• Life in Buffalo

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    Sam Clemens believed he had found respectability, fame, wealth and success. He married into wealth and a woman he would love the rest of his life. His father-in-law had purchased a mansion for him and part ownership in a newspaper. But he chafed at the daily grind. There had been only one job in his life he truly enjoyed, being a river boat pilot. Also, a number of problems and tragedies struck. Olivia became pregnant, but was devastated when her father was diagnosed with stomach cancer and died on Aug. 6, 1870: Emma Nye, a dear friend of Olivia’s who was visiting, was stricken with typhoid fever and died in their home Sept. 29: Finally, their son, Langdon, was born prematurely Nov. 7, frail and sickly, and Olivia fell ill with typhoid herself.
  • 1869

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    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.

  • August 4, 1869 Wednesday

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    August 4 Wednesday – Sam and the Langdons took a three day trip to Niagara Falls and stayed at the Cataract House Hotel. Also along were Charles J. Langdon and his fiancée Ida Clark, he parents, as well as Livy’s friend Fidele Brooks and husband Henry Brooks and son of New York, and neighbors of the Langdons, Dr. Henry Sayles and wife Emma Sayles. Cousin A. Langdon was also in the hotel. The trip allowed Jervis to inspect the finances of the nearby Buffalo Express.

  • August 5, 1869 Thursday

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    August 5 Thursday – At Niagara Falls, NY. Sometime during the 3 day stay Jervis Langdon and Sam made a side trip to Buffalo, where Jervis likely visited the branch of his coal company at 221 Main Street, as well as a waterfront coal-yard operation. The pair also searched records in the Buffalo Express office to “confirm the soundness of their upcoming investment.” A few days later (Aug. 14), Twain complained about ‘the bore of wading through the books & getting up balance sheets’” [Reigstad 60-61]. Note: the Aug. 14 letter was to Mary Mason and Abel W. Fairbanks: “As soon as Mr.

  • August 7, 1869 Saturday

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    August 7 Saturday – Sam accompanied the Langdon family on a return trip to Elmira. By Sunday AM he was back in Buffalo [Reigstad 62].

    The San Francisco Evening Bulletin, p.1, ran a positive review of IA, observing that “America has, within the past few years, developed a new type of humor.”

  • August 8, 1869 Sunday

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    August 8 Sunday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to Livy, apologizing for hurting her and finishing the letter at 9 PM. During this period, Sam was shuttling between Elmira and Buffalo, scrutinizing the books and balance sheets of the Express. Sam wrote “my obligations to him [Jervis] almost overshadow my obligations to Charley, now…” Jervis Langdon had advanced half of the purchase price for the Express and guaranteed the balance [MTL 3: 289-91]. Following this letter, ten letters (Livy’s numbers 91-100), probably daily from Aug. 9 to 18, are lost [MTL 3: 290n1].

  • August 12, 1869 Thursday

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    August 12 Thursday – The first date showing Sam living in Buffalo. Sam replied from Buffalo to
    Elisha Bliss’ of July 30.
    Your splendid letter has arrived, & I confess I owe you one. I was in an awful sweat when I wrote you,
    for everything seemed going wrong end foremost with me. I had just got mad with the Cleveland
    Herald folks & broken off all further negotiations for a purchase, & so I let you & some others have
    the benefit of my ill nature. But that is all gone by, & now we will smoke the pipe of peace & bury the

  • August 13, 1869 Friday

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    August 13 Friday  Sam received a letter from John Slee, agent for the Anthracite Coal Association in Buffalo, informing him that Jervis Langdon’s check was on the way, and that Slee would add another check totaling $12,500. The papers might be exercised that day [MTL 3: 294n2]. Note: Jervis Langdon’s check for $12,500 plus Twain’s $2,500 went toward the down payment with Langdon guaranteeing the balance.

  • August 14, 1869 Saturday 

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    August 14 Saturday  At the law offices of Bowen & Rogers28 Erie Street, papers were signed on the purchase of Sam’s one-third interest in the Buffalo Express, 14 East Swan Street [Reigstad 37]. Note: see pictures of the Express building in Reigstad 40-41.

  • August 15, 1869 Sunday 

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    August 15 Sunday – Sam officially became a writing editor of the Express, offering sketches and editorials. This began a period of eighteen months in Buffalo that marked a transition from sometime journalist to celebrated author.

  • August 16, 1869 Monday 

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    August 16 Monday – Lydia Thompson’s Blonde Burlesque Troupe opened this evening at the Academy of Music in Buffalo. “A standing-room-only throng at the opera house waited three hours for the featured sparring exhibition between Ned ‘The Irish Giant’ O’Baldwin and Mike McCoole to finally begin” [Reigstad 35]. Did Clemens attend this performance of the Blondes? Perhaps. He must have seen it sometime because he published a story on the act in the Express on Feb. 28, 1870.

  • August 23, 1869 Monday 

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    August 23 Monday  “Uncriminal Victims,” attributed to Sam, ran in the Buffalo Express [McCullough 18].

    From the Buffalo Express “People and Things Columns” by Mark Twain:

    ·       Children in Iowa bite rattlesnakes in order to prevent toothache. Probably the cure would be more permanent if the rattlesnakes bit the children.

  • August 24, 1869 Tuesday

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    August 24 Tuesday – “The Byron Scandal,” attributed to Sam, ran in the Buffalo Express [McCullough 19].

    From the Buffalo Express “People and Things Columns” by Mark Twain:

    ·       The Blondes will expose themselves in Elmira to-night.

  • August 27, 1869 Friday

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    August 27 Friday  Whitelaw Reid of the New York Tribune published the first review of Innocents by a metropolitan daily, a positive and even-handed appraisal [MTL 3: 343n1; Powers, MT A Life 275]. Any good word from the Tribune was momentous and important to Sam.

  • September 1869

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    September – Sam wrote an untitled burlesque letter from Lord Byron to Mark Twain, which was
    published posthumously [Camfield, bibliog.]. The impetus for the letter was no doubt Harriet
    Beecher Stowe’s bombshell article in the Atlantic, “The True Story of Lady Byron’s Life,” which
    exposed an affair by Lord Byron with his half sister, Augusta Leigh. Significantly, the article ran
    during James T. Fields’ (1817-1881) European vacation, with Howells in charge. This was a clear