Elmira, Hartford and England: Day By Day

August 12 Wednesday – Sam and Livy stopped about half way home at Canandaigua, New York, where they were guests of a coal merchant, H. Gridley and wife. They may have stayed one or two nights [MTL 6: 205].

August 13 Thursday – Phineas T. Barnum wrote to invite Sam “down here Saturday next” for a clam bake. “Am getting quite a stack of queer letters for you” [MTP].

August 14, Wednesday – Sam wrote from New Saybrook to Joseph L. Blamire of Routledge & Sons, letter & check for $150 not extant but referred to in Blamire’s of Aug. 15.

August 14 Friday – The Clemenses were back in Elmira with their children, the Langdons and the Cranes. Livy was exhausted by the trip, still not fully recovered from the birth of Clara [MTL 6: 205].

August 15 Thursday – Joseph L. Blamire for Routledge & Sons wrote to Sam, having rec’d his note of Aug. 14 with check for $150 for a ticket to Liverpool. Since he didn’t know how long Clemens would be at Saybrook, he’d hold the ticket in NYC [MTP].

August 15 Friday – Livy wrote her mother of travel plans, which were changed in another letter written this day to Jane Clemens and Pamela Moffett. Livy then wrote they would stay in Edinburgh until “next week when we shall go to Glasgow for a day or two and then sail for Ireland where we shall be for about two weeks and then back to London.” No letters from Sam between Aug. 4 and Sept.

August 15 Saturday – Sam wrote from Elmira to his mother and sister. Sam had been rude to a banker friend of the family while in Fredonia and so wrote apologies. The details of the incident which pricked Sam’s conscience are unknown [MTL 6: 207].

H. Torrey wrote from NYC to Sam having rec’d his note in Phila. He asked for help with a book idea [MTP].

August 16 to 19 Tuesday – James Ahern worked on the plumbing at the Clemens home in Hartford, billing them $11.16 for work done [MTP].

August 16 Friday – Sam telegraphed from Saybrook Point to Mollie Clemens: “Send down all my white pants” [MTL 5: 147]. Note: even then, Sam liked to wear white, though while Livy was alive, only in season.

August 17 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Horace Greeley, asking him to confirm or deny the famous Hank Monk story about the hair-raising stagecoach ride Monk supposedly gave Greeley.

August 18 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Livy. Sam had not heard from her, and had written thirteen letters (twelve now lost) in eight days. Some were delayed from New York. Sam asked Livy if she wanted to go to England someday with him, where he might gather history, manners and customs of old England for a book [MTL 4: 446]. This idea may have been the seed that led to A Connecticut Yankee.

August 18 Sunday – Sam left Saybrook for Hartford, where he probably spent the night [MTL 5: 149n1].

August 18 Monday – Alex Nicolson sent a reprint of his “A Highland Marching Song” from the Inverness Courier of June 13, 1872 [MTP].

August – Sam’s articles, “About Barbers,” and “How I Secured a Berth” were printed in the August Galaxy. These were his last contributions to the magazine [Camfield, bibliog.].

August – John Moffat of Edinburgh made a formal group photograph of Sam, Livy, Susy, Clara Spaulding and Dr. John Brown [MTL 5: 662].

August 19 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Adolph H. Sutro.

“Got your letter to-day. When do you sail? Can’t you run up here for one day? I’m awful busy on my new book…Riley is in England—London.”

August 19 Monday – Sam wrote poetically from Hartford to Livy, still in Saybrook, Conn.

August 1–3 Monday – In Elmira, Sam wrote a short note to Anna Dickinson, enclosing John Brown’s reply to Sam’s letter introducing Anna [MTL 6: 203]. Note: Anna replied on Aug. 4, below.

August 2 or 3 Thursday – Sam left Elmira for New York and Hartford [MTL 4: 441n1].

August 2 Friday – Sam wrote another short note from New Saybrook to Mollie, again about household needs [MTL 5: 137].

Sam wrote from New Saybrook to Joseph L. Blamire of Routledge & Sons, letter not extant but referred to in Blamire’s of Aug. 6.

August 2 Saturday – Sam telegraphed and then wrote from Edinburgh to Elisha Bliss, telling him to stop the publication of the pamphlet containing the Herald letters. Paragraphs had been added at the paper causing Sam grief and a desire not to have them reprinted by Bliss, something he feared might harm the sale of The Gilded Age [MTL 5: 425].

August 20 Tuesday – Sam wrote from New York to Livy, after buying exchange for some English gold coins, buying a hat and books for the trip. Charley Langdon and wife Ida arrived at the hotel late. Charley brought two boxes of cigars from Theodore Crane for Sam. Sam wrote he was going to dinner with “the Harper’s Drawer man & Will M. Carleton the farm-ballad writer.” William A.

August 21 Wednesday – Sam departed New York, bound for England on the Scotia. Bills paid to Putnam Phalanx Market, grocers $5.43; to T.S. Daniels for oats, etc. $4.80 [MTP].

August 21 Friday – Frank Fuller wrote to air a scheme for penny postcards and to congratulate Sam on the birth of Clara, news he’d learned from a recent visit with the Twichells. “Do not dare to come to N.Y. without letting me know” [MTP]. Note: Sam declined the scheme in a letter not extant.

August 22 Saturday – Sam wrote from Elmira to William Dean Howells, extolling Howells’ latest novel, A Foregone Conclusion, the third installment having appeared in the Sept. issue of Atlantic Monthly. Livy’s condition made it necessary to stay in Elmira a bit longer than planned. Sam thought another month [MTL 6: 209].