Day By Day Dates

September 7 and 8 Tuesday – Sam had fallen in love with Olivia Louise Langdon and evidently had expressed this openly to her, asking for marriage. The “rules” of Victorian society required her to refuse such a sudden and precipitous proposal, but Olivia allowed Sam to write her “as a brother to a sister,” which he did before leaving Elmira. In the early hours of this day Sam wrote her the first of many love letters. Olivia numbered each of Sam’s letters until their marriage in Feb.

September 9 Wednesday – Sam and Charles Langdon arrived in Cleveland and stayed with the Fairbanks family. Mary Fairbanks gave the pair a reception during their short stay. Sam and Charles had formal photographs made by James F. Ryder sometime between this day and Sept. 20 [MTP].

September 11 to 20? Sunday – Sometime between these dates Sam traveled on to Chicago and St. Louis, while Charles remained in Cleveland. Sam wrote on Sept. 24 he was “mighty busy in that town [Chicago] too” [MTL 2: 252].

September 21 Monday – Sam wrote from St. Louis to Livy. After expressing his gratitude at receiving her letter and picture (which she had refused to give him in Elmira):

September 24 Thursday – Sam wrote from St. Louis to Mary Mason Fairbanks.

I shall start day after to-morrow (Saturday) at 8 A.M., which will bring me to Cleveland Sunday morning. Then I will leave Cleveland Monday morning. I have some idea of spending Tuesday in Elmira—will talk with you [MTL 2: 252].

September 26 Saturday – Sam left Cleveland by train for Elmira [MTL 2: 252n1].

September 27 Sunday – Sam wrote on Buffalo Express letterhead to unknown gentlemen:

Gentlemen:—

I am going to lecture only a little over half the season, & my present engagements render it impossible for me to go further west than Pittsburgh. Otherwise I would be most happy to profit by your kind invitation.

Very Truly Yours / Samℓ. L. Clemens

Sam arrived in Elmira where he was to stay with the Langdons for a day and a night.

September 28 Monday – As Charles Langdon and Sam started for the train depot they were thrown from the wagon. Charles suffered head cuts and Sam was stunned. The accident delayed Sam’s departure. (Willis claims 3 additional days, but Sam left on Sept. 29 [MTL 2: 256 n2]. (See Sept. 29 entry, also a full account of Sam playing possum in MTA 2: 107-110.)

September 29 Tuesday – Sam left Elmira for New York. Livy wrote to Alice Hooker: “Mr Clemens spent two days here on the way to Hartford from St. Louis; he intended to remain one day” [Stowe-Day collection per Tenney].

September 30 Wednesday ca. – Sam arrived in New York, where he stayed a day, then left for Hartford, probably arriving there about Oct. 2.

October – The first appearance of “A Californian Abroad – A Medieval Romance” ran in the Overland Monthly. This piece was later collected in IA [Slotta 15].

October 2 Friday ca. – Sam arrived in Hartford and stayed with the Bliss family, where after “two or three days” he wrote Mary Mason Fairbanks.

October 4–5 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Livy, about fearing he “unsettled Mrs. Fairbanks’ mind, somewhat, concerning her Elmira visit” on account of the health of Jervis Langdon.

October 5–30 Friday – In Hartford, sometime between these dates, Sam wrote a sort of riddle to Frank Fuller:

“If a man were to signify however which he was not & could not if he had the power, which being denied him he will endeavor anyhow, merely because it don’t, would you? I should think not” [MTL 2: 260].

October 7 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Edward L. Burlingame about seeing Edward’s father Anson and family in New York and about the Treaty article which appeared in the Tribune.

October 11 Sunday – Mrs. Elisha Bliss introduced Sam to Rev. Joseph Hopkins Twichell (1838-1918) at the home of one of Twichell’s congregation [MTL 2: 269n4]. From Paine’s account of the meeting:

He returned to Hartford to look after the progress of his book. Some of it was being put into type, and with his mechanical knowledge of such things he was naturally interested in the process.

October 12 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Mary Mason Fairbanks. Sam seemed anxious to reassure Mary that his lecture on the excursion would not be objectionable to her, and justified scattering “preposterous yarns” throughout the lecture [MTL 2: 262-5].

October 13 Tuesday – Harmony Twichell invited Sam to the Twichell parsonage for Wednesday tea [MTL 2: 267]. Note: Mrs. Twichell was usually called Harmony; daughter also Harmony.

October 14 Wednesday – Sam spent the night at the Twichell residence, talking until 11 PM.

October 15 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to George L. Hutchings (1842?-1937), chairman of the Clayonian Society of Newark, New Jersey, stating his lecture terms and subject [MTL 5: 682].

October 16 Friday – The contract between Samuel Clemens and the American Publishing Co. for the publication of Innocents Abroad was dated this day [MTL 2: 230n5].

October 17 Saturday – Sam returned to Joseph Twichell’s parsonage to carry home books, which the pastor loaned him [MTL 2: 267].

October 18 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Livy. He engaged in name-dropping with Rev. Joseph H. Twichell, whom he met a week before. Sam had determined to live up to the standards of the Langdons in order to win Livy. He cheerfully accepted being “rebuked” by Livy, in much the same spirit he’d always done with his mother and also with Mary Fairbanks. It wasn’t entirely a game with Sam, however much he enjoyed the cycle.

October 19 Monday – Sam spent the afternoon and evening with the Twichells, driving “10 miles out in the country & back.” Sam and Rev. and Mrs. Twichell were accompanied by “two young ladies, sisters of Mrs. T” [MTL 2: 272].

October 21 Wednesday – Sam met with Samuel Bowles, editor of the Springfield (Mass.) Daily Republican and of the Weekly Republican, founded by his father. Bowles had just returned from the west and was interested in the Pacific coast [MTL 3: 267n1]. In an article Sam wrote dated Oct. 22, he described an International Boat Race (see Nov 15 entry.)