July 21 Friday – The American Publishing Co.’s edition of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was copyrighted by title page this day, even though it wasn’t offered for sale until Dec. 1876 [Duckett 106, citing Blanck].
J.W. Langdon wrote from NYC to solicit writing for his autograph album… “something original” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “Unutterable cheek”
July 22 Saturday – In Elmira, Sam wrote a long conciliatory letter he marked PRIVATE to Elisha Bliss. In a July 20 letter Bliss answered Sam’s concerns and sent a few more chapters of proofs of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Bliss also had been sick, and objected to some of Sam’s suggestions. Sam’s wrote that his suggestions about shrinking the company were just that, and:
July 23 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Pamela Moffett. Sam had utter disdain for the temperance activists, who he said blamed the maker of rum and not the drinker of it.
July 23 Sunday – The Philadelphia Sunday Republic published part of the fence-whitewashing episode of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer [The Twainian, Mar. 1944 p.4].
Charles Dudley Warner wrote from Hartford to Sam, sorry he hadn’t been able to get to Phila. soon enough to see him. He’d read TS “and greatly enjoyed” it. Much of his small scrawl is illegible [MTP]
July 24 Monday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Moncure Conway. He’d discovered where The Adventures of Tom Sawyer excerpts in the newspapers were originating from—Moncure’s marketing letters to a Cincinnati paper.
July 24 Tuesday – Frank Fuller wrote another postcard from NYC: “I am a sick person. I go, hence. I will write Woodruff tomorrow. I have buzzed the old man till I can build that thing at Colt’s & run it. He brings a proposition from petroleum fellows to erect on for that purpose. I have not discharged him because I thought he might be worked off on them & the warm friendship which now exists between all of us be maintained” [MTP]. Note: William N. Woodruff, Hartford machinist.
July 25 Tuesday – Sam’s article “The Secret Out” ran in the NY Evening Post [Camfield, bibliog.].
July 25 Wednesday – Maze Edwards wrote from the St. James Hotel, NYC. “Please consent to be here Friday Aug. 31, and either ‘speak a piece’ or say a few words between acts, and let us know your decision in a few days…” [MTP]. Note: Edwards was a theater manager who would become a road agent for Clemens.
July 26 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Orion, enclosing $82 requested as a loan. Orion was sending monthly detailed accounts of his chicken farm income and expenses and borrowing another $100 each time. Sam eyeballed a $25 expense for the rental of a pew in church and made a point of “principle” in this reply. “You might as well borrow money to sport diamonds with,” Sam admonished [MTL 6: 519].
July 26 Wednesday – The Hartford Courant printed “The Boy, the Beetle and the Dog. A Sketch from Mark Twain’s ‘Tom Sawyer,’ in Press.” This was taken from chapter 5 and was independent of Conway’s “London Letter” first sent to the Cincinnati Commercial (See June 26 entry.) It was reprinted Aug. 28 in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch [MTPO notes on July 24 to Conway].
July 26 Thursday – Frank Fuller wrote to Sam: “You must go to the sea side with me today or tomorrow or someday & be saved by good things…. I’ve been awful sick & haven’t had strength to frame a suitable letter to Woodruff yet, but I will”[MTP].
July 27 Thursday – Sam wrote to Charles E. Perkins, sending $3,000 to be invested for Livy. This letter not extant but referred to in the July 31 acknowledgment from Perkins.
July 27 Friday – Sam wrote from New York to Livy, mostly about the rehearsals for Ah Sin and his optimism about the play. He added:
“I am very much obliged to your for marrying me, & I love you, love you, love you!” [MTLE 2: 110].
Stephen Fiske of Daly’s Fifth Ave. Theater wrote:
July 28 Saturday – “Mark Twain’s Hotel” ran in the Downieville, California Mountain Messenger, and Fatout attributes it to Sam, possibly an “Enterprise refugee.”
None but the brave deserve the fare. Persons owing bills for board will be bored for bills. Sheets will be nightly changed, once in six months, or more if necessary. Beds with or without bugs [Fatout, MT Speaks 102].
July 29 Saturday – Abraham Reeves Jackson wrote from Chicago, transcript of July 22 Evening Post editorial enclosed. Jackson passed on a letter from J.H. Dowling who wanted Sam to lecture there [MTP].
July 29 Sunday – Livy wrote to Sam [LLMT 203-4] receiving two letters from him, because he offered no excuse for the delay in writing save the hours he’d spent and:
“…worked like a dog through this blistering weather & come home, whether early or late with the feeling that I couldn’t write”
Livy cautioned him not to talk against Harte, who Sam wrote had not “put in an appearance” [MTLE 2: 112].
July 29? Thursday – In Hartford Sam wrote to James Redpath who had sent “customary annual lecture temptations!” Sam still did not want to lecture—at any price.
“All last winter I sat at home drunk with joy over every storm that howled along, because I knew that some dog of a lecturer was out in it” [MTL 6: 520-1].
July 3 Saturday – In Cambridge, Mass., Howells wrote Sam not to “waste it on a boy”—that is, his “chief work,” The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which Howells thought should be carried on into Tom’s adult years [MTHL 1: 90]. Note: even Howells got it wrong now and then.
July 3 Monday – Charles E. Perkins wrote to Sam: “Yours of the 1st inst is recd with check for taxes. I enclose tax bill receipted—also check for my half yearly charge of $150…The check for coupons for Mrs Clemens a/c is $404.25 and is deposited…” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “Tax receipt for July ’76 / Recpt for Perkins to July ‘76”
July 3 Tuesday – Frank Fuller finished his June 30: “Bowers sent his regular little dft for 3100 yestrdy, a proof that he still survives.” Fuller intended to leave town should Bowers show up, lying around, “stunning me with steam pressures & tables of expansion” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env “No answer”; H.C. Bowers; see June 11 listing.
July 30 Sunday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Montgomery Schuyler, journalist and architectural critic for the New York World, answering his letter of July 25. Sam had done a squib for the World but burned it, and would write another “in coming months.” No doubt he was responding to a request for an article [MTLE 1: 88].
July 30 Monday – Charles E. Perkins notified Sam that he’d had all the insurance renewed for 3 years [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env “All paid / Aug 3/77”
July 31 Saturday – The Clemens family left Hartford to vacation at Bateman’s Point near Newport, Rhode Island. They stayed at Ridge Road and Castle Hill Avenue in an old farm on the well-used resort. Dan De Quille, who had been staying in the Union Hall Hotel in Hartford and writing his book with Sam’s help, also accompanied the family and stayed a week.
July 31 Monday – Charles E. Perkins wrote to Sam acknowledging his of the 27th with the $3,000 to be invested for Livy. He complained of “infernal hot weather” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “The 21st Thousand invested.”
July 31-August 7 Monday – Sam and Bliss wrote proof notes for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer [MTPO].
July 31 Tuesday – The play Ah Sin was presented by Augustin Daly and opened at the Fifth Avenue Theatre, NYC. The cast of main characters included: Miss Dora Goldthwaite as SHIREY TEMPEST, Miss Mary Wells as MRS. TEMPEST, Mrs. G.H. Gilbert as MRS. PLUNKETT, Miss Edith Blande as CAROLINE ANASTASIA PLUNKETT, and Mr.