Hartford House: Day By Day

September – Sometime during the month, Sam set aside the manuscript he called “Huck Finn’s Autobiography” after completing about one third of the story. He received so many inquiries about a sequel to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, that he had a response form letter printed [MTLE 2: .iv]. Note: He would not complete HF until 1883.

September –Elisha M. Van Aken (1828-1904) wrote to Sam [MTP].

September 19 Saturday – The Clemens family left New York for their new home in Hartford. The next day Sam wrote to Howells, saying they were occupying “part of the new house. Goodness knows when we’ll get in the rest of it—full of workmen yet” [MTL 6: 233].

September 19 Wednesday – From Hartford, Sam wrote a letter to the editor of the Hartford Courant, which ran on page 2 on Sept. 20 as, “A Tramp of the Sea.” Sam threw some light upon the mystery of a “schooner with a black crew of thirteen and only one white man,” (the Jonas Smith). On return from Bermuda Sam’s ship had come in contact with the mystery vessel [MTLE 2:&nb

September 2 Saturday – Sherrard Clemens (1820-1880) wrote to Sam, clippings enclosed.

September 20 Sunday – In Hartford Sam replied to the Sept.

September 20 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Warren Stoddard, his personal secretary on the first trip to England. Stoddard had written to ask if Sam or his publisher could publish a book of his. Sam advised Stoddard to write to him or Howells and say he wanted a consulship somewhere. Sam reasoned that Hayes would win the election, and since Mrs.

September 20 Thursday – Sam’s letter about contacting the mystery vessel, the schooner Jonas Smith, with a large black crew not being mutineers as first reported, ran in the Hartford Courant under the headline “Tramp of the Sea” [MTLE 2: 154-7].

September 21 Monday – The New York Daily Graphic ran a cartoon of Twain as a frog even though it was for the opening of the play, The Gilded Age (renamed Colonel Sellers); see insert.

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 21 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells, promoting Charles Warren Stoddard for a consulship, something Sam expressed was the only thing the man was good for. Sam knew that Hayes would win because of Orion’s “desertion” of the Republican Party. Orion’s choice made:

September 21 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Perkins. Sam informed Perkins that he’d told H.W. Bergen  to report once a year or so, that dramatics weren’t worth the effort to do it oftener [MTLE 2: 164]. An agreement with this date temporarily transferred Sam’s interest in the Colonel Sellers play to Bergen [MTPO Notes with Oct.

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 22 Friday – In Pepperell, Mass., Howells wrote, agreeing to Sam’s idea of promoting Stoddard, adding, “C.W.S. shall be inspector of consulates. He’s in too good repair for a resident consul. Epilepsy or softening of the brain is requisite: a game arm will not do.” (Stoddard had badly broken his arm falling from a horse in Feb. 1875.) Howells wrote he had a “long letter to write you from Cambridge” [MTHL 1: 155].

September 22 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to John Sherman, Secretary of the Treasury, enclosing an excerpt from an article regarding the schooner Jonas Smith not being in trouble. Sam apologized for having caused Sherman any trouble connected with the “shameful” crew [MTLE 2: 165].

September 23 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Robert Shelton Mackenzie, Irish novelist and since 1857 the literary and drama critic for the Philadelphia Press. Sam thanked Mackenzie on his “Correct idea of Col. Sellers,” and discussed the nature of the Sellers character, “drawn from life, not imagination—I ate the turnip dinner with him, years ago…” [MTL 6: 240].

September 23 Sunday – Isaiah Weston wrote a postcard from St. Louis: “Friend Sam = Have just returned from the Black Hills, Rusty & Seedy = Save old Judge Morgan = also, & nearly all the old broken Pioneers , of the few who are left = If you wish to write me, — Direct to Sherman, Texas, the next 40 days = your absent friend of 11 years…” [MTP]. Note: nothing further found on Weston. 11 years would = 1866, when Clemens was in Hawaii.

September 24 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Gov. William W. Belknap, about strategy to obtain an appointment to the Naval Academy for Samuel Moffett. They would try to gain the appointment through Keokuk, Iowa, even though Samuel had never lived there [MTL 6: 244].

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 24 Sunday – Gertrude Kellogg wrote to thank Sam for his help “in speaking a good word for me to the Bureau people in Boston, as I have heard you did” [MTPO]. Notes from source: Kellogg had won critical praise in 1874 as Laura Hawkins in the original New York production of Clemens’s Gilded Age play, Colonel Sellers and was returning to the stage.

September 24 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote a postcard to Charles Perkins, asking if money from Edwards (unidentified) had been received [MTLE 2: 167].

H.W. Bergen wrote to Sam: “Yours of he 21st enclosing chk for $100—reached me this A.M all OK. Also the contract which I enclose signed.” He promised to hold down expenses and had hope the business would pay them both [MTP].

September 25 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to William Seaver, answering his note of Sept. 17.

“I knew you’d be glad the play was commended, & I hope that before this you & John Hay have been there & wept….Remember that darkey yarn I told you & Hay? Well, it has gone to the “Atlantic” & so you boys can’t gobble it, you see” [MTL 6: 245-6].

On or about this day Sam also wrote to James Redpath:

September 25 Saturday – The first 100 copies of Sketches, New and Old arrived at the publishers from the bindery [MTL 6: 535n2].

September 25 Monday – Henry W. Shaw (Josh Billings) wrote a note from NYC. He advised sending Sam one of his books: Josh Billings: His Works, Complete. If Sam should “be seized with a longing to say something tender” then Shaw would be very much pleased. In the book he wrote this inscription:

September 25 Tuesday – Frederick Wicks wrote on Glascow News notepaper to tell Sam about G.C. Clemens, a man people kept thinking was Mark Twain, even though his hair was jet black. Even reporters of the Evening News published the man was Twain [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env “Rather amusing & a trifle discomforting”