Day By Day Dates

September 4 Wednesday – In Elmira Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore about the family’s plans to return to Hartford:

We leave here the morning of the 10th. We stop at the Murray Hill from the evening of the 10th to noon the 12th. / Mail no letters for me here later than afternoon of 7th. Send them to Murray Hills, marked “to be kept till called for” [MTP]. Note: Sam’s plans went awry, for the family did not leave Quarry Farm until Sept. 16.

September 5 Thursday – In Elmira Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall, directing him to send revision proofs of CY to Howells and also to Andrew Chatto. Sam liked the Canadian contract and was obliged to Samuel E. Dawson of Dawson & Brothers, his Canadian printer. Other details filled out the letter:

September 7 Saturday – In Elmira Sam responded to a letter from Nellie Bunce (See June 9, 1888 entry for more on Nellie). Sam waxed eloquent about a “feeling” he shared with Nellie, and invited her and her husband to visit. He was in a poetic mood:

We who have our home in this divine far country, spread its hospitable gates wide to you, & say out of heart & mouth, Enter in, ye are welcome! [MTP].

September 10 Tuesday – Sam made a solo trip to New York City, as family plans to leave Quarry Farm by this day had changed. On the train he noted the boy who sold him a Sept. Harper’s [MTNJ 3: 519&n121]. He stayed at the Murray Hill Hotel through Sept. 12 and then returned for a few days before leaving Elmira with the family for Hartford.

September 11 Wednesday – Most of the errands on Sam’s above list were probably completed this day. Plus, he had a 3 p.m. Sept. 11 appointment with his lawyer, Daniel Whitford of Alexander & Green to discuss what to do about a theatrical manager named Jacobs who was putting on an unauthorized play of Tom Sawyer in Buffalo. On the same line he planned to see William Mackay Laffan at 11 a.m. His “telegram home” is not extant.

September 12 Thursday – Sam returned to Elmira to gather the family for the trip home to Hartford [MTNJ 3: 519n121].

G.A. Bates wrote on Pratt & Whitney letterhead to Sam that Paige and Davis were absent from the city so the machine would not be started till they returned. “Everything is looking well and satisfactory” [MTP].

September 13 Friday – In Elmira Sam wrote to John C. Bostelmann, the Clemens girls’ music teacher whom Clara Clemens raved about in her July 15 (spelled there Bostlemann). Sam enclosed a check and wrote that even though the amount was owed for the lessons, “They were worth a great deal more.”

September 14 Saturday – On or just after this day Sam responded to E.H. Butler’s letter (below) through Franklin G. Whitmore. He didn’t recall the piece Butler asked about but told Whitmore if it was a sketch he wrote it must be in Mark Twain’s Sketches, New and Old or The Stolen White Elephant [MTP]

Sam also wrote to Charles J. Langdon in New York, letter not extant but referred to as “pleasant” in Langdon’s Sept. 29 [MTP].

September 15 Sunday – Sam wrote to Charles J. Langdon in New York, letter not extant but referred to along with Sam’s Sept. 14 as “pleasant” in Langdon’s Sept. 29 [MTP].

September 16 Monday – Clara Spaulding Stanchfield invested $5,000 in the Paige typesetter; she was to receive a five-dollar royalty on each machine sold or rented; Sam increased this to six dollars [MTNJ 3: 277n174; 521&n128].

Sam’s notebook: [chk#] 4410 RR. fares, Sept. 16, $33 [3: 492].

September 19 Thursday – In Cambridge, Mass., William Dean Howells wrote to Sam about CY.

September 20 Friday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam — more of Ma’s feeble mindedness and of the improvements being made to their new house, and hoping they might come next June [MTP].

September 21 Saturday – Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam, presuming Sam was back in Hartford by now and advising he would leave the next day for Chicago. Hall referred to a representative from a “newspaper syndicate” (likely Bacheller, see below) who’d asked for some extracts from CY, who also claimed the Century urged this. Hall told the man emphatically no, but said he might use the descriptive circular [MTP]. See Johnson’s Sept. 24 to SLC.

