October 8 Friday – Sam wrote to the Polar Star Mason Lodge of St. Louis, asking for a “demit,” an official release of membership to non-affiliate status [Jones 366]. Note: this letter not found in the MTP letters, and specifies Sam wrote from Buffalo, when he was in Elmira on this date, so the date is suspect.
October 9 Saturday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Schuyler Colfax, vice president under Grant. Colfax was returning to Washington from a visit to the Pacific states. Sam asked for letters of recommendation for Charles Langdon and Darius Ford, who were traveling to the West Coast.
October 11 Monday – Sam wrote from Elmira to the California Pioneers regretfully passing on their invitation to a banquet at Delmonico’s in New York City. About 200 Californians had traveled across country from Sacramento a week before [MTL 3: 371-2].
October 14 Thursday – Sam’s letter to the California Pioneers of Oct. 11 ran in the New York Tribune [Camfield, bibliog.].
October 16 Saturday – “Around the World – Letter No.1” dated Oct. 10 ran in the Buffalo Express. “I am just starting out on a pleasure trip around the globe, by proxy.” Charley and Professor Darius Ford’s trip was to be coordinated and written up by Sam.
October 19 Tuesday – “Mark Twain – His Greetings to the California Pioneers of 1849” was printed in the Buffalo Express [McCullough 71].
October 23 Saturday – Sam’s article, “The Legend of the Capitoline Venus,” was published in the Express. This is one of Sam’s earliest in the paper. The title was shortened to “The Capitoline Venus” upon reprinting in Sketches, New and Old (1875) [Wilson 177]. This story was similar to his Innocents Abroad material involving the public’s gullibility to artistic hoaxes.
October 27 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Emily A. Severance in Cleveland. The Severances had been cabin mates on the Quaker City. Sam had sent them a copy of Innocents and answered her thanks. Sam wrote he expected to be in Cleveland the next day on the way to Pittsburgh, but a derailment on Oct.
October 28 Thursday – James Redpath wrote to Sam: “We offered the date indicated by your telegram, by telegraph: but it did not suit / There is therefore no change in the schedule given before” [MTP].
October 29 Friday – Sam left Elmira for Pittsburgh. See locket picture of Livy dated this day by MTP.
October 30 Saturday – Sam arrived in Pittsburgh in the afternoon, for his Nov. 1 lecture. He was the guest of honor at a banquet at McGinley’s Dining Saloon, on Wood Street, given by the lecture committee of the Mercantile Library Association [MTL 3: 382n2]. Lorch says it was an “oyster supper” [105].
October 31 Sunday – Sam continued the Oct. 30 letter to Livy:
“I walked around town this morning with a young Mr. Dean, a cousin of Wm D. Howells, editor of the Atlantic Monthly. He kindly offered to give me a letter of introduction to Mr. Howells, but I thanked him sincerely & declined, saying I had a sort of delicacy about using letters of introduction…”
November – Sometime during the month (probably in the first half), G.M. Baker of Boston made a formal group photograph of Sam, Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw 1818-1885) and Petroleum V. Nasby (David Ross Locke 1833-1888) [MTP].
November 1 1869 to January 21, 1870 Lecture Tour: At least 49 engagements under the management of James Redpath (All but Brookville and Johnstown are listed courtesy of Barbara Schmidt’s TwainQuotes website, designated as [Schmidt].)
Sometime during this period Clemens wrote to an unidentified man, his photo enclosed:
“All right—will smoke with you, if Redpath can arrange a night that will suit all around. Confound that ferry!” [MTPO: Sales catalog, Thomas R. Madigan, 1935, item 67].
November 1 Monday – Sam gave his “Savages lecture in Pittsburgh, Pa., Academy of Music [MTPO].
Elisha Bliss wrote: “We want to pay up. Shall we forward statement & check to you at Elmira or await your arrival here?…Can’t you send us list of engagements so far made. … Are you married? We hear of it so often & have contradicted it…Post us up!” [MTP].
James Redpath wrote a one liner: “we have nothing between second and eighth” [MTP].
November 2 Tuesday – Sam lectured in Brookville, Pennsylvania – As reported by the Pittsburgh Gazette [MTL 3: 385].
November 3 Wednesday – Sam lectured in Johnstown, Pennsylvania [MTL 3: 385].
Note: It is possible that Sam did not speak in Brookville or Johnstown – more newspaper evidence might confirm. Letters Sam wrote Livy between Nov. 6 and 9 (Livy’s numbers 129-132) are lost [MTL 3: 391n4].
November 7 to 13 Saturday – sometime during this week Horatio G. Smith of Boston photographed Clemens with Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) and Petroleum V. Nasby (David Ross Locke) and titled the photo “American Humorists” [MTL 3: 406, 408n10]. The “V” for “Vesuvius.”
November 9 Tuesday – Sam lectured in Harrington’s Opera House, Providence, Rhode Island. Sam spoke to 1,800 there and later wrote: “Gave good satisfaction.” He wrote from Boston to his sister Pamela:
November 10 Wednesday – Sam lectured to a full house of 2,600 in Music Hall, Boston, Mass. – Sam’s letter of Nov. 9 to his sister was no exaggeration—the Boston lecture was critical to Sam’s continued success on the lecture circuit. Boston was the literary capital of the country, and success there meant easy sledding elsewhere in New England. Sam wrote from Boston to Livy his plans to spend New Year’s Day at home.
November 11 Thursday – Sam lectured at Trinity Church, Charlestown, Mass. [MTPO].
Sam wrote from Boston at midnight:
“…bought full wedding outfit to-day (haven’t got a cent left) & occasionally the packages will arrive by express directed simply to J. Langdon, Elmira. Now your mother must unpack them & put them away for me & be sure not to let Mr. Langdon go wearing them around. I tell you, they are starchy.”
November 12 Friday – The New York Press Club sent a circular letter inviting Twain to a Press Club dinner Sat. Nov. 27, 5 p.m. at Delmonico’s. Tickets cost $3 [MTP].
November 13 Saturday – Sam lectured in Norwich, Conn. “Around the World Letter No. 3” ran in the Buffalo Express [McCullough 89].
November 14 Sunday – Clemens stayed another night in Norwich. See Nov. 15 to Livy.
November, mid – Sam, visited unannounced the offices of The Atlantic Monthly at 124 Tremont Street in Boston to thank the unsigned reviewer of Innocents Abroad for a very positive review. This is the famous first meeting between William Dean Howells (who wrote the review) and Sam Clemens. Sam first saw James T. Fields, who had hired Howells.