• December 11, 1868 Friday 

    Submitted by scott on

    December 11 Friday – The Newark Daily Advertiser:

    In the humorous parts the speaker resembled Artemus Ward in his slow and quaint way of saying very amusing things. The audience was constantly convulsed with laughter, and was continued in its happy humor by quiet touches of wit and sentiment. Altogether it was a most enjoyable evening’s entertainment.

    In Norwich, New York, Sam gave his “Vandals” lecture.

  • December 19, 1868 Saturday

    Submitted by scott on

    December 19 Saturday – Fort Plain, New York: Sam arrived here in the afternoon and gave his “Vandals” lecture in the evening.

    December 19 and 20 Sunday – Sam was the guest of his poet-friend, George W. Elliott (1830-1898) and wife in Fort Plain, New York. Sam wrote to Livy.

  • December 21. 1868 Monday

    Submitted by scott on

    December 21 Monday –Sam arrived in DetroitMichigan just before midnight and wrote Livy:

    “I am so inexpressibly tired & drowsy!—not tired, either, but worn, you know, & dreary. I wish I never had to travel any more. And I won’t, after we come to anchor, my dear—I won’t for any light cause. How I long to have a home & never leave it!” [MTL 2: 339-40].

  • December 22, 1868 Tuesday

    Submitted by scott on

    December 22 Tuesday – Young Men’s Hall, Detroit, Michigan: Sam gave his “Vandals” lecture. At midnight he added to the letter to Livy from the previous night:

    “I have just this moment parted with my newspaper friends—I don’t get a moment’s time to myself. The whole day long I have been driving or visiting, with first one & then another—& I found an old friend or two here, as usual—I find them everywhere—how they do wander!”

  • December 24, 1868 Thursday

    Submitted by scott on

    December 24 Thursday  Sam wrote from Lansing to his sister Pamela. Sam wished the family Merry Christmas and sent his mother and the children money. He expected to spend a few days around New Year’s in Cleveland with the Fairbankses [MTL 2: 347-8]. Sam began a letter to Mary Mason Fairbanks, which he completed the following day.

  • December 25, 1868 Friday

    Submitted by scott on

    December 25 Friday – Christmas – In the wee hours, Sam wrote Livy:

    “I love you more than I can tell. And now is the time to love—for on this day the Savior was born, whose measureless love unbarred the gates of Heaven to perishing men….I must to bed. I ride 20 miles in a cutter to-day, & lecture tonight at Charlotte.”

  • December 27, 1868 Sunday

    Submitted by scott on

    December 27 Sunday – Sam wrote from Tecumseh to Livy about the difficulties of becoming a Christian, about social drinking, about his loneliness, about his love, and his expectation to see Mrs. Fairbanks the next day [MTL 2: 353-6].

  • December 29,1868 Tuesday 

    Submitted by scott on

    December 29 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Cleveland to Jervis Langdon, responding to his letter of Dec. 8 that had caught up with him in Charlotte, Michigan. The last letter Sam wrote concerning Sam’s time spent alone in the drawing room had offended Jervis. Sam wrote that he accepted the rebuke and regretted any offense. He wrote a few paragraphs about his references:

  • December 30, 1868 Wednesday

    Submitted by scott on

    December 30 Wednesday – Sam wrote in the morning from Cleveland to Livy and told her of the letter he’d written her father the day before. Sam confessed misgivings about his letters to Jervis Langdon, but also told her of Mary Fairbanks reading a letter from Mrs. Langdon, one favorably disposed to Sam.

  • 1869

    Submitted by scott on

    Midwest Lecture Tour – Visits to Elmira & Hartford – Sam & Livy Engaged
    Sam Met William Dean Howells – Innocents Abroad a Great Success
    Buffalo Newspaper Purchased with Jervis Langdon’s help – Grueling Lecture Schedule

    1869 – Sometime during the year Clemens took out a $10,000 life insurance policy with Continental
    Life Ins. Co of Hartford [MTP]. Note: see June 16, 1877.

  • January 1, 1869 Friday

    Submitted by scott on

    January 1 Friday – Sam spent the day with Solon & Emily Severance, old Quaker City shipmates,
    making social calls in Cleveland, Ohio. While he waited for the carriage, Sam wrote Joseph
    Twichell:
    “And I have delightful Christmas letters, this morning, from her [Livy’s] mother & father—full of love
    and trust. I seem to be shaking off the drowsiness of centuries & looking about me half bewildered at
    the light just bursting above the horizon of an unfamiliar world” [MTL 3: 1-2].

  • January 2, 1869 Saturday

    Submitted by scott on

    January 2 Saturday – Sam made an error in his schedule, not appearing on Dec. 29 in Fort Wayne,
    Indiana. This was a make up date and he gave the “American Vandal Abroad” lecture at Hamilton’s
    Hall in Ft. Wayne. Afterward he wrote from Ft. Wayne to Livy:
    How they have abused me in this town, for the last two or three days! But they couldn’t get the
    newspapers to do it. They said there was some mistake, & steadfastly refused—for which I am
    grateful. The night I should have lectured here, the house was crowded, & yet there was not room for

  • January 3, 1869 Sunday

    Submitted by scott on

    January 3 Sunday – In a letter of Jan. 14 to Livy, Sam answered her question of what he did on this
    day.
    Where was I on Sunday, Jan 3? In Fort Wayne. Had my breakfast brought up, & lay in bed till 1 P.M. I
    did want to go to church, & the bells sounded very inviting, but it seemed a plain duty to rest all I
    could….Yes I lay abed till 1 P.M. & read your Akron & Cleveland letters several times—& read the
    Testament—& re-read Beecher’s sermon on the love of riches being the root of all evil—and read