Day By Day Dates

November 5 Saturday – Charles Culliford Boz Dickens (son of author) accepted the Clemenses offer to visit them with his family in Hartford on Nov. 10 [MTNJ 3: 341n125].

Sam’s notebook: Bal. Nov. 5, 10, 224.41 [MTNJ 3: 345].

November 6 Sunday – In Hartford, Sam wrote a rather long, laborious, but increasingly humorous apology to Frances F. Cleveland (Mrs. Grover Cleveland). He’d accepted an invitation the night before to a Bridgeport, Conn. function. He then realized (or was told by Livy) that they were giving a dinner party on that date [MTP].

Sam also wrote to Richard Watson Gilder:

November 7 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Hjalmar Boyesen, asking him to thank his “delightful friends” for the “fine photographs” sent. He had their New York address but not Col. Lilliehōōk’s [MTP]. Note: (See Oct. 21 & 24 entries.)

November 8 Tuesday – In Hartford, Sam wrote a short request to Frank B. Darby, his Elmira dentist. Sam wanted a “half dozen bottles of” Darby’s tooth powder [MTP]. The following check to the Glenham Hotel suggests an overnight trip to New York:

 Check #  Payee  Amount  [Notes]

3886  G Luern  3.30

3887  H.L. Oliver & Son  5.20

November 10 Thursday –

Check #  Payee  Amount  [Notes]

3902   Mary Tryon Stone  5.00

November 11 Friday – From MTNJ 3: 346n145:

November 13 Sunday – Sam wrote to Webster & Co. (again, addressing the letter to “Dear CLW &Co” as he did during this period.) Addressing to the company may have reflected the fact that Charles Webster was often not at the office; if he’d addressed to Frederick J. Hall only, Webster may have taken umbrage.

November 14 Monday – Sydney M. Dickens wrote to Sam that he would “not be surprised to learn that she had caught the [autograph] fever,” and wrote that “nothing will cure me but your signature under a photograph” [MTP]. Note: Sydney was the granddaughter of the late Charles Dickens, daughter of Charles Culliford Boz Dickens. Sam wrote on the envelope, “Send photograph.”

Check #  Payee  Amount  [Notes]

3903  J. Goldwaite  35.00

November 15 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Webster & Co. He was still directing pieces in and out of the Library of Humor. Obtaining permission from the American Publishing Co. Was still on the menu, and Sam calculated that it should be asked for “one week before canvass begins,” so as to keep them from rushing “out a rival book ahead of us” [MTP].

November 16 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Mary Mason Fairbanks — obviously a response to a letter from her (not extant) to get together while she was in New York. Sam’s letter was addressed c/o Chas. M. Fairbanks [her son] at the New York Sun office.

November 17 Thursday – On or about this day, Sam and Livy went to New York, no doubt at least in part in response to Mary Mason Fairbanks’ inability to visit Hartford. It was often their custom to go late in the week and return on Saturday, as at least for a period, Sam wrote there were no trains on Sunday.

November 18 Friday – Sam was in New York, at the Webster & Co. Office. From his notebook:

Nov. 18 — 9,689.89

November 19 Saturday ­– In New York City, Sam responded to an invite from Bram Stoker (1847-1912) to attend a 2 o’clock performance of Faust at the Star Theater. Stoker, Henry Irving, and Charles E. Howson organized the production, which opened Nov. 7.

November 20 Sunday – Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Wrote to Sam, calling his attention to a circular issued by the Treasury Dept. about the importation of books copyrighted in the US [MTP].

November 21 Monday – On or about this day Sam returned to New York, probably on business. He wrote of just returning from the City on Nov. 24, Thanksgiving.

Check #  Payee  Amount  [Notes]

3909  Meyrowitz Bros  2.56  N.Y. Opticians

3910  J.P Griswold  100.80

November 23 Wednesday –

Check #  Payee  Amount  [Notes]

3911  James Quinn  20.00  RR Agent

November 24 Thursday – Thanksgiving – According to Sam’s Nov. 16 to Fairbanks, Charles J. Langdon’s daughter, Julia Langdon, came up from her New York School for the holiday with the Clemens family.

In Hartford Sam wrote to Laurence Hutton.

November 25 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Mary Mason Fairbanks in New York that he planned to leave Hartford Monday, Nov. 28 on the 12:30 p.m. train, then go to his office at 3 East 14th Street, and then to Chickering Hall to give a reading at 2 or 2:15 p.m., depending on the office business. After the lecture he intended to take the 4:30 p.m. train home in order to “meet a business engagement next morning (Nov. 29).

November 26 Saturday – From Sam’s notebook, another co. bank balance: — 9060.97 [MTNJ 3: 353].

November 27 Sunday – Livy’s 42nd birthday.

The New York Times, p.5 ran a short announcement of Sam’s reading for the following day:

THE AUTHOR’S READINGS

November 28 Monday – Sam and daughter Clara left Hartford on the 12:30 p.m. train for New York. If he acted on his plan written to Fairbanks on Nov. 25, he then went to his office, did a bit of work and went to his reading (perhaps with Mary Mason Fairbanks).

November 29 Tuesday – Sam had that unspecified “morning business” meeting in Hartford he wrote about to Fairbanks on Nov. 25.

In the evening the Clemenses gave a dinner party of Senator and Mrs. Joseph Hawley. The guests included the George Warners, Mrs. Charles Dudley Warner (Susan), Koto House, Mary Barton, Ward Foote and Joe Twichell [MTNJ 3: 353&n171].

November 30 Wednesday – Sam’s 52nd birthday.

Orion and Mollie Clemens finished a letter to Sam and Olivia, which they began Nov. 29 [MTP].

December – Sam’s article, dated Nov. 6, 1887, “A Petition to the Queen of England,” ran in the Dec. issue of Harper’s New Monthly Magazine, p.157-8. [Budd, Collected 1: 922].

December 1 Thursday – From Sam’s notebook, another co. bank balance: 16,196.78 [MTNJ 3: 357].

Charles J. Devlin wrote to Sam on Spring Valley Coal, Ill. letterhead thanking Sam for books [MTP].

Check #  Payee  Amount  [Notes]

3913  Patrick McAleer  50.00

3914  John O’Neil  60.00