Hartford House: Day By Day

January – Sam’s unsigned and untitled piece on Anna Dickinson ran in the January issue of the Atlantic Monthly, the Contributors’ Club [Camfield, bibliog.].

January – The last of a four-part, 15,000 word article on Sam and Joe Twichell’s trip to Bermuda, ran in the Atlantic Monthly: “Some Rambling Notes of an Idle Excursion” [Wells 22].

January 19 Sunday – From Livy’s diary:

“Mr. Chamberlin let us have the low land for less than $9 a foot—but in measuring the land there proved to be more of the bank than Mr. C. thought, so that by taking a hundred and thirteen (I believe) of the table land seventy five did not bring us to the flat land, so Mr. C. sold us the rest of the bank for $50 a front foot [Salsbury 13]. Note: Franklin Chamberlin.

January 19 Tuesday – Phineas T. Barnum wrote to Sam. In part…

My dear Clemens / Yours recd I hope I sent you the letter from the man who was going on a lecturing tower!

I have heretofore destroyed a multitude of queer letters but henceforth will save them all for you.

I wonder if you have ever seen my great Hippodrome. If not I really hope you will have a chance to do so during the week or two that it will remain open. I enclose several “orders” to that end.

January 19 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Jerome B. Stillson, former correspondent for the New York World, who had written from Denver, where he was now in the real estate business, asking Sam for an autograph. In 1877 Stillson would move back to New York and join the staff of the New York Herald, where he stayed until his death in 1880 [MTLE 1: 14].

January 19 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford per Fanny Hesse to his sister Pamela Moffett recommending St. Paul’s, a preparatory school in Concord, New Hampshire for his nephew Samuel Moffett. Sam anticipated the visit of his nephew, now seventeen [MTLE 2: 8].

January 19 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Heber Clark (Max Adeler or John Quill, 1847-1915), a humorous journalist who had evidently asked if Sam was a millionaire.

January 2 Sunday – In New York, Bret Harte wrote to Sam about the dramatization of Gabriel Conroy. John T. Raymond had not agreed to Harte’s terms for the play, and another actor had pocketed Harte’s first play without performing it:

January 2 Tuesday – Two copies of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer were placed with the Copyright Office, Library of Congress [Hirst, “A Note on the Text” Oxford edition, 1996].

January 2 Wednesday – Sam and Livy went to the Hartford Opera House with Lilly Warner to see Howells’ play, A Counterfeit Presentment. Charles Dudley Warner’s unsigned review of the play in the Hartford Courant was positive, comparing Howells’ writing with Goldoni’s “pure comedy of unexaggerated real life” [MTHL 2: 217n2].

January 20 Thursday – Clemens wrote from Hartford to an unidentified person:

January 20 Sunday – Joseph G. Hickman (b. 1838) wrote from Florida, Mo. to Sam.

Mr Saml Clemens—

January 21 Friday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam.

Keokuk, January 21, 1876.

My Dear Brother:—

      Are you willing to lend me five hundred dollars a year for two years, while I try to get into the practice of law?

Your Brother,

Orion.

P. S. I can succeed [MTPO].

January 21 Sunday – Sam purchased books from the Osgood & Co., including Bayard Taylor’s The National Ode: The Memorial Freedom Poem (1877), and Centennial Ode (Author, year unidentified), and Richard Irving Dodge’s The Plains of the Great West and Their Inhabitants [Gribben 687; 134; 197].

January 21 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Chatto & Windus, his English publishers, with corrections for Punch Brothers, Punch! And Other Sketches; that the article would be in the March issue of Atlantic, released Feb. 15 [MTLE 3: 4].

January 22 Saturday – Sam’s article “A Literary Nightmare”  ran in the Hartford Courant on page one:

Will the reader please to cast his eye over the following verses, and see if he can discover anything harmful in them? [Courant.com]. (See Jan? entry for verse)

January 22 Monday – Sam wrote a postcard from Hartford to his attorney, Charles Perkins, asking if “that document” had been sent to “R” for his signature. If not, Sam wanted to make an important alteration. “R” may have been Routledge, in the matter of suing Belford Brothers; or John T. Raymond [MTLE 2: 9].

January 23 Wednesday – Frank E. Bliss sent a statement wth a balance due Sam of $844 [MTP].

January 24 Sunday – In Cambridge, Mass., Howells wrote Sam that he “really can’t and mustn’t” leave his work to visit Hartford. From his wife’s tone, Howells understood the trip to New Orleans without Livy along would not be possible. He praised Sam’s “science of piloting,” saying “every word’s interesting” [MTHL 1: 61].

January 24 Monday – Sam read his newly drafted story, “Recent Carnival of Crime in Connecticut” to the Monday Evening Club at his home. This was his third presentation to the club [Monday Evening Club] Twichell remembered the story as “serious in its intent though vastly funny and splendidly, brilliantly read.” The tale was a surreal and dark treatment that questioned the origin and function of the conscience.

January 24 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Frank Bliss, acknowledging receipt of a statement and check for $83. Sam asked for a paper that would document Bret Harte’s indebtedness, and wanted a statement for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Feb. 1. Sales of the book would be disappointing.

January 24 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Frank Bliss, sending his compliments that he’d done “exceedingly well. Looks like a decided improvement in business…” [MTLE 3: 6]. Since Sam usually wrote to Frank for accounts of royalties, evidently Sam had received reports and checks that showed an improvement of book sales.

January 25 Thursday – Plock & Co. NYC wrote to Sam, sending him $125 from Bernard Tauchnitz [MTP].

January 25 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James R. Osgood, again about the legal matter of watching William Gill, who had made a habit of plagiarizing and exploiting authors. Sam’s intention was to sue Gill for trademark infringement for using the name “Mark Twain,” a rather novel legal strategy at that time.

January 25 Friday – O.S. Chamberlain wrote from NYC to ask Sam to lecture [MTP].