Day By Day Dates

1882 – Sam drew up a list of his investments and domicile expenses since Jan. 1, 1881.

January – Sometime during the month Sam wrote to Will Clemens (no relation, see Nov. 18, 1879 entry) who had asked for a humorous biography of Sam.

“I haven’t any humorous biography—the facts don’t admit of it. I had this sketch from Men of the Time printed on slips to enable me to study my history at my leisure” [Clemens, W. 20].

Will did write a 200-page biography of Sam and published it on July 1, 1892 as “No. 1” in a paperback series called “The Pacific Library.”

Sam also wrote to Whitelaw Reid sometime during January:

January 1 Sunday – Schwartz Bros. (soon to be F.A.O. Schwartz), New York, billed Sam $3.50 for doll parts: “1 head, 1 wig, repackage doll.” Note: stamped on invoice: “bills rendered Jan. May and Oct.”; Park & Tilford, fancy groceries, New York billed Sam $36.88 for two kinds of jelly, “2 doz Glen Whiskey”, paid Jan. 11 [MTP].

January 2 Monday – Edward House and daughter Koto arrived for a visit. Sam inscribed P&P to Koto, House’s adopted Japanese daughter: To / Koto House / With the affectionate regards of / The Author / Hartford Jan.2, 1882 [MTP]. Note: in his Dec. 27 to House Sam announced Koto would get the China paper edition.

Sam also wrote to Charles Webster:

“Dear Charley— Make me a copper stamp. I am on track of a way by which you can harden it afterwards, & make it as hard as brass. I hear this from the head of the Bank Note Co.” [MTP].

January 4 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam inscribed P&P to A.V.S. Anthony: “To / A.V.S. Anthony / With Sentiments of esteem, / appreciation, & tenderness, / from / The Author / Hartford, Jan. 4, 1882” [MTP].

Sam also wrote to James R. Osgood about distribution of P&P to British possessions outside of Canada through McMillan. Sam didn’t care how it was done or how many were sold that way, he simply didn’t want cheaper versions flooding into the U.S. He also saw an opportunity to act in concert with Osgood as agents:

January 5 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster after Bliss telephoned asking if he needed to send the check and statement to Webster. Sam confirmed it. He also wrote:

“Hang it, I believe your metallurgical authority says copper can’t be cast in anything but sand. I am sorry, if it is so” [MTP].

Charles Webster wrote: “We cant cast copper or brass in Kaolatype, do you mean for me to make the spelter pattern & then get the copper cast at the foundry?”

Also more on the Paige typesetter [MTP].

January 6 Friday – Tiffany & Co., per Louis C. Tiffany wrote to acknowledge Sam’s $2,000 [MTP].

January 7 Saturday – Sam wrote a short note from Hartford to James R. Osgood about some “Toronto pirates’ lawyers,” a reference which is obscure at this point. Late in the year Belford and Clarke were defendants in a lawsuit. Sam also referred to his “little assault of a rather venomous nature upon Whitelaw Reid,” and suggested Osgood “drop in and consult the judacity of it” if he were to “pass through” Hartford [MTLTP 151].

January 8 Sunday – Sam was visited by John Russell Young, who evidently discussed events relating to Sam’s newly planned Mississippi trip and book [Jan. 9 letter to Young, MTP].

The Lotos Club, New York, receipted Sam $6.25 for dues [MTP].

January 9 Monday – At 11 A.M. Sam and Edward H. House called at the hotel where John Russell Young had been staying but he’d left on the 10:30 train. Later, Sam wrote from Hartford to Young:

“The prospective pleasure of writing that book [LM] grows with the moments; & already I foresee that in the building of it I am going to find a delight comparable to going to heaven.”

January 10 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to David “Wattie” Bowser, who evidently had sent Sam a frog when Sam was in Canada.

“…they put him in the greenhouse & he lost himself immediately. The gardener hunted for him every day or two, & three days ago he found him. I have seen him, & he is all right & manifestly enjoying himself.”

January 11 Wednesday – Thomas B. Aldrich for Atlantic Monthly wrote to thank for P&P: “a charming conception and charmingly worked out. The only thing I have against the idea is that I did not think of it first” [MTP].

