November 7 Thursday – Sam attended a dinner for the Linnean Society of London, with Henry Lee, who was a member. The society commemorated Swedish naturalist Carl Linneaus (1707-1778) [MTL 5: 214n3].
Sam inscribed a copy of Innocents Abroad to Sir John Bennett: “With the warm regards of The Author” [McBride 7].
November 8 Friday – Clemens sent another announcement to the editor of the London Telegraph, of his return home and plans for lecturing in the spring [MTL 5: 219].
John Camden Hotten wrote to Clemens, who went to Piccadilly to call on him. Hotten’s letter, noted only in 1st ed. MTDBD I for this date, is now supplied by Welland:
November 9 Saturday – Sam attended the Lord Mayor’s Banquet. Sir Sydney Waterlow was the new Lord Mayor. The banquet was held for 800-900 guests [MTLE 5: 221n1]. On each plate was a plan of the hall with the position of each person numbered. A reading of the names of those present was made, as Sam later told during a journalistic breakfast in 1879.
November 10 Sunday – At midnight on Nov. 9, after the Lord Mayor’s Dinner, Sam wrote Livy:
November 11 Monday – Sam left London bound for Liverpool and home to Hartford [MTL 5: 214n2].
November 12 Tuesday – Sam sailed from Liverpool on the steamship Batavia of the Cunard Line, bound for Boston and New York [MTL 5: 214n2]. Note: see July 3, 1907 from C.F. Wood to Clemens. Also Nov. 26, 1872.
November 15 Friday – Thomas Nast wrote from Morristown, NJ to Sam. “I shall be glad to see my young ‘adorer’, but I am not to be found in New York usually, I only go in once a week, to see to things, and do all my work at home….Poor deluded boy! He needs but to behold, to be completely cured of his infatuation” [MTP]. Note: The boy referred to was Charley Fairbanks who idolized Nast.
November 17 to 18 Monday – From Sam’s letter of Nov. 20 en route to Boston from Liverpool, to the Royal Humane Society:
November 18 Monday – Bill paid to A. Schmidt & Co., 842 Broadway, New York, $55.50 portfolio, box, easels, vase, paper cutter, tray [MTP].
November 19 Tuesday – More from Sam’s letter of Nov. 20:
November 20 Wednesday – Sam wrote en route to Boston from Liverpool, to the Royal Humane Society about the storm and rescue, and recommending Captain John E. Mouland (b. 1828) and crew for “that reward which a sailor prizes & covets above all other distinctions, the Royal Humane Society’s medal.” Sam and nineteen passengers signed the letter [MTL 5: 223].
November 23 Saturday – Sam wrote a congratulatory letter to Captain John E. Mouland for his “brave and good deed” and for his handling of the crisis of the storm. Again, signed by many other passengers [MTL 5: 227-9].
November 25 Monday – The Batavia reached Boston. Sam de-boarded and took Englishman C.F. Wood and Fijian servant on an express train for Hartford. Near Enfield, Conn. the train narrowly avoided being derailed by a drunk New Haven printer attempting to exact revenge for being forcibly thrown off a train for lack of fare. The Hartford Times Nov.