August 24 Tuesday – Thomas W. Higginson wrote inviting the Clemenses to a reading he was giving from his old journals “describing Newport society during the Revolution, especially while the French officers” were there [MTL 6: 522].
During their Newport stay Sam and Higginson used an old bowling alley. In 1907 Sam recalled the fun:
August 26 Thursday – H.W. Bergen showed Sam’s telegraph request to John T. Raymond, who was angry about Sam requesting copies of the contracts made for staffing and theater rental, angry enough to fire off a caustic paragraph to Sam, who was questioning the high expenses [MTL 6: 528]. Sam was still making money off the play, and probably didn’t want to kill the goose, even to the extent of Raymond making off with more than half the profits. Raymond’s note:
August 27 Friday – Sam wrote from Newport, R.I. to Elisha Bliss, asking for an “official statement of the royalties you have paid me upon Canadian sales of my 3 books.” The only book Bliss was authorized to sell in Canada was Innocents Abroad, and his books did not distinguish those from books sold in the U.S. For the others, only Routledge had Imperial copyright, a fact Sam should have known.
August 31 Tuesday – In Newport, R.I. Sam sent a postcard to Dan De Quille, who was back at the Union Hall Hotel in Hartford working on his book. The Clemens family would be back home “about 7th or 8th” Sam wrote [MTL 6: 530].
September 1 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Newport to Richard M. Milnes (Lord Houghton), who Sam had met in England in June 1873. Houghton was at Niagara Falls on a four-month tour of Canada, and the Eastern and Midwestern U.S. with his son. Sam hoped Houghton would be able to visit him at Hartford after Sept. 8 [MTL 6: 531].
September 8 Wednesday – The Clemens family returned home to Hartford, as reported by the Hartford Courant the next day [MTL 6: 532n2].
September 11 Saturday – In Chesterfield, N.H., Howells wrote, again complimenting Sam on his “Gondour” piece, saying it moved “that eminent political economist,” Mrs. Howells. He also wrote:
“In comment on Charles Reade’s letters (I wish the man wasn’t such a gas-bag), don’t you wish to air your notions of copyright in the Atlantic?” [MTHL 1: 97-8]. Note: Reade had sent thirteen letters to the London Pall Mall Gazette opining on international copyright issues.
September 12 Sunday – Richard M. Milnes (Lord Houghton) wrote from St. Louis: “I recvd to-day your kind note to Niagara & hasten to thank you for it. I go to-night to Cincinnati & expect to arrive in New York about the 24th. …I fear therefore that I have no chance of being able to bring my son to see you.” He remarked about St. Louis being more like a European manufacturing city [MTP]. Note: his handwriting is abysmal, but some brave soul has transcribed it, likely through supernatural means.
September 13 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to the Staff of the Hartford Courant asking for his paper delivery to be changed from Newport to Hartford [MTL 6: 532].
September 14 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Howells about copyright issues. Howells had written about the letters by Charles Reade on the subject printed by the New York Tribune. Sam calculated more might get done with a petition personally carried to Congress. The first copies of Sketches, New and Old were soon to arrive, and Sam related he’d told Bliss to send a copy to Howells before anyone else.
September 16 Thursday – William H. Barttell wrote from Yonkers, NY that he was making good on the promise he’d made to Sam at Bateman’s and was sending a “little work” on Modern English literature [MTP]. Note: the work is unidentified.
September 17 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Dan De Quille, still at the Union Hall Hotel nearby. Sam liked collecting “queer letters.” He asked Dan to:
“…write Fair, Mackey & O’Brien [Comstock Lode Millionaires], & ask them if they won’t save all the begging letters that come to them & send them to me from time to time” [MTL 6: 535]. Note: John William Mackey (Mackay) (1831-1902).
September 18 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Howells about the petition to lengthen copyrights. Sam wanted the country to make a stand to European thieves with “Thou shalt not steal.”
“If we only had some God in the country’s laws, instead of being in such a sweat to get Him into the Constitution, it would be better all around.”
September 21 Tuesday – From Prospect House in Chesterfield, N.H., Howells wrote to Sam, saying he would be welcome at his house “in November, or any other month of the year.” After announcing his plans to travel on to Quebec to see his father, Howells wrote:
“Then, please the pigs, I shall stick to Cambridge for one while. I can’t tell you how sick I am of enjoying myself—that’s what it is called” [MTHL 1: 102].
September 22 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to James Redpath, explaining why lecturing would cost him money and interrupt his book (The Adventures of Tom Sawyer).
“I never HAVE lectured without losing a great deal of money by it (no matter what the fee,) & so you can understand my reluctance to meddle with fire that has burnt me so often. And, besides I absolutely loathe lecturing, for its own sake!” [MTL 6: 540].
September 24 Friday – Phineas T. Barnum wrote two letters to Sam. The first informed that they had changed the date of their Hartford visit to the 29th, and that “the tribe of Barnum will number 6.” The second: “Yours recd—since I mailed a letter to David Clarke for you. We are to be in Hartford Wednesday next as that letter will inform you” [MTP].
September 25 Saturday – The first 100 copies of Sketches, New and Old arrived at the publishers from the bindery [MTL 6: 535n2].
September 26 Sunday – Sam saw the first copy of Sketches, New and Old [MTL 6: 541].
September 27 Monday – Phineas T. Barnum wrote, repeating his aim to bring his daughters to meet them for only 10 minutes on the 29th [MTP].
Jesse Madison Leathers (1846-1887), third cousin of Sam’s, wrote from Louisville, Ky.
September 28 Sunday – Charles L. Webster married Annie Moffett in Fredonia by Rev. A.L. Benton.
September 29 Wednesday – The Hartford Courant published a letter from Sam wrote (probably on Sept.
October – Sam’s unsigned sketch, “The Curious Republic of Gondour,” attacked suffrage and suggested weighted votes based on property and education. The piece ran in the October Atlantic Monthly. Sam sometimes preferred his more serious pieces to be published anonymously, so that readers would not suspect hidden humor connected with his trademark name, Mark Twain.
October 2 Saturday – Phineas T. Barnum wrote to Sam that conflicts wouldn’t allow Sam’s visit the next Saturday [MTP].
October 5 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Jesse Madison Leathers, a distant relative who had inquired about the feasibility of claiming part of the English Durham estate. Citing the cost that the Tichborne claimants spent unsuccessfully, and the 600 plus years the present heirs had held the lands, Sam wrote “It would be too much like taking Gibraltar with blank cartridges” [MTL 6: 545-6].
October 6 Wednesday – Sam and Livy attended “Our Big Wedding,” the marriage of Governor Jewell’s daughter Josephine to Arthur M. Dodge of New York. Joe Twichell pasted a clipping by that title from the Hartford Courant into his journal. The wedding was at Asylum Hill Congregational [Yale 126]. Andrews gives details: