Day By Day Dates

September 8 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Chatto & Windus, acknowledging receipt of their Aug. 21 letter with notes for £986.10.5.

“It is true that Huck Finn has not treated you kindly, but it must be because the English people do not understand that dialect; for here, where the people do understand it, the book has sold more than 60,000 copies, at my usual high prices—$2.75 to $4.50 a copy.”

September 9 Wednesday – Sam entered in his notebook Bissell’s acknowledgement of Chatto’s notes [MTNJ 3: 188].

Webster & Co. per Frederick J. Hall wrote: “Your favor enclosing statement from Chatto & Windus is received; we have placed it in the safe.” More sales numbers on the Grant books, this time from Indiana and Illinois [MTP].

September 11 Friday – Sam wrote a rather long reply, from Elmira to Henry Ward Beecher, who wrote on Sept. 8 asking to see the Grant Memoirs to aid in a eulogy Beecher was to deliver on Oct. 22. He asked for Sam’s views on Grant and especially his opinion on Grant’s drinking.

September 14 Monday – Livy was depressed about leaving Quarry Farm, but was encouraged at Susy’s unselfish instincts in making up a bag of amusements for Jean on the trip. Livy’s diary entry:

We start for New York tomorrow the 15th leaving this beloved Quarry Farm. We expect to spend a few days in New York & then on to Hartford….The blessed child…was doing some thing for the pleasure of some one else [MTP].

September 15 Tuesday – The Clemens family left Elmira and Quarry Farm and traveled to New York City [Sept. 5 to Gerhardt; MTNJ 3: 189].

September 16 Wednesday – The Clemens family intended to spend “a day or two” in New York City before traveling on home to Hartford for the winter [Sept. 5 to Gerhardt].

Susan E. Dickinson wrote forwarding Sadie E. Bond’s note of thanks for Sam’s assistance [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “From the Normal School girl”

September 17 Thursday – Sam entered a list of fifteen things to do, an “order of procedure,” relating to the Paige typesetter and business organization for it [MTNJ 3: 187-8].

September 18 Friday – Livy wrote in her diary: “We arrived home safely on the 18th of Sept. and the children began their lessons on the 21st” [Salsbury 212; MTP].

September 19 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to General William Tecumseh Sherman. After sending a telegram in the morning, he sent a note of apology for not answering Sherman’s letter sooner. Sherman had asked if Sam would consider for publication his manuscript, a collection of Sherman’s travel notes from Europe. Of course he would read it, Sam answered.

September 20 Sunday – Sam and Twichell walked to Talcott’s Tower, as was their custom in the summer and fall, about a ten mile trip. Joe wrote in his journal,

“To the Tower on foot with M.T. Plenty of delightful talk. Much to tell on both sides” [Yale, copy at MTP].

September 22 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Orion. He wanted to know more about compositor rates in small towns and the country—what did the fastest man set in 7 ½ hours? He was sorry to hear that his mother was not well [MTP]. Note: Sam wanted this information because the “foreman of the N.Y. Sun” told him some very high em rates were now required, and Sam was calculating how much savings the Paige typesetter offered a newspaper.

September 23 Wednesday – Twichell’s journal reveals how the Twichells and the Clemenses spent this evening:

H[armony] & I dined at M.T.’s where we met Hon. John Russell Young late U.S. Minister to China. The talk was largely of Gen. Grant of whom he had intimate knowledge having made the Great Tour with him and written the book “Around the World with Gen. Grant” But though so well furnished with matter of interest (of various kinds) he was so unskillful a talker as to make the least of it [Yale, copy at MTP].

September 24 Thursday – Grover Cleveland replied to Sam’s Sept. 23:

My dear Sir: / Your letter is this moment received; and I am so pleased with it and so grateful for it, that I must put every thing else aside for a few minutes, and thank you for your kind, sensible, and hard-headed words.

September 25 Friday – Courtlandt Palmer wrote that Sam’s “kind but disappointing letter of the 23rd is received” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Appoints May 1 (no good) & will write me Mch 1. I can’t”

September 26 Saturday – Charles J. Langdon wrote that he hadn’t “a cent to put into” the typesetting co. stock as he was “about ‘busted’” [MTP].

Webster & Co. per Frank M. Scott listed the drafts drawn by Gerhardt totaling $1,031 from July 30 to Sept. 21 [MTP].

September 27 Sunday – From Livy’s diary:

September 28 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Frank Fuller.

“ want you to run up here & stop over night & let me tell you how I think you can make a considerable stack of money”[MTP].

Sam’s notebook contains an entry about Fuller putting Paige’s telegraphic invention on the market. Sam wrote on Nov. 11 that he’d dropped the scheme. (See MTNJ 3: 181n12.)

September 29 Tuesday – Fred Hall informed Sam that Colonel Fred Grant was planning on writing a biography of his father, taking up the story where the Memoirs left off. Sam left the negotiations to Charles Webster. Fred Grant asked for more than what was possible and the biography was never published [MTNJ 3: 201n58].

October, early – Thomas and Candace Wheeler returned the visit to the Clemenses in Hartford, who for a “lark” went with the Sages in late August to Onteora near Tannersville, New York [MTNJ 3: 178n2]. Dora Wheeler, daughter, drew a flower in Sam’s notebook during this stay. Sam drew another flower on the opposing page and labeled hers “Marsh-mallow By Dora Wheeler” [MTNJ 3: 221].

October 1 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Fred Hall, who was acting for Charles Webster during his absence in England. Sam advised Hall to put off some question to General Badeau and Mrs. Grant till Webster came home in a few days [MTP].

October 2 Friday – W.A. Paton for Scribner’s Sons wrote to introduce from England, Joseph Tyler and Philip Bright who would visit Hartford on pleasure [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Telegraph & write Mrs. Wheeler Monday. Write W.R. Plunkett”

October 3 Saturday – Sam’s notebook:

I think I’ve struck a good idea. It is to reduce a series of big maps to mere photographic fly-specks & sell them together with a microscope of ¼ to 1 inch focal distance. By this means I could conveniently examine my synchromatic map which is 36 ft long [MTNJ 3: 196]. (See also note 48.)

October 4 Sunday – Belle C. Greene wrote from Nashua, N.H. to send him her first book (A New England Conscience). She needed “honest, literary criticism of the right sort.” She enclosed clippings, not in file [MTP].

 International Typographical per E.S. McIntosh wrote to Orion, who passed the stats on to Sam [MTP].

October 5 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Fred Hall in New York, directing him to take a $1,000 note to Gerhardt and have him endorse it payable to Webster & Co. Gerhardt had turned the note over to Sam for monies owed. The note was from Goodwin Brothers, Elmwood, Conn., the manufacturers of Gerhardt’s bust of Grant [MTP; MTNJ 3: 202n61].

October 6 Tuesday – Sam added the PS paragraph to his Oct. 5 letter to Sherman. If Sherman wished to disregard Sam’s advice and go ahead and publish, he needed to remember:

Tom, Dick or Harry can reduce the size of his footprint if he wants to, but Hercules can’t. He must leave a No. 19 track behind him all the time [MTP].