Day By Day Dates

February 5 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam answered Dean Sage’s Feb. 2 letter and wrote a long narrative of the misdeeds of Edward H. House.

February 6 Thursday – From New York, Charles Scribner’s & Sons wrote to Sam thanking him for his photograph and signature, and asking the name of someone who was “competent” to write a 800 to 1,000 word biographical sketch they might put in the April issue of The Book Buyer [MTP].

Daniel Whitford wrote one-sentence to Sam that he’d just received the papers and Sam’s letter [MTP].

February 7 Friday – In Boston, William Dean Howells wrote to Sam of James A. Herne being “immensely pleased with the main points of” the play, The American Claimant (Colonel Sellers as a Scientist).

February 8 Saturday – C. Harry Eaton, secretary for the American Water Color Society, sent Sam a printed invitation to a St. Valentine’s night dinner at the Academy of Design, New York. Sam wrote on the env., “Brer Please decline it. SLC” [MTP]. See Feb. 9.

Karl Gerhardt sent Sam an insurance policy assignment valued at $1,000 for investment in the Paige typesetter [MTP] See Feb. 10.

February 9 Sunday – Sam wrote to Alfred P. Burbank in Hot Springs, Ark., a letter which has been lost, (see Sam to Howells Jan. 31), advising him that he was recommending Burbank to Howard P. Taylor for the part of Hank Morgan in return for Burbank releasing rights to the Colonel Sellers play (The American Claimant) [MTHL 2: 629n1].

February 10 Monday – Franklin G. Whitmore wrote for Sam to Karl Gerhardt, acknowledging receipt of policy no. 333154 of Equitable Life, given as an assignment to Sam for $1,000, but returning same. “Mr. Clemens does not care for an assignment of $1000.00 of your policy for $10,000” [MTP]. See Feb. 8.

Webster & Co. wrote to Sam enclosing a letter from Hall and one from Edward Marston of Samson Low & Co. (neither extant).

February 11 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam responded to William Dean Howells’ last letter (now lost) that included James A. Herne’s desire to produce The American Claimant. Sam called Herne’s letter “a fine straight-forward utterance,” and told Howells to save the comment for when it was time to write a contract.

February 12 Wednesday – Sam and Livy went to New York to see if Dr. Roosa could help Livy with her eyes, which she’d had problems with for the last year. They stayed at the Murray Hill Hotel. Sam saw Daniel Frohman and advised him that he and Livy would call on Abby Sage Richardson the following morning. They’d been unable to accept an earlier breakfast invitation from her [Feb. 19 to Richardson].

February 13 Thursday – Sam and Livy intended to return home this day but Livy “got hit with tonsillitis” and was under the care of Dr. Rice (see Feb. 16 to Crane; also MTNJ 3: 539n175).

A. W. Lang wrote from Hartford to ask Sam to buy shares in a local baseball publication. Whitmore wrote on the letter: “Answered Feb. 18th – Don’t care to subscribe. FGW for SLC” [MTP].

Robert Donald for London Star wrote to Sam:

February 14 Friday – Sam and Livy were still in New York, waiting for Livy to recover.

James H. West, publisher of The New Ideal (“Social Science and a Rational Religion”) sent a printed notification that Sam’s subscription expired with the number for Dec. 1889 [MTP].

February 15 Saturday – Sam and Livy were still at the Murray Hill Hotel in New York, waiting for Livy to recover.

Franklin G. Whitmore wrote from Hartford to Sam, advising on the status of the typesetter. He’d expected to see Sam on Friday so hadn’t written before. “Mr. Goodman is still at your home & expects to see you tomorrow evening.” He was sorry about Livy’s illness in N.Y. and trusted that she would “entirely recover” [MTP].

February 16 Sunday – In New York Sam wrote to Susan Crane:

February 17 Monday – In New York Sam wrote to Stilson Hutchins about sick Livy and his nursing her in New York. [MTP, paraphrased 1912 Anderson Galleries catalog, Item 222]. Sam also wrote a similar letter to an unidentified person [MTP].

Franklin G.Whitmore wrote to Sam: “Your check for $545 being the amt. Of 2nd dividend of the St Paul Roller Mill Co of ten per cent to Mr. Saml L Clemens is received” [MTP].

