May 7 Saturday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Elisha Bliss acknowledging his check and letter of May 2. He also wrote about having an oyster dinner in Hartford with a speech once Innocents Abroad hit the 100,000-sale mark. He also mentioned his dispatch of the previous day, his:
May 9 Monday – Sam printed an article titled “Personal” in the Buffalo Express about the May Galaxy article “Smells,” having to do with “bad-smelling laboring men” being admitted “to the pews of the church” [McCullough 199].
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 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].
May 21 Saturday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to Frank Fuller, declining again to lecture [MTL 4: 133-5].
Sam also wrote to James Redpath about a photograph of himself he had ordered 1,500 copies of [MTL 4: 135]. Sam sent the photo to Will Bowen as well:
“Been too busy & too frightfully lazy to write, Bill—do you pity me? [MTL 4: 136].
May 22 Sunday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to Jervis Langdon.
May 26 Thursday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to the Buffalo Street Commissioner.
“The manner in which Delaware street is sprinkled above Virginia is simply ridiculous. A crippled infant with a garden-squirt could do it better” [MTL 4: 141].
May 27 Friday – Sam’s letter to the Buffalo Street Commissioner was printed in the Buffalo Express [McCullough 207].
May 28 Saturday – In Buffalo Sam wrote a note of thanks to Benjamin P. Shillaber, who had sent a poem in response to Sam and Livy’s wedding announcement. Shillaber founded the Boston Carpet-Bag, (1851-3) where Sam had sent “The Dandy Frightening the Squatter” in 1852 [MTL 4: 142-3].
May 29 Sunday – Sam and Livy wrote from Buffalo to Mary Mason Fairbanks. Their plans to stay in the Adirondacks with the Twichells were “pretty definitely fixed” for a six week stay beginning Aug. 1.
May 30 Monday – Livy and Sam wrote from Buffalo to Elisha Bliss (Sam revised), about the suggested Hartford dinner—now the sales figure to be celebrated was 70,000 [MTL 4: 146].
Jervis Langdon and Olivia Lewis Langdon wrote their son, Charles Langdon, who had written asking for an extended stay in Europe. In part:
My dear Son
June – In the Galaxy for this month—MARK TWAIN’S MEMORANDA – Included:
“A Couple of Sad Experiences” – (includes The Petrified Man and My Famous Bloody Massacre)
“The Judge’s ‘Spirited Woman’”
“Higgins”
“Hogwash”
“A Literary ‘Old Offender’ in Court with Suspicious Property in His Possession”
“Post-Mortem Poetry”
“Wit-Inspirations of the “Two-Year-Olds”
Short miscellaneous items: “Murphy,” “A Patriarch,” and “Lady Franklin” [Schmidt].
June 4 Saturday – Sam’s article, “More Distinction,” a hilarious guide to raising chickens, ran in the Buffalo Express:
June 7 Tuesday – Jervis Langdon was sinking. Sam & Livy went to Elmira to help nurse him and to support Livy’s mother, Olivia Lewis Langdon [MTL 4: 149n1].
June 9 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Elisha Bliss, asking him to send an enclosure with a “nice copy of the book” to Edward H. House, Occidental Hotel, San Francisco. House was traveling to Japan. When he was critic for the New York Tribune he wrote an important and glowing review (May 11, 1867) of Sam’s first NY lecture, and Sam was thankful.
June 11 Saturday – Sam wrote a note from Elmira to Ellen White, the family housekeeper to have a carriage ready in Buffalo at “half past eleven tonight—Erie Depot.” The time means that Sam & Livy left Elmira on the 7:07 PM Erie Railway’s “Day Express,” which took four and a half hours to reach Buffalo [MTL 4: 150].
June 12 Sunday – Sam & Livy wrote from Buffalo to Pamela A. Moffett, now living in Fredonia, NY.
We were snatched away suddenly by an urgent call to come to Elmira & help nurse Mr Langdon for a couple of weeks at some Pennsylvania springs he was going to visit. But he decided not to go, & so we simply rested a moment & then hurried back here.
June 19 Sunday – Sam and Livy wrote from Buffalo to Jervis & Olivia Langdon. Jervis had improved somewhat and the newlyweds expected them to visit [MTL 4: 153]. Note: Jervis’ condition must have worsened after this, because they did not make the trip to Buffalo.
June 22 Wednesday – Sam and Livy returned to Elmira to help nurse Jervis Langdon [MTL 4: 155n1]. They took turns at a bedside vigil. Sam took a shift in the middle of the day and from midnight to four in the morning. Livy and sister Susan Crane sat with their father for seven or eight hour stretches, waving a palm-leaf fan over him during the hot summer days [Willis 61].
June 23 Thursday – Female Academy, Buffalo, New York – Commencement Exercises Speech. Clemens wrote the speech, though David Gray (1836-1888), poet and editor of the Buffalo Courier, read it [McCullough 211].
Sam’s article, “MARK TWAIN IN NEW YORK” was printed in the Auburn, California, Stars and Stripes [Fatout, MT Speaks 62].
June 24 Friday – Sam’s article “Buffalo Female Academy” was printed in the Buffalo Express [McCullough 211].