John Russell. Young wrote from NYC. “Any day or anytime will suit,—either here or in H.” [MTP].

January 12 Thursday – Edmund C. Stedman wrote; not found at MTP though catalogued as UCLC 41429.

Ency J. Coleman wrote from Kalamazoo, Mich. to ask for a letter on “Clubs” for his club [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “No Answer”

January 13 Friday – Charles Webster wrote that he had Patterson at work on the brass. He enclosed (not in file) a report of the Am. Pub. Co. from Bradstreets and would get another from Dunn & Wyman and “we can see how they agree. I think there are some lies in that statement, especially about the par value of stock” [MTP].

January 15 Sunday – The Brooklyn Eagle, page 1, ran an article headlined “SAGEBRUSH SKETCHES, How Mark Twain’s Brightest Effort Was Kept from Print.” The paper gave credit without a prior date to the San Francisco Call. It seems Joe Goodman once called upon Sam to write up a fancy new saloon in Virginia City. Sam gathered a box of liquors from the saloon and “arranged them in a long row,” then tasting and describing each in print.

January 16 Monday – Worden, Webb & Co. wrote advising of the sale of stock, 100 shares of Western Union @ 82 [MTP].

January 18 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells. He informed him of Ned House’s visit, a story Charles Dudley Warner had told of a faulty will for the late Mrs. Dan Fisk, and enclosed a Jan. 1 letter from Hattie Gerhardt. The Gerhardts were in Paris, where Karl was studying art, and had enjoyed a visit from the Warners.

January 19 Thursday – Sam’s letter of Jan. 18 to Howells implied Ned House and daughter Koto ended their visit at the Clemens home this day. Koto had been ill but was “up & around again, now” [MTHL 1: 384].

Orion wrote Sam again, anxious that he had not personally addressed the package with his MS, asking Sam to let him know as soon as it arrived [Fanning 195].

January 20 Friday – Howells, in a Boston boarding house where he might be close to his doctor, answered Sam’s Jan. 18 letter. Howells thanked him for the Gerhardt letter and remarked how “the ideal perfection of some things in life” led him to conclude, “never to meddle with the ideal in fiction….” He was just now recovering from a five-week stint in a sick bed due to exhaustion.

January 21 Saturday – Sam may have been influenced by Howells’ comments of Jan. 20, and took Livy’s advice—He directed Charles Webster to examine the New York Tribune for evidence that Reid was persecuting him. Ned House may have also complained of similar treatment to Sam; Charles Dudley Warner certainly did complain [MTHL 1: 390n1].

January 22 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Louis Fréchette. There’d been a mix-up on an invitation; a man had invited him to an event honoring Fréchette in Holyoke, Mass., and then told Fréchette that Sam had accepted when he had not. Sam felt honor-bound to go along and so cleared the air. He also wanted to discuss a matter with Fréchette that he could not write about, and asked if Fréchette might be able to stop in Hartford for a day or two before the Holyoke dinner [MTP].

January 23 Monday – Hubbard & Farmer bankers & brokers sent a statement with a credit balance of $11,640.95 [MTP].

David M. Drury wrote from NYC to solicit an autograph [MTP].

Worden & Co. Wrote advising purchase of 100 shares of Western Union at 80 [MTP].

January 24 Tuesday – A.P. Mitchell, NY stockbroker wrote, promoting a copper mine in Ariz. He claimed he’d made Sam’s acquaintance 10 years before in Pittsburgh [MTP]. Note: Clemens was in Pittsburgh during his 1872 lecture course on Jan. 11 to 16.

January 25 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James R. Osgood:

“If you and Roswell Smith are proposing a new magazine & Howell’s won’t take the editorship, why don’t you offer it to House?…Of course I have said nothing to him of the matter, & don’t know if he could drop his Japanese interests & his Japanese Consul-Generalship…” [MTP]. Note: Roswell Smith (1829-1892).

January 26 Thursday – John Russell Young of the New York Herald inscribed a copy of his Around the World with General Grant in 1877, 1878, 1879 (1879): “To Mark Twain, honoring his genius; and remembering the friendship of many, many years. Jno Russell Young, N.Y., January 26, 1882” [Gribben 795].