November 16 Thursday – Moncure Conway wrote from England, responding to Sam’s Nov. 2 alarm of the Belford piracy of Tom Sawyer. Conway wrote:
“I immediately held a council of war with Chatto, and…I send you the result of our cogitations….We considered it best to telegraph Belford yesterday with these words:—‘Tom Sawyer is English copyright. Chatto’” [MTPO Notes with Nov. 2, 1876 to Conway].
November 17 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Howells, apologizing again for being late for lunch the day before, and relating that Livy:
“…gets upon the verge of swearing & goes tearing around in an unseemly fury when I enlarge upon the delightful time we had in Boston & she not there to have her share” [MTL 6: 285].
From Twichell’s journal:
November 17 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam replied to James G.
November 17 Saturday – Orion Clemens wrote of his change of offices, his being made Secretary of Republicans to publish the proceedings of the primary, thanking Livy for her account of Hall’s death, and of reading extracts of Sam’s Bermuda letters in the Atlantic Monthly [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “Preserve”
November 18 Wednesday – From Twichell’s journal:
“Lectured at Insane Asylum to the patients on my So American travels. M.T. went with me to study the audience” [Yale, copy at MTP].
November 18 Thursday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Mary A. Cord, inscribing his Sketches, New and Old book as a gift. Sam half apologized for the “libelous portrait” of Aunty Cord on p. 202, which portrayed Mary as scowling. Mary was the source of “A True Story,” which ran prior in the Atlantic [MTL 6: 593].
November 18 Saturday – Bill paid to A.K. Talcott for a Nov. 14 purchase, $4.80 [MTP].
November 18 Sunday – Edward Fordham Flower wrote from London: “I send you some notices of two pamphlets in one which are now published in New York by Cassells & Co. Can you do or say anything to make them known[?]” [MTP]. Note: father of Charles Edward Flower.
November – Sam reached a literary peak of sorts, when his article, “A True Story – Repeated Word for Word as I Heard It,” appeared in the “high brow” Atlantic Monthly. Sue Crane’s Negro cook—Auntie Cord—told Sam her experiences as a slave. After repeating the story to John Hay, William Seaver, and perhaps others, Sam had been encouraged to write and submit it [Wilson 267].
November – The second 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]. Note: Budd notes that “The Captain’s Story,” which was a part of “Rambling Notes,” was later printed separately in several collections; and that “The Invalid’s Story” was excluded by Howells from the piece for being “too offensive” for the magazine
November 19 or 20, 1874 Friday
November 19 or 20 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote to cousin Emma Parish.
November 2 Monday – On the “Taxable List of Samuel Clemens of Hartford for 1874” signed by Sam, he wrote the value of his Farmington Avenue home at $30,000; 1 horse $150; 1 cow $100; Coaches, Carriages & wagons $250; Clocks, Watches, Time Pieces, Jewelry $1,200; Piano Fortes $200; Household Furniture $1,500; Libraries exceeding $50, $100. He declared 200 shares of Hartford Accident Ins. Co. stock at $10,000; Bonds $9,000; Money at interest $30,000; Money on hand $2,000 and lastly:
November 2 Tuesday – Sam breakfasted with Lord Houghton at the Brevoort House at 9:30 AM [MTL 6: 579]. That day or the next morning, Sam and Livy returned home to Hartford.
November 2 Thursday – Sam wrote a correspondence card of alarm from Hartford to Moncure Conway:
November 20 Friday – Sam wrote two letters from Hartford to Howells. The first is an interesting fantasy, set in Boston (called Limerick) in the future, Nov. 16. 1935:
November 20 Tuesday – Dean Sage visited Twichell from Nov. 19 to 21. Twichell’s journal entry notes they went “to lunch at Mark Twain’s at noon” [Yale, copy at MTP].
November 21 Sunday – William Wright wrote from Virginia City, Nev. “Dear Mark, —We have had a terrible scorching here but will come out all right in a few months. The Ophir company will resume handling on in three or four days and a few days thereafter the Consolidated Virginia will begin blasting. The works of both companies are larger and better than before the fire.” He added, “Every day men say to me: ‘you wrote your book too soon. You should have had the fire in it’ ” [MTP].
November 21 Tuesday – Sam gave a reading at the Music Hall in Boston, similar to his Nov. 13 performance in Brooklyn [Schmidt: See Boston Daily Globe, “The Mark Twain Combination,” November 20, 1876, p.5; Boston Daily Globe, “On the Platform,” November 22, 1876, p.8].
While in Boston, Sam stayed with Howells, who recalled the visits in My Mark Twain:
November 21 Wednesday – E.S. Sykes, Hartford druggists wrote to Sam: “I return herewith your letter as requested. I read it to the Board as proposed. And it certainly set you right with those gentlemen who knew of yr. connection with the matter. / Feeling sure that if others were as ready to do their part as you have shown yourself to do yours that our poor would not want assistance, I remain… [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env “The performance that didn’t come off”
November 22 Monday – Unidentified “company interfered” with Sam and Livy’s reading of Howells’ “Private Theatricals,” the first part of which appeared in the November Atlantic Monthly [MTL 6: 595-7n6].
November 22 Wednesday – Sam gave a reading at the Academy of Music in Chelsea, Mass., similar to his Nov. 13 performance in Brooklyn [Schmidt]. Note: MTHL 1: 166n5 lists this lecture as Nov. 23. Also notes with Oct. 19 to Tip Saunders MTPO.
November? 22 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles E. Flower, advising that since receiving his letter about the Shakespeare Memorial, he had corresponded with some New York newspaper men. Sam and Livy stayed with the Flower family on their first trip to London together and Sam had used his influence to help Flower raise funds in the U.S. [MTLE 2: 198].
November 23 Monday – Howells wrote to Sam and responded to his Nov. 20 letter that his wife was “simply absurd” about the “Limerick” letter and he wished to keep it. About the “pilot days” installment, Howells said it was “capital—it almost made the water in our ice-pitcher muddy as I read it.” Howells opted not to “meddle with it much in the way of suggestion,” which was high praise [MTL 6: 294].
November 23 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Howells, answering his Nov. 21 letter, which praised The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Howells had made a few pencil suggestions and corrections, mostly in the first third of the book, and recommended Sam cut the last chapter. Howells, like Sam, grew up in the Midwest, and the book undoubtedly stirred boyhood memories, although Howells’ boyhood was not as idyllic as Sam’s.
November 23 Friday – Sam dated several story and book ideas in his notebook, including one “in which the telephone plays a principal part (the germ of the story “The Loves of Alonzo Fitz Clarence and Rosannah Ethelton” published in the Atlantic for Mar. 1878). He wrote notes for Prince and the Pauper, which he’d worked on in the summer of 1877.