September 22 Sunday – In Hartford Sam responded to Howells’ Sept. 19 letter about reading proofs of CY, as well as a follow up written that day or by Sept. 21 (now lost) which approved of Sam’s remarks in the book about the French Revolution. Sam offered that few people would approve of their feelings on the event:

September 23 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Dora Wheeler, turning down her invitation to visit in early October. Sam responded that he had to write due to Livy’s pinkeye, which she’d suffered from since last February, and that guests were expected for the first half of October (Frank Finlay and daughter Miss Mary Finlay; Pamela Moffett); he felt “it would be noble spree, & most sorry we are that we can’t be in it” [MTP].

September 24 Tuesday – Sam’s notebook:

At 12.15, Sept. 24, a man went along my sidewalk on a low bicycle; Jo Lane & Hough were in a buggy; I stopped them & pointed the man out, who was not on the sidewalk beyond the bridge, & asked them to get his name, so I could report him to the police [3: 522]. Note: Hartford grocer Joseph G. Lane and broker Niles P. Hough, also a resident of Farmington Ave.

September 25 Wednesday – Opha Moore editor of Light wrote to Sam: “Yours of the 23rd just received. I will not bother you for anything until after LIGHT makes its first appearance from New York and you have a chance to see the kind of a paper it is to be” [MTP].

September 26 Thursday – According to Sam’s Sept. 29 letter to Clara Spaulding Stanchfield, William J. Hamersley recorded papers for the Paige typesetter in the patent office on this date.

“…on 26 September Clemens obtained from Paige the right to a five hundred dollar royalty on each machine which was sold. Clemens promptly sold a number of shares in his royalty to friends and family in order to relive the immediate financial burden of the typesetter” [MTNJ 3: 479].

September 27 Friday – Orion Clemens wrote that the monthly $200 check was received. Orion loved the sample of the book (CY) and was eager to see the rest. He included a page and a half of his historical research, and more of the same delusional sufferings about Ma [MTP].

September 28 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote to John C. Kinney, editor of the Hartford Courant:

Dear Kinney — Thou knowest I am a shirk. Never never shall reform, I do believe. But I thank you heartily all the same for thinking of me [MTP].

September 29 Sunday – Clara Spaulding Stanchfield had paid Sam $5,000 on Sept. 16 for royalties on the Paige typesetter, and later wrote (she and her husband now lived on Long Island) evidently asking if and when she might buy more. In Hartford, Sam responded.

Yes, you can have more at any time in the future; & if I should raise the price & forget to notify you beforehand, the raise shall not be applied to you.

September 30 Monday – William Ernest Henley (1849-1903) inscribed his A Book of Verses to Sam:

To Samuel L. Clemens, in admiration of his happy gift of making his fellow creatures happy. From W.E.H. Glasgow, Sept. 30, ’89 [Gribben 308]. Note: See W.C. Angus’ letter below; he sent Henley’s book which Henley inscribed.

October – No Name Magazine ran a biographical sketch of Mark Twain, the first in a planned series of “American Literary Portraits.” Publishers’ Weekly reviewed: “Mark Twain is handled without fear or favor” [Publishers’ Weekly – American Booktrade Journal Vol. XXXVI July-Dec. 1889 p.542; not in Tenney].

October 1 Tuesday – Pamela Moffet came to visit the Clemens family for a week. She was living with her son Samuel Moffett, a reporter for the San Francisco Examiner [Oct. 7 to Langdon].

October 2 Wednesday – Daniel Frohman wrote Sam through Daniel Whitford, Sam’s attorney at Alexander & Green. He advised that a new version of Abby Sage Richardson’s dramatization of P&P “embodying some recent changes,” would be sent on to Clemens “within two weeks.” There had been repeated delays by Richardson in carrying out her contract with Sam [MTNJ 3: 524n138].