Life in Buffalo: Day By Day

March 21 Monday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to James T. Fields, senior partner in Fields, Osgood & Co., a prestigious Boston publishing company. Fields preceded William Dean Howells as editor of the Atlantic Monthly.

March 22 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to James Redpath, his lecture circuit agent.

“Dear Red: I am not going to lecture any more forever. I have got things ciphered down to a fraction now. I know just about what it will cost us to live & I can make the money without lecturing. Therefore old man, count me out” [MTL 4: 94].

March 26 Saturday – In the morning Sam looked out his master bedroom window and saw flames on the roof of 455 Delaware Street. He and Patrick McAleer (1846-1906), his coachman for many years, raced to help. McAleer rang fire-alarm box 62 at the corner of Virginia and Delaware. Reigstad writes:

March 27 Sunday – Sam and Livy wrote in the afternoon from Buffalo to Jervis & Olivia Lewis Langdon.

“It is snowing furiously, & had been, the most of the day & part of the night…albeit snow is very beautiful when falling, its loveliness passes away very shortly afterward. The grand unpoetical result is merely chilblains & slush” [MTL 4: 98-100].

March 3 Thursday – Sam and Livy (in shaded text) finished their letter to Jervis Langdon.

Your two letters came this morning, father, & your dispatch yesterday afternoon. (Mem.—Ellen’s in the stable & the horse in the attic looking at the scenery.)

March 3 Friday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to John Henry Riley praising him for his letters, “satisfactory as letters could be.” Then in a frank revelation of his frustration with how life was going, Sam blamed his misfortunes on Buffalo:

March 31 Thursday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to Charles Frederick Wingate (1848-1909), a New York correspondent of the Springfield, Mass. Republican.

March 4 Friday – In Buffalo Sam replied to Lewis Frank Walden (whose letter not extant) explaining why he wasn’t lecturing:

“I was married a month ago & so have cast away the blue goggles of bachelordom & now look at the world through the crystal lenses of my new estate” [MTL 4: 86].

March 4 Saturday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to Orion, answering his insistent request for an article for the monthly circular, American Publisher. Asking to be left out of the Publisher for a time, he wrote:

March 6 Sunday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to Robert and Louise Howland (b. 1848?) with a note to James Warren Nye. Howland was a former mining buddy and partner of Sam’s in 1861. Nye was the former governor of Nevada and now Senator.

March 6 Monday – Bret Harte signed his record-breaking contract with the Atlantic for $10,000. Duckett and others argue that this accolade stimulated Sam’s desire to “get out of the public view for a while,” (Mar. 4 letter to Orion) in order to get ahead of Harte [62].

March 7 Monday – Sam’s brief disclaimer of a rumor that he was about to leave Buffalo was printed in the Express, daily from this day through Mar. 11. “I am a permanency here” [MTL 4: 89].

March 7 Tuesday – Sam completed entering, crossing out, and filling out his 1870 income tax forms (state or local taxes). He claimed a salary of $1,200 with other income of $8,200 and a net tax of $77.55 at 2 ½ per cent after deductions. Livy showed no income for the year. The forms bear penciled entries, some in black ink, and others in bright purple ink. Lengthwise between the folded form, Sam wrote:

March 8 Wednesday – Orion Clemens wrote from Hartford to Sam.

My Dear Brother:– / Your very welcome letter contains a great deal of pleasant information.

1. That Livy will soon be well enough to move.

March 9 Wednesday – An article attributed to Sam, “More Wisdom,” was printed in the Buffalo Express [McCullough 159].

March 9 Thursday – Sam wrote a short note from Buffalo to Orion, promising to send Bliss “a chapter from the new book every month or nearly every month.” He had 168 pages of manuscript completed [MTL 4: 346]. Sam also wrote a short note to Samuel S.

May 1 Sunday – Sam and Livy left Buffalo and arrived in Elmira. The Elmira Reporter announced that Jervis had returned from the south, and that Sam and Livy were in town. Jervis, knowing his time was short, officially restructured his company to include his son Charles J. Langdon, Theodore W. Crane, and John D.

May 10 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to James Redpath and vowed he was out of the lecturing field permanently [MTL 4: 128].

Sam and Livy returned to Buffalo, either this day or the next and found Pamela Moffett waiting [MTL 4: 130-1n1].

May 13 Friday – Sam and Livy wrote from Buffalo to Jervis Langdon, thanking him for sending Livy a check for $1,000. Evidently the seriousness of Jervis’ illness was yet unknown to them, for Livy enclosed a cure for dyspepsia for Jervis [MTL 4: 129-31].

May 14 Saturday – Sam’s article, “Our Precious Lunatic,” was published in the Buffalo Express [McCullough 204]. William Ward, in an article, “American Humorists,” for Beacon, wrote:

May 16 Monday – In Buffalo, Sam wrote but did not send a letter to Henry Wheeler Shaw (Josh Billings) [MTP, drop-in letters].

May 17 Tuesday – Elizabeth N. Buckingham (Horr) wrote from Canton, Ohio to Sam, enclosing Elizabeth Horr’s letter of May 16.

May – After reaching an agreement with the Galaxy on payment and copyright, Sam’s first articles for “Memorandum” were published in the May issue.

May 2 Monday – In Buffalo, Sam wrote a short note to James Redpath about lecturing in Cambridge, New York:

Dear Redpath, / I mislaid the letter enquiring about Cambridge, N.Y., till this moment. It got mixed with my loose papers.

May 20 Friday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to Elisha Bliss, seeking advice about a proposal made by Appleton & Co. of New York, whereby Sam would write two-line captions for various pictures about Innocents Abroad. Bliss’ objections led to Sam declining Appleton [MTL 4: 131-2].

In the evening, the Clemenses entertained the Slees [May 22 to Jervis Langdon].