February 18 Tuesday – Sam and Livy returned to Hartford as planned [Feb. 16 to Crane; Feb. 19 to Richardson].

W. Norris wrote from Civil Prison, Singapore to Sam; a fellow prisoner gave him IA which he read. “I have resolved to send you this letter, and to beg of you to get me out of this prison….I am now short $20,000…” Sam wrote on the envelope, “Wants a loan 20,000”[MTP].

February 19 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Abby Sage Richardson, explaining why he was not able to see her the previous Thursday as he’d told Daniel Frohman that Wednesday. Before the N.Y. trip, Richardson had sent them a breakfast invitation. They’d been unable to attend and they wished to thank her for it; Sam wished to exert his rights to emend the P&P play, and to remind her of the contract.

February 20 Thursday – Orion Clemens finished his Feb. 19 letter to Sam:

Ma coughed nearly all night. Miss Craig soothed her to sleep three times — her longest nap was about an hour. To-day she is not coughing much, her appetite seems to have returned, and she is now (3:15 pm), up, dressed in her velvet, looking natural, and walking around in her room. It looks now as if she will get well [MTP].

Adolfo Ramasso wrote from Rome asking to translate ten of Sam’s sketches into Italian [MTP].

February 21 Friday – Webster & Co. typed a letter to Sam asking, since he knew Joseph Twichell, could he ask what regiment Yale professor Thomas R. Lounsbury was in during the Civil War, and what occupation he held between the war and his time at Yale. They explained that Lounsbury “always declines to give any information about himself,” and that they needed this for volume eleven of The Library of American Literature [MTP].

February 22 Saturday – † On or just after this day Sam sent the Feb. 21 Webster & Co. inquiry about Lounsbury to Twichell: Dear Joe:/ ? / Ys Ever/ Mark./ ~ [MTP].

The Critic reviewed CY:

We do not at all approve of Mark’s performance; it is very naughty indeed: but — and that is all he and his publishers want — we cannot help laughing at it [Tenney 18].

February 23 Sunday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam:

Last night we gave Ma a soapsuds injection, and she was relieved for the first time since last Sunday. Then slept through the night, for the first time in a week or two [MTP].

February 24 Monday – The U.S. Congress approved Chicago over New York as the site of the Columbian Exposition of 1892/3. From the New York Times, Feb. 25, 1890 p.2:

CHICAGO FRANTIC WITH JOY

 — — —

PURELY A COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE

WITH NO SPARK OF SENTIMENT.

February 25 Tuesday – In a letter to Grace King, Livy wrote that she was just getting well from an attack of Quinzy,” having been in bed for “nearly a week in New York with Mr. Clemens as nurse” [MTNJ 3: 539n175]. She also confided that they had attended the opening of P&P play and found it “a real disappointment…In the main it is poor, and does not in the least do the book, we think, justice” [543-4n184]. Note: Quinsy was their term for tonsillitis.

February 26 Wednesday – William J. Hamersley wrote to Sam that “Paige told me yesterday that you wanted me to try to sell some royalties & I have tried and can do nothing” [MTP].

Daniel Whitford wrote to Sam:

February 27 Thursday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Orion about notices of CY and about the health of their mother. He was gratified with Charles H. Clark’s review in the Courant. Of another unspecified review arrived, he wrote that it made him “exceedingly comfortable.” He remarked he’d received “so many uncomplimentary blasts” lately and enjoyed the change. Many of the negative reviews of CY were from the English. Livy was now well.

February 28 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Matthias H. Arnot, letter not extant but referred to in Arnot’s Mar. 3 response. Sam was urging Arnot to come look at the Paige typesetter [MTP].

March – Webster & Co. sent “Books sent out during February, 1890” totaling 4,631, with 1,759 CY leading [MTP]. Note: the MTP catalogues this as a Feb. incoming entry.

In an unfinished piece titled, “Concerning the Scoundrel Edward H. House,” Sam accused House of lying about collaborating on Arrah-na-Pogue, or The Wicklow Wedding, the 1864 play in Dublin, Ireland by Dion Boucicault. Sam put this claim behind his suggesting House dramatize P&P,