May 24 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to P.T. Barnum, to thank him for another batch of “queer letters.” Sam had heard that Barnum was in the Hartford Library, but when he got there he discovered a man named Bernard was there. “I ought to have killed him, but as it was Sunday I let him go” [MTL 6: 486].
Sam wrote a $100 check to Patrick McAleer, family coachman, designating it as “house money” [MTP].
May 25 Tuesday – In Elmira, Sam wrote to James Redpath:
TK Beecher is splendid in the pulpit—splendid is the word but I have never seen him on the platform at all—never have heard him lecture.
Our people all like his lecturing, but you ask me for my opinion, & individually, & so I have to confess ignorance [MTP, drop-in letters].
May 27 Thursday – Joaquin Miller visited Sam and Livy in Hartford. Miller had traveled in the East after a trip abroad, and stopped in Hartford on the way from Boston to New York. Dan De Quille (William Wright) also arrived in Hartford and took a room at the Union Hall Hotel [Powers, MT A Life 377]. That evening, Miller, Thomas K.
May 28 Friday – Joaquin Miller may have stayed a day or two at Sam’s, but wrote John Hay on this day that he was with Clemens but would be at the Windsor Hotel in New York that evening.
May 30 Sunday – Thomas K. Beecher gave two sermons at Twichell’s Asylum Hill Congregational Church, and wrote a letter to his wife Julia on Sam’s typewriter [MTL 6: 487].
Sister M. Juliana wrote from Providence, R.I. to thank him for the autograph [MTP].
May 31 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to William F. Gill, telling him not to announce Mark Twain as a future contributor to Gill’s “Treasure Trove” series. Sam demanded that Gill give notice in writing that future offerings would not include Sam’s sketches. It was Gill who had “burnt” Sam by denial to use “Encounter with an Interviewer,” as sketch which had appeared in Lotos Leaves [MTL 6: 488-9].
June – The sixth of seven installments of “Old Times on the Mississippi” ran in the Atlantic Monthly. Also, the “Drama” editor of that magazine praised the stage version of Gilded Age, especially complimenting John T. Raymond in the role of Colonel Mayberry Sellers [Wells 22].
June 2 Wednesday – Thomas K. Beecher ended his visit at the Clemens’ home. De Quille stayed on to work on what became The Big Bonanza; he would send occasional letters to the Virginia City Enterprise, describing eastern cities, his three-day New York stay, and his cross-country trip in a Pullman car [MTL 6: 488].
Sam wrote a $96.75 check to Caswell Bros., Hartford Meat market [MTP].
June 4 Friday – Phineas T. Barnum invited the Clemenses to spend the 5th of July with them to celebrate his 45th birthday. He added: “P.S. The ‘queer letters’ are accumulating” [MTP]. Note: Clemens had asked several people to save strange letters sent to them.
June 7 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Cornelius R. Agnew, a New York specialist of the eye and ear, in behalf of a neighbor, Nell Kinearney. Sam mentioned Dr. Starr and Dr. Bowen on the case [MTL 6: 490].
June 8 Tuesday – Clara Clemens’ first birthday. In Hartford Sam wrote to William F. Gill, warning him again against printing “a single line” of his in one of Gill’s books [MTL 6: 494-5].
June 9 Wednesday – Bill paid to Amos Larned & Co. for $2.50 [MTP].
Orion Clemens wrote to Sam, having arrived in St. Charles, Mo. from Louisville the night before.
…. The Ford matter is in such a confused tangle that it is a pleasure to work with it. This reminded me that you said love of the work itself was the thing. As I really like to work with law matters I have decided if you are willing, to endeavor to push myself into the practice of law in Keokuk…to open a law office there. …
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 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 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 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 21 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to an unidentified Mr. Gwynn, inviting him to “come up & play billiards the first evening you are in town” [MTL 6: 496].
In a letter from Lilly Gillette Warner (1838-1915) to her husband George H. Warner, she mentioned that Livy had recently suffered a miscarriage [MTL 6: 498n4].
June 22 Tuesday – Sam purchased a set of his books from Elisha Bliss for Dr. Cornelius R. Agnew, the New York eye & ear specialist [MTL 6: 498n1]. Note: Sam had paid for the doctor to consult with his neighbor on an eye problem. (See June 7, 23 entry.)
June 23 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Dr. Cornelius R. Agnew that he’d shipped the books. After Agnew came up and examined Nell Kinearney’s eyes, Sam was the one to break the news that nothing could be done [MTL 6: 498].
In Cambridge, Mass., Howells sent Sam a postcard:
June 25 Friday – In Hartford Sam replied to Howells about the typewriter that Howells wanted to borrow. Sam had traded the machine to Bliss for “a twelve-dollar saddle worth $25.”
“…the machine is at Bliss’s, grimly pursuing its appointed mission, slowly & implacably rotting away another man’s chance for salvation” [MTL 6: 499].
June 26 Saturday – Rev. Dr. Charles E. Tisdall (1820-1905), Chancellor of Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin. wrote to Sam.
June 28 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Pamela Moffett. Only part of the letter exists. Sam wrote that Livy had been sick for a week but now was up and around again and that they would go to Newport, R.I., for August and part of September, taking the kids and two nurses.
June 29 Tuesday – Jack Van Nostrand, Quaker City friend, wrote from Manitou, Colo.
June 30 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Dr. Cornelius Agnew, asking if a summer at the seaside for Nell Kinearney would be a good thing. Nell was a neighbor with the diseased eye that doctors had recommended removing [MTL 6: 502]. Note: The Clemenses may have paid some of the medical expenses for the operation done in the fall.
July – Sam inscribed a copy of Queen Mary, A Drama. Author’s Edition (1875): “Saml. L. Clemens, Hartford, July, 1875” [Gribben 695].