paid for a dinner to be given in his own honor.

“In confidence, I am bringing a libel suit & I want these papers as evidence. Don’t mention it” [MTL 6: 102].

April 10 Friday – Mollie Clemens arrived in Hartford remaining at least through Apr. 11. She came to ask Sam to help her and Orion buy a farm in Keokuk. Sam was still deciding by Apr. 23, when Mollie wrote an attorney to seek clear title on a property near Keokuk, owned by her father, William Stotts [MTPO notes in Apr. 23 to Orion]. Sam offered them the alternative of an outright pension with interest on $8,000.

April 11 Saturday – Sam wrote again to James Redpath asking for advice—should he sue for libel or print a paragraph denying the lie, “& word it so that it will travel.” Whatever advice Redpath gave, Sam did not file suit [MTL 6: 105].

Jane Clemens wrote to Sam and Livy asking for donated books for the WCTU in Fredonia [Gribben 576]. (See Dec. 9 entry.)

April 13 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to the Editor of the Hartford Courant. Joseph R. Hawley was the top editor, but he was in Washington, so Charles Dudley Warner was in charge.

April 14 Tuesday – Sam inscribed a book (unidentified) of Twichell’s that he’d borrowed and then loaned to Elisabeth (Lilly) Warner [MTL 6: 107].

Sam’s letter to the Courant ran on page two as “Mark Twain’s Banquet” [Courant.com].

April 15 Wednesday – Sam and Livy left Hartford for Elmira, stopping in New York where they stayed two nights at the new Windsor Hotel. There they met Mary Mason Fairbanks and her son Charley [MTL 6: 109n2].

An inch of rain fell on New York City [NOAA.gov].

April 17 Friday – Sam and Livy continued on to Mrs. Langdon’s in Elmira, where they stayed until May 5 and then moved to Quarry Farm with Susan and Theodore Crane [MTL 6: 47n1].

April 18 Saturday – Sam replied from Elmira to David Gray of the Buffalo Courier. Sam extended an invitation for the Grays to visit them at Quarry Farm in a few weeks. Sam mentioned the “Mark Twain dinner” joke, and that he’d “swallowed the joke without any difficulty” [MTL 6: 108].