Day By Day Dates

March 29 Saturday – Sam forwarded Howells’ note to Charles Webster, about failure to get John T. Raymond for the new Sellers play. Howells suggested changing Sellers name. Sam replied he would make the changes and wanted Webster to answer Howells.

“I am willing to do anything, I care not WHAT it is. Tell him our talk about Raymond’s proposal” [MTP].

March 30 Sunday – Daniel C. French wrote to Clemens [MTP]. April fool request for autograph

Dr. John S. Billings wrote from Wash DC to ask for auto & photo Clemens [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Dr. Billings .Apl fool”

Francis D. Millet wrote to Clemens [MTP]. April fool request for auto

March 31 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Charles Webster, seeking the man who would be hired as the illustrator for Huckleberry Finn, Edward Windsor Kemble (1861-1933). Sam had seen Kemble’s work in Life magazine, at the time an illustrated comic weekly. He especially liked Kemble’s cartoon, “Some Uses for Electricity” [Oxford MT edition of HF, 1996, after-notes by Beverly David & Ray Sapirstein].

April – On an unknown date in April, Sam telegraphed Howells that Webster had gone to Providence to make John T. Raymond another offer to take the new Sellers play [MTHL 2: 482]. The communications between Sam, Howells, Webster, and Raymond took place over several months. More certain success rested with Raymond, who’d been successful as Sellers in the past.

April 1 Tuesday – George W. Cable, in a stunt “to pay off his debt of gratitude for his recent entertainment in the Clemens’s home,” [MTB 768-70] arranged for 150 friends of Sam’s to write him on April Fool’s Day requesting his autograph.

April 3 Thursday – Charles Webster wrote to Clemens: enclosed Am. Exchange stock; Hooper, artist for Life and the Graphic, “a very cheap man” so he gave him 2 chapters on trial to illustrate; Edward W. Kemble quoted $1200; offered to bring drawings up Mon or Tues to see who they would hire [MTP].

April 5 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to the Gerhardts, advising when they return to America, to make some connection with Augustus Saint-Gaudens or John Quincy Adams Ward [MTP].

Sam’s letter to Karl Gerhardt was sold at auction by Sotheby’s on June 19, 2003, and this addition expands the short explanation at the MTP:

A lengthy letter in which Clemens gives the artist advice:

April 6 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster, telling him to “come up & bring the pictures.” He also directed that a cloth P&P and a cloth LM be sent to Mrs. Olmsted’s Southern school or charity [MTP].

April 7 Monday – Celeste A. Hendricks wrote from Boston, thanking Sam for his of Apr. 3. “I talked with Mr. Marshall about it and he advised me to go and see you and state my case. / As soon as I have read before critics and managers—I hope to write you again” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “This fool again”

April 8 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells.

“It took my breath away, & I haven’t recovered it yet, entirely—I mean the generosity of your proposal to read the proofs of Huck Finn” [MTP].

April 10 Thursday – Sam wrote from New York City to Thomas Bailey Aldrich about being unable to come to Boston until Thursday next, due to a dinner invitation for Wednesday (Apr. 16), but would plan on being at the Aldrich home about 4 PM on that day [MTP]. Sam purchased a copy of Faust. A Tragedy, translated by Bayard Taylor (1879) [Gribben 264].

April 12 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster, in a rather scolding tone:

“The book is to be issued when a big edition has been sold—& not before…Now write it up somewhere, & keep it in mind; & let us consider that question settled, and done with…Write it up, & don’t forget it any more” [MTBus 248].

April 14 Monday – Sam gave a reading of an unfinished paper to be completed by each member at the Hartford Monday Evening Club [Fatout, MT Speaking 656].

April 15 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Henry G. Carleton (unidentified). Evidently Carleton had sent Sam a story for evaluation.

“In my opinion isn’t mainly a ‘humorous work’ at all…it is a fine & stately & beautiful tragedy” [MTP].

Sam also wrote a paragraph to his mother, Jane Clemens: 

April 16 Wednesday – In his letter to Aldrich of Apr. 10, Sam cited a dinner engagement with that he and Livy could not get out of for this evening, where they were to “meet some strangers who will be unmeetable later.”

Sam wrote a one-liner to Charles Webster: “Find out where Parsloe is, & drop a line & tell him I’ve got a play to show him which may possibly suit him & Louis Aldrich” [MTP].

April 17 Thursday – Sam and Livy were scheduled to travel to Boston on this day and be entertained at the Aldrich home (see Apr. 10 entry). They may have gone on Apr. 16 as Sam wrote to his mother, Jane Clemens, on Apr.15. See Apr. 22 for Twichell’s journal entry for Apr. 17.

April 18 Friday – Charles Webster wrote to Clemens: rec’d MS all right (HF?); unable to find Parsloe or Aldrich; Osgood was there, Howells the next day [MTP].

April 19 Saturday – Lucius Seth Huntington wrote to Clemens, more about her book of the lost child. She asked for a letter from him to any press people, and she’d send him advance sheets [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Let press people alone / troublesome Huntington”

April 20 Sunday – Back home in Hartford, Sam wrote to Edgar W. Howe, reporting that Howells was “drunk with admiration of your book,” The Story of a Country Town (1883).

“As T.B. Aldrich was present during one whole evening [on the recent trip to Boston], & had to listen to so much talk about a book which he has not seen, he naturally got pretty well filled up with curiosity” [MTP].

April 21 Monday – George E. Waring wrote to ask Sam to send him a copy of “Ambulina” [MTP]. Note: see Feb. 18 entry on Ambulina.

April 22 Tuesday – From Hartford Sam replied to Charles Webster’s Apr. 21. He wanted the raft chapter, which was used in LM, “left wholly out” of HF. He badgered Webster about getting official pledges, called “acceptances” out of Osgood for money owed.

April 24 Thursday – Richard Watson Gilder wrote to Clemens with Mrs. Burnett’s suggestion about the story project (5 tales from 5 authors) [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “My skeleton novelettes”

April 25 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster. He planned to go to New York City “next Tuesday” (Apr. 29) and stay at the Brunswick Hotel. He wanted Webster to either meet him there or at Laurence Hutton’s in the evening. Sam enclosed 300 shares of Oregon Trans-Continental stock, which he eventually took a huge loss on. Sam bought it at 73 and it was now worth only 15 or 16.

April 26 Saturday – Charles Webster wrote to Clemens: office stationery printed; would hold the drawings for him to see on Tuesday; Howells suggestion to print a book “about the adventures of a young country boy in Boston” in the fall; paper costs; Osgood money; office rent contract; Raubs trial postponed [MTP].

April 27 Sunday – Roswell Smith wrote to Clemens about a farm house in Simsbury, Conn. for Cable to rent at $350 per year [MTP].

April 27 to May 4 Sunday – In his May 4 letter to the Gerhardts, Sam wrote:

“…Twichell & I have been breaking our necks & bones all the past 7 days trying to learn to ride the bicycle—but we have acquired the art, now, & shan’t break anything more” [MTP]. (See May 4 entry.)