July 16 Thursday – In Elmira, Sam wrote to his 1854 St. Louis roommate, Jacob H. Burrough.
My Dear Jake:
Have just received two papers from your town. Are the Misses Ida & Emma Burroughs any kin to you? And who is Dean?—my old mud clerk comrade?
My boy, don’t you ever come East? I wish you would stop in on us next winter. (We are house-building & shant be well settled till the middle of the fall.)
Why don’t you die?—Are you going to live forever? You must be about 80 or 90 now.
July 17 Wednesday – Bills paid: to W.B. Willard, flour & grain dealer, $5.20; to M. Barrett 157.13 for white organdy dress, silk, ribbon, linings & sundries & packing box [MTP].
July 17 Friday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Joseph J. Albright, an iron manufacturer in Scranton, Penn. His son, John Joseph Albright (1848-1931) was connected by marriage to the Langdon family (he married the former Harriet Langdon (1847-1895), Livy’s first cousin.
July 18 Thursday – Sam wrote from New Saybrook to James Redpath, replying to his letter of July 12.
July 18 Saturday – Dr. John Brown replied to the June 15 letter informing him of Clara’s birth, and also to a non-extant from Clemens introducing Anna Dickinson and also updating sales numbers for GA:
July – Sam’s article, “A New Beecher Church,” was printed in the July American Publisher [MTL 4: 440n2]. Sam so inscribed on the flyleaf of Louis Figuier’s Primitive Man, that read: “Saml. L. Clemens, / The Primitive Man” [Gribben 230].
July – Sam’s sketch “Mark Twain at the Grave of Adam” (Innocents Abroad, Ch. 53) ran in American Publishing Co.’s in-house promotional monthly, American Publisher [Camfield, bibliog.].
July – Sam noted eighteen lines of a memorial poem at the grave of James Thomson (1700-1748), author of The Seasons (poems, 1730) [Gribben 702]. Sam also wondered why Pepys failed to mention the great Shakespeare [540]. Sam also noted the title, translator and publisher of Comte de Hezecques’ Recollections of a Page to the Court of Louis XVI (1873) [312].
July 19 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to James Redpath not to schedule him west of Cleveland. “When I think of those awful western roads & hotel[s] I get sick—sick as death.” Sam repeated that he wanted “Nasby prices” [MTL 4: 436].
July 19 Friday – Charles Dudley Warner wrote from Hartford to Sam
July 19 Saturday – Sam’s fifth of five letters on the Shah of Persia appeared in the New York Herald. The Clemenses left London for Edinburgh, Scotland. They stopped for several days in York, England.
July 2 or 3 Friday – Sam wrote a note on the front flyleaf of The Gilded Age, which he presented to William Seaver: “To friend Seaver / from / Mark / Hartford, July ’74 / Some of my errors in this book would have been simply outrageous, but Warner criticised them faithfully & so I re-wrote 200 pages of my MS & cooled the absurdities down to a reasonable temperature. / S.L.C.” [MTL 6: 172].
July 2 Sunday – In Elmira, Sam wrote a short note to Orion. Though only about three-quarters done, Sam felt he had enough manuscript to cull from and planned to bring the manuscript to Hartford in “2 to 4 weeks hence” [MTL 4: 427].
July 2 Tuesday – Bill paid for James Ahern, Practical Plumber and Gas Fitter, 272 Main St. Hartford for work done Apr. 12, May 18, 21, 29, and June 13; total 17 man hours work, $15.76.
Sam send an engraved card in script font to an unknown man:
Dear Sir:
I thank you for the compliment of the invitation, but am compelled to decline, since my lecture has permanently closed.
Yours truly,
July 2 Wednesday – Sam finished the letter to Joaquin Miller, asking if he would drop by his hotel at half past ten or quarter to eleven.
In the evening, Sam and Livy dined with George and Phoebe Smalley in Hyde Park Square. Benjamin Moran (1820-1886), secretary of legation to U.S. Minister Robert C. Schenck, was also at the dinner and noted the guests:
July 20 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to George L. Fall, (In charge of scheduling for the Boston Lyceum), suggesting that Rondout, New York be charged $150 because it was so out of the way [MTL 4: 437].
July 20 Saturday – Sam wrote a short note from New Saybrook to Elisha Bliss, saying he’d been looking for Harte and would let Bliss know when he arrived. Sam also asked about Henry C. Lockwood of Baltimore, and the elastic strap patent [MTL 5: 124].
July 20 Sunday – Sam wrote from York, England to Livy’s mother, Olivia Lewis Langdon. Sam’s letter was a delightful description of York.
“All of which is to say, we have been 24 hours out of London, & they have been 24 hours of rest & quiet. Nobody knows us here—we took good care of that. In Edinburgh we are to be introduced to nobody, & shall stay in a retired, private hotel, & go on resting” [MTL 5: 419].
July 20 Monday – The Library of Congress granted Sam copyright No. 9490E for Dramatic Compositions, which was The Gilded Age as a stage play [MTL 6: 190n4].
Charles P. Pope wrote to Sam that he’d met Howells and came to terms with him; that he liked him [MTL 6: 195n5].
July 21 Sunday – Sam wrote from New Saybrook to Joseph L. Blamire of Routledge & Sons, sending revised preface. Blamire had encouraged Sam to travel to England, especially in the summer [MTL 5: 128].
July 21 Tuesday –Mary Margaret Field wrote from Woodstock, Vt. with a long “sob story” asking for a “loan” of $100 from Clemens [MTP]. Note: see Sam’s reply of July 29, which may not have been sent.
July 22 Monday – Bill paid: Moore, Weeks & Co., Hartford for cases condensed milk $12.50 [MTP].
Joseph Graef sculptor, wrote from NYC to Sam after hearing through Slote that Clemens was contemplating having a marble bust of a child made [MTP].
July 22 Wednesday – James Hammond Trumbull wrote to Sam about the “dream” feature of Sam’s play of Col. Sellers. The noted philologist talked of Sanskrit and Hawaiian legends of dreams [MTP].
July 23 Sunday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Will Bowen in St. Louis about his lecture plans and turning down $150 a night for 30 consecutive nights in Missouri and Kansas because Sam didn’t like “so much railroad travel” [MTL 4: 438].
July 23 Tuesday – Anna E. Dickinson wrote to Sam for publishing help and advice with Elisha Bliss. She wouldn’t do the book for less than $10,000 guarantee at the royalty of 7 & ½ % [MTP].