Home at Hartford: Day By Day

March 8 Monday – Sam inscribed this date and his signature in a copy of Sketches, New and Old to an unidentified person [MTLE 5: 35].

March 8 Tuesday – Saloman & DeLeeuw, Hartford tobacco dealers, billed Sam $2.50 for corn cob pipes and Blackwell’s Durham tobacco; marked paid [MTP]

March 8 Wednesday – George P. Bissell wrote with a Bradstreet’s report on the Am. Bank Note Co., which he highly recommended [MTP].

Hooker & Co. wrote a short Note: “Your telegram just received. We will put the carriage in the works immediately and push it forward to completion as fast as possible” [MTP].

March 8 Thursday – In the evening after receiving a letter from Roswell Smith, editor and president of Century Magazine, Sam and Charles Dudley Warner discussed how to set up a trial lecture for George W. Cable in Hartford [Mar. 9 to Cable, MTP].

March 8 Saturday – Charles Webster wrote to Clemens: he retrieved the TS play from Daly; hoped P&P would make a splendid play; looking over Osgood’s statement; referred to Whitford; Prang’s letter enclosed. “In regard to canvassing Huck & Tom both at once would you advise having the covers alike?” [MTP].

March 8 Sunday – Sam’s coup of Grant’s memoirs, though not widely proclaimed, had been noticed. The Brooklyn Eagle, on p. 2 reported that Sam was in New York:

March 8 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Kate Field, answering her Mar. 6 letter about a book disclaiming Mormonism and polygamy.

March 8 Tuesday – Henry Ward Beecher died of a cerebral hemorrhage at 9 A.M. after only a few hours struggle. He was 73. His family would, in time, repay Webster & Co. The $5,000 advance for his autobiography [Powers, MT A Life 514]. A great controversy arose in Chicago over “the failure of the Congregational ministers to adopt unanimously the resolution to send a telegram of condolence to Mrs. Beecher at their meeting yesterday” [New York Times, Mar.

March 8 Thursday – Joseph B. Gilder for The Critic Co. sent Sam a typed letter asking for “yes or no” about Horace’s idea that “the writer should not be affected by his own pathetic senses” [MTP].

Alfred E. Burr wrote on Hartford Times letterhead to Sam, “begging” for support of the “Good Will Club” which provided entertainment for boys and needed a larger hall [MTP].

March 8 Friday – Sam likely returned to Hartford the day after the banquet at Young’s Hotel in Boston. Sam’s notebook:

Offered Badlam a one-hundredth interest in the American business for $25,000 provided he takes me up before Apl. 15; also offered him the same share (this offer begins June 15) provided he takes me up before July 15.)

Hearst, Walters [MTNJ 3: 460&n177-8].

March 8 Saturday – What Baetzhold calls “the one most favorable British review” came from down under: “Mark Twain’s New Book. A Crusher for Royalty,” in the Sydney, Australia Bulletin [John Bull 353-4n2].

March 8 Sunday – In Hartford Sam responded to Miss Clement’s question about his surname:

March 9 Tuesday – C.E. Goodspeed wrote from Newton Centre, Mass. to ask for an autograph [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Auto fiend / 1880 / Cheek”

Sam wrote to W.A. May in Scranton Pa. Letter not extant but referred to in May’s Mar. 11 reply.

March 9 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to A.V.S. Anthony.

“Please let the artist always picture the Prince & Tom Canty as lads of 13 or 14 years old. I knew I was making them too wise & knowing for their real age, so I studiously avoided mentioning any dates which would remind the reader that they were under 10 years old” [MTP].

March 9 Thursday – Sam took a train to New York, where he met Howells. The two men checked into the Hotel Brunswick [MTNJ 2: 451n54; N.Y. Times Mar. 10 p.8].

Clarence E. Ash (ca. 1861-1897) in Sioux City, Ia. sent a pre-printed autograph seeking card, spelling Clemens with two ‘m’s [MTP].

March 9 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford responding to English writer George MacDonald’s letter suggesting a collaborative scheme for protecting against literary piracy. If Sam would write a few short paragraphs for MacDonald’s forthcoming novel then both writers’ names would guarantee copyrights in both countries. Sam politely offered the idea would make sense only if each could do half; but he had no time for such a team effort.

March 9 Monday – In Hartford, Sam wrote to Roswell Smith, editor/owner of the Century Magazine.

All right—I’ve just written to Cable; & when he gives me the date I want him to furnish it to you & Gilder also, so you can work out the N.Y. end of the enterprise.

March 9 Tuesday –Richard Watson Gilder wrote to Sam: “Let’s have that little paper on the Knights of Labor! Please.” Sam wrote on the envelope: “Gilder wants ‘Knights’ Welch 86” [MTP]. Note: Gilder was the editor-in-chief of Century Magazine. See Mar. 22.

March 9 Wednesday – The New York newspapers, including the Times (“THE GREAT PASTOR DEAD”) and the Brooklyn Eagle (“THE CITY’S LOSS”), ran front-page headlines of Beecher’s death.

March 9 Friday – Since the blizzard of the century hit in the evening of Mar. 11, and Sunday trains were rare or non-existent, Sam went to New York City on Mar. 10 to take care of business, the plan being for Olivia to join him in time to be in Washington on Mar. 16. (See Mar. 4 to Gilder, Mar. 16 to Livy.) In his Mar.

March 9 Saturday – Sam inscribed a copy of HF to an unidentified person: Truly Yours S.L. Clemens Mark Twain. March 9/89. [MTP]. Sam’s notebook:

Mar 9/89. / No more experiments. Definite work alone left to do.

4 months, sure, that is July 10.

No new devices — or inventions.

March 9 Sunday – The New York Times, which had actively covered and sympathized openly with Edward H. House’s lawsuit to enjoin the P&P play produced by Daniel Frohman, loudly announced Judge Joseph Daly’s verdict. (The Brooklyn Eagle’s coverage was much more objective.)

MARK TWAIN IS DEFEATED.

“THE PRINCE AND THE PAUPER” CASE DECIDED.

JUDGE DALY UPHOLDS PLAYWRIGHT HOUSE

AND SAYS HIS DRAMATIZATION OR NONE MUST BE PRESENTED.

March 9 Monday – In Hartford Franklin G. Whitmore answered Howard P. Taylor’s Mar. 8 letter for Sam, who responded he had “said nothing to any body or considered any offers from any body in relation to the dramatization of the ‘Yankee’.” How long of an extension did Taylor want? [MTP].

May 1 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Chatto & Windus. Sam reaffirmed that he left the business end of publishing to others, to Bliss and his lawyer. He sadly explained how if he’d ordered the electrotypes in the beginning he couldn’t recall it. The TS bungle allowed Canadian pirates to bring out a cheap version two months ahead of the U.S.

May 1 Sunday – Sam wrote three letters from Hartford to Webster, explaining that he considered the $5,000 loan to Slote, three days before Slote, Woodman & Co. failed, to be a debt of honor, and that “Slote should have antedated the firm’s note to the beginning of 1878 so that Clemens could get full payment of the debt” [MTNJ 2: 392-3n119; MTP].