June 11 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to the Twichells.
“The baby is here & is the great American Giantess—weighing 7¾ pounds, & all solid meat….It is an admirable child, though, & has intellect. It puts its fingers against its brow & thinks.”
Sam then described what became a famous structure, now at Elmira College:
June 12 Monday – Sam wrote from Elmira to James Redpath. Sam agreed to start his lecture tour in the West if Redpath preferred. He asks what “Olive & those other dead beats” were charging (Olive Logan 1839-1909) [MTL 4: 407].
June 12 Thursday – A New York court made the May 19 temporary injunction against Benjamin Such permanent [MTL 5: 370n5; N.Y. Times, June 12, 1873 p.2].
Thompson wrote notes about the party’s trip to the Ascot races with a short side trip to Bushy Park [MTNJ 1: 528].
June 12 Friday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Will Bowen about plans for the new house. Only a fragment survives [Hornberger, 33].
June 13 Tuesday – Francis P. Church of the Galaxy requested an article from Sam, and was rewarded with “About Barbers,” which first appeared in the August edition [MTL 4: 394]. It’s unclear why Sam would accede to such a request, but Church’s approach must have been less insistent than Bliss and Orion’s. Sam sold the piece for $100 [MTL 4: 410].
June 13 Thursday – Bret Harte traveled to Hartford and spent the night with the Clemenses. In 1907 Sam claimed that Harte was broke, borrowed $500 and “employed the rest of his visit in delivering himself of sparkling sarcasms about our house, our furniture, and the rest of our domestic arrangements” [MTL 5: 105n2].
June 13 Friday – Joaquin Miller brought an unidentified “literary friend” to meet Sam. They then paid respects to Houghton. Samuel Thompson recalled, “Lord Houghton evidently enjoyed Joaquin Miller, and as Clemens drawled along in his grumpy way I have seen Lord Houghton sit on the sofa and shake with laughter till the tears rolled down his face” [MTL 5: 378n3 citing Thompson, p.94].
June 13 Saturday – From Charles E. Perkins’ cash book, Sam’s account: “To po Garvie 1200.00” [Berg collection, NYPL]. Note: likely John Garvie. See other listings for Garvie.
June 14 Saturday – Sam called on Joaquin Miller and they went to the Savage Club [MTL 5: 378n3]. Sam’s “letter” to Josh Billings ran in Street and Smith’s New York Weekly [The Twainian, Feb. 1944 p1]. (See Mar. 1873 entry).
John Camden Hotten (1832-1873), unauthorized publisher of many of Mark Twain’s sketches, died in London [Welland 28].
June 14 Sunday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam and Livy. Letter enclosed in June 18 from Mollie Clemens—both congratulating them on the birth of a daughter [MTP].
June 15 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to James Redpath. Sam poured cold water on the idea of a woman reading humorous lectures or doing impersonations on stage. Possibly Redpath had received an offer from Helen Potter to tour with Sam. Helen did impersonations of well-known lecturers like John Gough, Henry Ward Beecher, and others [MTL 4: 408-9].
June 15 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to William Dean Howells. Sam enclosed a newspaper portrait of himself and begged for a portrait of Howells that appeared in Hearth & Home. He added that 62,000 copies of Roughing It had been sold and delivered in four months [MTL 5: 102-3].
June 15 Sunday – Sam wrote from the Edwards’ Hotel to the American consul general in London, Adam Badeau (1831-1895). Sam sent his and Livy’s regrets they’d been unable to visit due to Livy being “very greatly fatigued because of sight-seeing” [MTL 5: 382]. Notes: Badeau had been on General Sherman’s staff during the Civil War, and the military secretary for General Grant&n
June 15 Monday – Sam wrote the good news from Elmira to Dr. John Brown:
“We call the new Megatherium (mate to the Megalopis) Clara of course” [MTL 6: 159].
June 16 Tuesday – Sam wrote to the editor of the Boston Daily Advertiser about misdirected mail from England. Letters from Dr. John Brown had been addressed to him in “Hartford, State of New York, US” and returned to Scotland; another to, “Hartford, Near Boston, New York, US of A.” This one did reach him. Sam wanted to know:
June 17 Monday – Bret Harte wrote from NYC to thank Sam for his concern. He added: “I liked Slote greatly. He is very sweet, sensible and sincere. I think he is truly ‘white’ as you say, or quite ‘candid’ as Mr Lowell would say in his Latin-English. / I enclose your diamond stud, wh. I wore in the cars. …Let me hear from you about Bliss. Tell Mrs. Clemens I deputize you to kiss the baby for me…” [MTP].
June 17 Tuesday – Sam and his secretary Thompson left London and crossed over the channel to Ostend, Belgium to cover the visit of the Shah of Persia, Nasr-ed-Din, the first leader of his country to visit Europe. Sam stayed overnight in Ostend.
June 17 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Orion, responding to a letter with a sample of coal Orion had found. Sam had shown the sample to Theodore Crane, who was a partner in J. Langdon & Co. Crane wasn’t impressed and Sam gave his brother good advice [MTL 6: 164]. Sam was resigned to Orion being “bound to find a butterfly to chase.”
June 18 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Louise Chandler Moulton. Sam thanked the Boston correspondent for the New York Tribune, for her kind review of Roughing It and her sympathies for his “irreparable loss” [MTL 5: 108].
June 18 Wednesday – Sam and Thompson returned from Ostend on the H.M.S. Lively. The pair traveled with some of the Shah’s family and several journalists who had accompanied the Shah on the train from Brussels [MTL 5: 384n1]. Once back in London, Sam wrote to Elisha Bliss that he had
June 18 Thursday – Mollie Clemens wrote to Sam and Livy, and enclosed Orion’s June 14 [MTP].
June – William Dean Howells published a glowing review of Roughing It for the June issue of the Atlantic.
Probably an encyclopedia could not be constructed from the book; the work of a human being, it is not unbrokenly nor infallibly funny; nor is it to be always praised for all the literary virtues; but it is singularly entertaining, and its humor is always amiable, manly, and generous.
June – Sam dictated a notebook entry to a stenographer: “Work upon Persia by a representative of Great Britain at the court of Teheran. Title something like Ali Baba in Arabian Nights.” Sam was reaching for the name of James Justinian Morier’s (1780?-1849) The Adventures of Hajji Baba, of Ispahan, 3 vols (1824) [Gribben 485].
June or August – Mrs. E. H. Bonner (b. 1842: Loreta Janeta Velazquez) wrote. During the Civil War she disguised herself as a Confederate officer. She’d written an account of her adventures, in hopes of publishing [MTP]. Note: See Oct. 9 to Henry Watterson.
June 19 Thursday – Sam wrote from Edwards’ Hotel in London to George Fitzgibbon. His Shah letters, and the move to Langham Hotel the following Wednesday were among the reasons Sam gave for not being able to accompany Fitz to a session of Parliament, which Fitz reported on for the Darlington Northern Echo [MTL 5: 385].