• Home at Hartford

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    The Clemens family had their longest period of residency at their Hartford Home on Farmington Avenue, from September of 1879 to June of 1891. They spent their summers in Elmira with Mark Twain writing in his octagon at Quarry Farm. The summer of 1890 found them in the Catskills and by June of 1891 Sam had decided the family needed to economize, so they moved to Europe.
  • January 5, 1890 Sunday

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    January 5 Sunday – The New York Times, p.11 ran a long description of the life and biography of ex-senator from New York, Roscoe Conkling (1829-1888). Conkling’s biography was published by Webster & Co. Interestingly, Conkling and Sam had both opposed the 1876 candidacy of James G. Blaine.

    The Charleston, S.C. Sunday News, p.5 under “New Books” praised CY:

  • Mark Twain Day By Day: 1879

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    Paris Balloon Ride, Horse Races, French Morality & Fires All Summer
    Onanism At The Stomach Club – Crowded By Visitors
    Dirty Brussells, Antwerp & Dinner On The Admiral’s Flagship
    Rotterdam, Amsterdam & London – Orion Excommunicated
    Spurgeon Preaches, Great Darwin Seen – Gallia For Home – Howells Sleepeth
    Writing Tramp – Grant “Fetched Up”– Patriotic Frenzy – Ingersoll, Freethinker
    Lavish Colt “Blowout” – Holmes’ 70 Th Redemption

  • September 4, 1879 Thursday

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    September 4 Thursday  Sam wrote from Elmira to Dan Slote, asking that a scrapbook be sent to Welch (unknown, perhaps a passenger on the voyage). Sam made no mention of the failure of Slote’s company, but evidently Dan was still handling the scrapbooks as Sam had approved [MTLE 4: 89].

  • September 6, 1879 Saturday

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    September 6 Saturday  Sam wrote from Elmira to Frank Bliss. Sam sent the manuscript of A Tramp Abroad and asked when Bliss would be done with it as he was planning to visit his mother, and sister in Fredonia and wanted to know if he should wait to go or go soon. He asked that Frank telegraph him [MTLE 4: 90].

  • September 8, 1879 Monday

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    September 8 Monday  Sam wrote a short note from Elmira to Mary H. Beale, who evidently was seeking employment. “…my correspondence is not voluminous enough to make a short-hand amanuensis necessary, & in my other work I am obliged to use the pen myself” [MTLE 4: 91].

  • September 9, 1879 Tuesday 

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    September 9 Tuesday  In Boston, Howells wrote answering Clemens’ “sleepeth?” note:

    Sleepeth is the matter—the sleep of a torpid conscience. I will feign that I didn’t know where to write you; but I love you and all yours, and I am tremendously glad that you are at home again. When and where shall we meet? I want to see you and talk with you. Have you come home with your pockets full of Atlanticable papers? How about the two books? [MTHL 1: 268].

  • September 12, 1879 Friday 

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    September 12 Friday – Charles E. Perkins wrote to Sam, complimenting them on their safe arrival, and advising that his “mizzen needs painting.” Did they wish anything done in the way of carpets or furniture before they arrived in Hartford? [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Answered”

  • September 13, 1879 Saturday

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    September 13 Saturday – David Gray wrote to Sam. “Imagine my disappointment & mortification, on getting home yesterday from Syracuse, to find your telegraph, & that I had missed you!…Did you ever write ‘The Prince & the Pauper’? How often that story has haunted me!” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Refers to ‘Prince & Pauper’ / David Gray / Answered /1879”

  • September 15, 1879 Monday

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    September 15 Monday  Sam wrote from Elmira to George S. Gilman, publisher, evidently responding to his inquiry about Sam’s connection with American Publishing Co.: “Under certain (not difficult nor unreasonable) conditions, I am to remain with the old Co., I believe” [MTLE 4: 96].

  • September 17, 1879 Wednesday

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    September 17 Wednesday – In Belmont, Mass., Howells wrote to Sam about possible visits ahead. Howells was sensitive about “helping to put your brother [Orion] into drama,” as Sam had repeatedly suggested. He offered, “the alien hand might inflict an incurable hurt to his tender heart.” Howells also mentioned seeing George Waring, who had recently seen Sam, thus bringing “us very near” [MTHL 1: 270].

  • September 23, 1879 Tuesday

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    September 23 Tuesday  In Elmira, Sam wrote to the editors of the Berkshire County Eagle (Pittsfield, Mass.) to decline an invitation for a supper and social meeting by the journalists. He went a long way around to enlighten the editors on the meaning of “circumstances over which I have no control” [MTLE 4: 101].

    Sam also wrote to Mary Mason Fairbanks.

  • September 29, 1879 Monday

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    September 29 Monday – John Wentworth Sanborn wrote to Clemens, thanking him for help in getting “unstuck” with the Scrap Book [MTP]. Note: letter exists in Sanborn’s 1920 book, Distinguished Authors Whom I have known, etc; See Jan. 24, 1878 from Sanborn.

    Rev. Nathaniel J. Burton wrote from Hartford to Clemens recommending a “colored man” to take the place of George Griffin [MTP].

  • October 1, 1879 Wednesday 

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    October 1 Wednesday  Sam wrote from Elmira to John W. Sanborn, Indian culture expert. He complimented Sanborn on his “little book” which contained Indian ideas of creation, heaven and what Sam called the “odd coincidence” of immaculate conception [MTLE 4: 107] The book was likely Legends, customs and social life of the Seneca Indians, of western New York, by John Wentworth Sanborn, (“O-yo-ga-weh,”) (Clear Sky.) 1878.

  • October 2, 1879 Thursday

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    October 2 Thursday  Sam wrote from Quarry Farm to Joe Twichell, who had recommended a Negro cook for the Clemens family. George Griffin was back in their employ, Sam wrote. Could Harmony Twichell recommend the candidate as a good cook? “Never mind her morals, is she a good cook?” Sam liked his new book (A Tramp Abroad) after much revision and cutting. “I cannot see that it lacks anything but information.”

  • October 3, 1879 Friday 

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    October 3 Friday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam, “The Fierce Yazoos” doggerel that he’d sent to several newspapers enclosed. He was again in financial straits and turned around about how to proceed [MTP].

  • October 6, 1879 Monday

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    October 6 Monday – In Toronto, Canada, Howells wrote to Sam. Howells was on a “very nice trip” to see his father.

    Next week we are going on for a day at John Hay’s. Hay is deep in politics, and will probably go to Congress next year. I wish we could stop at Elmira, but we must go home the other way. We left the chicks at Belmont, and we’re in a hurry to get back to ‘em [MTHL 1: 272].

  • October 9, 1879 Thursday 

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    October 9 Thursday  Sam had received Howells letter of Sept. 17, which called writing about Orion by “an alien hand” as heartless. Howells planned on traveling “northward and westward…either the first of October or the first of November” [MTHL 1: 270]. Sam responded that he’d intended to mark the religious squib “Private,” but forgot to. He then wrote a litany of Orion’s schemes and intentions he’d received in the past month.

  • October 10, 1879 Friday 

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    October 10 Friday – Susan Crane gave this as the date the Clemens family left Quarry Farm. If so, they must have stayed with the Langdons in Elmira until Oct. 21 [Susan Crane to Paine, June 14, 1911The Twainian, Nov.-Dec.1956 p.4].