Day By Day Dates

July 21 Monday – Charles Webster wrote to Clemens, enclosing a draft of a contract with Pond, who had not yet seen it. He announced the baby boy’s name was Samuel Charles Webster [MTP].

July 22 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster, who had drafted a contract with Pond and advised Sam, who more clearly defined Pond’s expenses to be “food, lodging & transportation.”

“If he should become unmanageable & go to thrashing people, I should not want to have to pay his daily police court expenses. And it will be like him to do that.” Otherwise, Sam offered that “this contract sounds right.” [MTP].

July 23 Wednesday – Augustus Saint-Gaudens wrote to Clemens about Gerhardt, who had been in to see him. He didn’t want to hire him as an assistant since that never seemed to work out. He thought Gerhardt was a good sculptor based on the works shown but didn’t think it fair for him to evaluate him. He advised him to do the bust of Twain and also the medallion [MTP]. See insert of Twain’s bust by Gerhardt.

July 24 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster, asking if a small change in the title page to Huck Finn might still be possible. Sam wanted it to say “Time, forty to fifty years ago,” rather than simply “Time, forty years ago.” If printing had started, “let it go” [MTP]. Note: Sam’s change appears on the facsimile Oxford copy.

July 25 Friday – James B. Pond issued a circular announcing the joint appearance of Mr. Sam’l L. Clemens and George W. Cable “in a unique series of literary Entertainments” [MTNJ 3: 60n143]. See Lorch, p 166-7 for the entire text.

July 26 Saturday – Jean Clemens’ fourth birthday.

Charles Webster wrote to Clemens: statuette safe at his office; conferred with Pond who didn’t think a treasurer was needed, but an advance agent was; he referred Pond to Sam on the question; would alter the title page as Sam requested; he hadn’t forgotten the furnace or the game; please return proofs [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “return the pages”

July 27 Sunday – James B. Pond from Everett House wrote that he thought the tour should run through March or to mid-April, which was only 14 weeks when there should be 20. “Everybody says our show is going to pull like the Devil. If you know how that is—hot! HOT!! HOT!!! HOT!!!!” [MTP].

July 28 Monday – Sam wrote from Elmira to James B. Pond. The circular looked good but Sam made a few corrections to the proof. It was best not to mention there would be new material, as Sam wanted to “draw just on our names alone.” Pond was evidently lobbying for a longer tour; Sam’s answer:

July 30 Wednesday – Orion Clemens wrote to wish Sam would send him photos like he’d sent Ma. He was still working 4 hours a day on the history research [MTP].

August 1 Friday – A.H. Kelland wrote from N. Haven to Clemens sending him an article similar to the one she once wrote on the death of the Democrat party (not in file) [MTP].

George C. Blanchard wrote from Fairfield Conn.—an oblique begging letter [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “from a fraud”

August 2 Saturday – Charles Eliot Norton wrote from Ashfield to invite Sam to their annual dinner, between the 17th and 26th of this month, whatever suited him; bring the wife, the children, his home was “elastic” [MTP].

August 5 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to an unidentified person.

“I apologize for this rag of paper, & explain that I am cruising in strange waters, where paper is scarce. (Paper is always scarce in strange waters—& even in the other kind)” [MTP].

Percy Aylmer wrote from Durham, England to ask Clemens if he’d consent to having them publish a book entirely of his quotations that an unspecified young lady had compiled [MTP].

August 6 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Eliot Norton declining an invitation to the annual dinner for the arts in Ashfield Mass., pleading age and rheumatism for “so long a journey in the heats of summer.”

Some day, I hope, you will change your dinner-hour to winter; then I am likely to be close by & idle; also hungry. …

August 7 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Howells.

August 8 Friday – William F. Cody for Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show wrote to Clemens [MTP].

Stephen C. Massett wrote from the Catskills, about Mrs. Sheffield, mother of Mrs. Bartholomew, “with whom you used to board & lodge on 16th street in 1869!” She was in NYC and would like to see Clemens [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Tiresome Jeems / No answer”

August 9 Saturday – The Critic ran an article, “The Lounger,” unsigned, which noted the tact with which James B. Pond announced the upcoming lecture season, giving Mark Twain and George W. Cable billings which would cause neither to feel slighted [Tenney, Supplement American Literary Realism, Autumn 1980 p170].

August 10 Sunday – In Boston, Howells wrote to Sam:

August 11 Monday – Sam wrote from Elmira to American Publishing Co., probably about the cheap editions being advertised by The Frank Coker News Co. of Talladega, Ala

“Unless you bring suit at once to enjoin these pirates, I must sue for the annulling of my contracts with you, upon the ground that you make no sufficient efforts to protect my copyrights from infringement” [MTP].

August 13 Wednesday – Bissell & Co. wrote to Clemens trying to reconcile his account [MTP].

August 14 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster—more about the Huck Finn proofs “If all the proofs had been as well read as the first 2 or 3 chapters were, I should not have needed to see the revises at all. On the contrary it was the worst & silliest proof-reading I have ever seen. It was never read by copy at all—not a single galley of it.” He added that the game had only a year to file patent; see Oct. 9 entry [MTP].

August 15 Friday – Bissell & Co. wrote to Clemens that the Am. Express in Europe would look up his dividend and advise [MTP].

August 16 Saturday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster, who evidently had advised that the furnace improvements in the Hartford house could be done for $750. Sam approved, but dictated that no workmen need to go up into the house from the cellar [MTP].

August 19 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster, asking for a copy of the Sellers as a Scientist play. Ask Howells or look in the:

“…safe in the billiards room. There must be a copy somewhere. I’m going to elaborate it into a novel. /Gerhardt is completing a most excellent bust of me.”

August 21 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Karl Gerhardt, advising him to get letters of introduction from “Warner; he knows everybody in Washington…” [MTP]. 

August 22 Friday – William M. Laffan for the New York Sun wrote to advise Clemens: “I put her into type and I think her highly amusing and seasonable. She’s on the Boss’s proofs and, I take it, is going in on Sunday” (in the file a copy typeset of “Hunting for H——” unsigned) [MTP].