September 1 Wednesday – Sam’s article “The Prodigal Son Returns” appeared in the Express [McCullough 28]. Sam wrote from Buffalo to Alphonso Miner Griswold (1834-1891), who wrote under the pen name, “Fat Contributor,” of his desire to get out of all lectures for this season. Griswold was reviewed as a “colorless copy of Mark Twain” [MTL 3: 324]. Sam also wrote to Livy.
September 2 Thursday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to Elisha Bliss about securing agents in the Buffalo area for sales of Innocents Abroad. All sales were by subscription, with traveling agents advertising and soliciting the book [MTL 3: 327]. Sam sent a note of acknowledgement to Stephen C.
September 3 Friday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to Elisha Bliss about the New York Herald’s favorable notice for his book. The review argued that it was not too irreverent, a criticism some reviewers made [MTL 3: 329].
Sam also wrote to Henry Crane, who had kept requesting Sam to lecture, and to Livy.
September 4 Saturday – Sam’s story of comic mayhem, “Journalism in Tennessee,” was printed in the Express. It was about Mark Twain taking a journalism job in Tennessee as associate editor of the Morning Glory and Johnson County War-Whoop and being shot at so much he decided frontier journalism wasn’t for him [Wilson 37]. A second article by the same name, “The Byron Scandal,” and a follow up article, “The Byron Question” are attributed to Sam [McCullough 28-30].
September 6 Monday – Sam wrote from Buffalo (“In Bed Monday Night”) to Livy about a flap over poetry/song with George W. Elliott, who Sam referred to as the “Dead Canary.”
“[The] Cincinnati, Toledo & other western papers speak as highly of the book as do the New York & Philadelphia papers” [MTL 3: 335-7].
September 7 Tuesday – Another article attributed to Sam ran in the Express: “More Byron Scandal.”
“The aching desire that some people have for notoriety, to be talked about, even to be cursed rather than not to be noticed at all, can be the only possible excuse that I can imagine for this woman to lug into view family secrets in which the world can find nothing but the nastiest interest” [McCullough 37].
September 8 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to Henry M. Crane about lecturing:
“No, your ‘persistence’ don’t annoy me a bit—it is complimentary to me. I am only going to lecture till the middle of January, anyhow.”
Sam noted that his wedding had been postponed until the first week in February, due to lecture dates he was unable to cancel. Sam’s intention at this point was to “get out of the lecture-field forever” [MTL 3: 346-7].
September 9 Thursday – “Butler on the Byron Scandal,” attributed to Sam, ran in the Express [McCullough 38].
Sam finished the letter to Livy, begun the previous day. He wrote about Feb. 4 being the wedding date (it turned out to be Feb. 2,) his writing to Redpath of that fact, and about Charles Langdon, who had left for a trip around the world [MTL 3: 348-9].
September 10 Friday – Sam’s letter to Livy of Sept. 8 shows he proposed to start for Elmira “Friday night at 11—& start back at same hour on Monday night.”
September 11 Saturday – “The Last Words of Great Men,” and “Personal,” both signed by Sam ran in the Express. In the former piece, Sam claimed that the last words of Joan of Arc were “Tramp, Tramp, Tramp, the Boys are Marching.” Other pieces ran in the Express: “Mr. And Mrs.
September 13 Monday – “The Gates Ajar,” attributed to Sam, was printed in the Express [McCullough 51].
Sam left Elmira for Buffalo.
September 17 Friday – Sam wrote from Elmira to James Ausburn Towner (1836-1909) (“Ishmael”), somewhat piqued at Towner’s column in the Sept. 11 Elmira Saturday Evening Revue [MTL 3: 352].
September 18 Saturday – “The ‘Wild Man’,” attributed to Sam, ran in the Express [McCullough 53].
September 21 Tuesday – Sam wrote a short note from Buffalo to Henry M. Crane confirming his lecture in Rondout, New York on Jan. 12, 1870 [MTL 3: 353].
September 23 Thursday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to William P. Carpenter (1853-1936), responding to a request to lecture and forwarding his name to Redpath for a date [MTL 3: 356].
September 24 Friday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to Mathew B. Cox, Sam’s friend and cabin mate during the 1868 voyage from New York to San Francisco. Cox was superintendent of the Pacific Mail Steamship Co.’s docks in San Francisco. The letter was a reminiscence of some of the fun on that trip [MTL 3: 357].
September 25 Saturday – Sam’s signed article, “Rev. H.W. Beecher – His Private Habits,” ran in the Express. By this date, The Buffalo Express had published six pieces signed “Mark Twain.” These pieces appeared nearly every Saturday and paid Sam $25 each [McCullough xxii]. Sam would publish over 50 pieces in the Express [Wilson 177]. A poem, “The Last Word,” ran in the Express signed by Sam, “Some of the Little Women” [Gribben 14].
September 26 Sunday – Sam was in Buffalo. He began a letter to Mary Mason Fairbanks, saying he couldn’t come see her until spring due to lectures, but “if Livy invites you you will come to our wedding, won’t you?” He wrote also about Charles Langdon’s planned trip [MTL 3: 358-9].
Reigstad amplifies Clemens’ week:
September 27 Monday – In Buffalo, Sam finished the letter to Mrs. Fairbanks, mentioning the brief visit to Buffalo of Prince Arthur, Queen Victoria’s third son.
“…none of his acts in Buffalo were noisy enough for future historical record. It was Veni, Vidi, Vici, with him. He came—he saw that lunch—he conquered it” [MTL 3: 356, 361n8].
September 29 Wednesday – The New York State Republican convention met in Syracuse. Josephus N. Larned telegraphed Sam with the results of the convention, “the slate of nominees for nine Republican posts for November’s nongubernatorial election. Twain had only to write it up. Knowing nothing about state politics, and swamped with supervisory chores, Twain crafted a humorous ‘noncommentary’ on the Republican choices that Buffalonians remembered for years afterward” [Reigstad 57]. Note: see Sept. 30 entry, and source p.
September 30 Thursday – “The Ticket—Explanation” a signed article ran in the Buffalo Express [McCullough 59]. Note: this referred to by Reigstad in Sept. 29 entry.
October – The text of an interview with ex-Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton and Secretary of State Hamilton Fish, and Attorney General Brown. The supposed discussion was the Alabama uestion, but Sam was present and wrote the real discussion was about the most effective way to remove warts. Attributed to Twain in the Oct. 1869 issue of Wood’s Household Magazine [Tenney 162; Neider, MT Life as I Find It 36-7; Gale 409].
October 1 Friday – “Engineer Griffin,” attributed to Sam, appeared in the Express [McCullough 60].
October 2 Saturday – Sam’s signed article ran in the Express: “The Latest Novelty Mental Photographs.” A list of questions were received that were to “ferret out the most secret points of a man’s nature.” Here are a few: What is your idea of Happiness? – Finding all the buttons on. / Your idea of Misery? – Breaking an egg in your pocket. / What do you believe to be your Distinguishing Characteristic? – Hunger. / What is your Aim in life? – To endeavor to be absent when my time comes. / What is your Motto?
October 7 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to an unidentified person about a humorous article sent burlesquing Baron Alexander von Humboldt. Sam wrote he would lecture in Pittsburgh on Nov. 1 and then lecture in New England until Jan. 15 [MTL 3: 366-7].