Hartford House: Day By Day

July 4 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Moncure Conway, worried that the book and newspaper notice Conway had sent were lost. Communication with Bliss had become difficult at this point, with Sam having to ask Conway if the pictures from Bliss had arrived. They were needed for the English publication of TS. “I can’t find out from him,” Sam complained.

July 4 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to his attorney Charles Perkins, restating the value of his house and goods for insurance purposes. Sam’s brother-in-law, Theodore Crane, suffered loss of a building insured for $12,000 that the “consultation-gang of insurance-thieves” had said was only worth $8,000 [MTLE 2: 88].

July 5 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Howells that he’d finished The Adventures of Tom Sawyer but “didn’t take the chap beyond boyhood,” a development that Howells had recommended. Sam doubted that any magazine could pay him enough to publish the book, and used figures Harte had received from Scribner’s for comparison.

July 6 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Mr. Gerard (unknown), referring him to Edward T. Potter Sam’s architect, for pictures and drawings on his Farmington Avenue home [MTL 6: 506].

In Cambridge, Mass., Howells wrote Sam a short letter about submissions for the Atlantic, a music item, and his sympathies for “poor little Susy,” who evidently was ill [MTHL 1: 94].

July 6 Thursday – In Hartford, Sam wrote a short note of thanks to George Bentley of the Temple Bar in London, for money received for an article sent on Apr. 26 [MTLE 1: 80]. Note: It’s not known when Sam left Hartford and returned to Elmira, though Bliss wrote him on July 18.

July 6 Friday – Sam finished the letter to Howells he began on July 4. He’d completed the play, a four-act comedy with fourteen characters—all done in “6 ½ days working 6 ½ hours per day.”

July 7 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Perkins. He sent a check of $1,110.38 for property taxes on his Farmington Road House. He had discovered that Hartford property purchased with Livy’s money was still in his name, so directed Perkins to draft the necessary documents to deed back to Livy, and to send them to the St.

July 8 Thursday – In Cambridge, Mass., Howells wrote Sam that he’d be unable to visit. Sam’s invitation, probably written on July 6-7, has been lost. The Howellses were going to the country at Shirley Village, Mass. and wouldn’t be home from Aug. 1 till Oct. 1 [MTHL 1: 94].

June 1 Thursday – Mary Mason Fairbanks wrote from Cleveland, Ohio to Sam.

June 10 Thursday – In Cambridge, Mass., Howells sent Sam a postcard saying he would take the three o’clock train on Saturday and was sorry that he must come alone [MTHL 1: 87].

June 10 Saturday – Sam must have heard from John RoBards, the boyhood friend he’d contracted to move his brother and father’s remains to the newer cemetery. He wrote from Hartford to RoBards, thanking him and asking to send any left over money to his mother in Fredonia, New York [MTLE 1: 68].

Duckett gives this as the date the English version of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer was ready [106].

June 11 Monday – Frank Fuller wrote (Bowers to Fuller June 9 & 10 enclosed),wanting Sam to tell him what to do about H.C. Bowers, and enclosing Bowers’ bill for $31.65 [MTP]. Note: “In 1877 Clemens’s old friend Frank Fuller persuaded him to invest in a company that he managed, the New York Vaporizing Company, which was financing H.C. Bowers to develop a new type of steam generator.

June 12 Saturday – In the late afternoon, William Dean Howells arrived in Hartford for a visit. Joe Twichell joined the pair in the evening. Howells later wrote to his father that he’d done “a month’s worth of laughing” at Clemens’ house [MTL 6: 497n1]. Howells read parts of Tom Sawyer, offering to run it in a serial in the Atlantic.

June 12 Tuesday – Sam wrote from the Langdon home in Elmira to Charles Perkins, his attorney and business consultant. Sam enclosed $20 and asked, “When is the dramatic vacation coming! It will be a relief to get Bergen down to $15 a week.” H.W. Bergen was the agent hired to handle and report receipts from stage plays.

June 13 Sunday – Sam and Howells attended the Asylum Hill Church and took in Twichell’s sermon. Afterwards the trio walked to Sam’s and had dinner. Twichell was impressed with Howells, who departed this day or the next morning for his Boston home [MTL 6: 497]. From Twichell’s journal:

June 13 Tuesday – In Cambridge, Mass., Howells wrote a postcard to Sam. Howells was going to Philadelphia on July 3, so he couldn’t attend the Congress of Authors there on July 1. Did Sam get the long letter he’d written that week? “We go into the country this week: Shirley Village, Mass.” [MTHL 1:141].

June 13 Wednesday – Little Clara’s fever had run its course, so Sam took the family up to Quarry Farm, a place “always cool, & still, & reposeful & bewitching” [MTLE 2: 80].

June 14 Monday – William Dean Howells likely ended the visit with Sam and returned to Cambridge this a.m. It’s possible he may have left late the night before, but this a.m. seems more likely. Judging from Sam’s of June 21 to Howells, a train was missed causing Sam to recall their misadventures on “Lexington Centennial Day” (see Apr. 18, 1875 to Livy) [MTP].

June 14 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to “Miss Harriet” responding to an autograph request. Even in a knock-off line, Sam could be hilariously brilliant:

“I am a long time answering your letter, my dear Miss Harriet, but then you must remember that it is an equally long time since I received it—so that makes us even, & nobody to blame on either side” [MTLE 1: 69].

June 14 Thursday – Sam wrote from Quarry Farm to Howells, responding to a letter received. Sam thought Howells had made good terms for his new play. He consented to publishing the Bermuda travel article in the October issue of the Atlantic. He had revised the first two articles and began the third this day.

June, before the 15th – Sam wrote from Hartford to James Hammond Trumbull, enclosing Frank Etting’s reply to Sam’s questions about the Centennial event in Philadelphia. Etting had urged Sam and Trumbull to come; that there would be 150 authors and that not every one could read every piece but many would read part. Trumbull had provided the multilingual chapter epigraphs for The Gilded Age.

June 16 Friday – George Bentley wrote from London, England

Dear Sir / I enclose a cheque … with many thanks.

      Your article came very late, & only by displacing one, & making a slight curtailment of the commencement could I get it in time. You will therefore forgive this curtailment It is a quaint article & I shall hope to hear from you again, especially when gd fun runs riot with you.

June 16 Saturday – Robert E. Beecher of Continental Life Ins. Co of Hartford wrote, pointing out that $335 plus interest was due on a $10,000 policy Sam had taken out in 1869 [MTP].

June 17 Saturday – Moncure Conway’s review of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer ran in the London Examiner:

June 18 Sunday – Frank M. Etting wrote from Philadelphia to Sam.

Dear Sir / I have been so overwhelmed by the details of our celebration of 7th June & of 2d July as to be unable to attend to the duty of correspondence at all— You must therefore make due allowance for my delay in replying to your favor of 8th inst—