Home at Hartford: Day By Day

November 27 Sunday – Livy’s 42nd birthday.

The New York Times, p.5 ran a short announcement of Sam’s reading for the following day:

THE AUTHOR’S READINGS

November 27 Tuesday – Livy’s 43rd birthday – Livy wrote of the day:

I had a very pleasant birthday the children fixed me a very pretty table with flowers and their gifts and we had an exceedingly good time

Sam wrote the following note, perhaps with a gift:

Livy darling, I am grateful — gratefuller than ever before — that you were born, & that your love is mine & our two lives woven & welded together! SLC [LLMT 251].

November 27 Wednesday – Livy’s 44th birthday.

Sam’s notebook: Nov. 27. S.E. Moffett, one [Paige royalty sent] [3: 569].

Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam enclosing the weekly reports (not extant); the orders “continue to come in very well considering the horrible weather we are having.” Old books were selling well [MTP].

November 27 Thursday – Thanksgiving – Livy’s 45th birthday. Livy was still in Elmira at her mother’s bedside. She wrote Sam:

We had a bad fright last night, we thought mother was going, but after a time she got quiet and slept about four hours. It is a terrible time [MTP; A. Hoffman 362-3].

In Hartford in the morning, Sam finished his Nov. 26 to Livy.

November 28 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells. Sam knew he would face the Boston Brahmins Longfellow, Emerson, and Holmes, across tables once more, and have a chance to further redeem himself from the Whittier debacle. He asked Howells if he might “be heard among the very earliest…” and wanted Holmes to read what he might say prior to the event, “& strike out whatever you choose.” Sam took no chances this time.

November 28 Sunday – Sam wrote a one-liner from Hartford to Fields, Osgood & Co., asking for “Uncle Remus’s Songs & Sayings” [MTLE 5: 212].

November 28 Monday – In Montreal, Sam wrote a short note and a long PS to Livy [MTLP 407].

Livy darling, you and Clara [Spaulding] ought to have been at breakfast in the great dining room this morning. English female faces, distinctive English costumes, strange and marvelous English gaits—& yet such honest, honorable, clean-souled countenances, just as these English women almost always have, you know. Right away—

November 28 Tuesday – Edward W. Bok, the pesky teen who kept writing Sam, sent birthday congratulations with a reminder of his of Oct. 13 request for “a few words of opinion on my collection [autograph] to be gathered from the” newspaper clippings he’d sent [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “D—d fool”

November 28 Friday – Sam wrote on board the train from Washington to Livy [MTP]:

November 28 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Orion, enclosing letters he had received from and for Mary Timberman, asking him to use his influence in gaining her a position with the Boston Museum Theatre or any other theatre, as she wanted to early a “livelihood” in the “dramatic profession.”

November 28 Monday – Sam and daughter Clara left Hartford on the 12:30 p.m. train for New York. If he acted on his plan written to Fairbanks on Nov. 25, he then went to his office, did a bit of work and went to his reading (perhaps with Mary Mason Fairbanks).

November 28 Wednesday – Grace King left Hartford for Baltimore. For the prior three weeks she had been staying with the Charles Dudley Warner family [MTNJ 3: 434n90]. Theodore and Susan L. Crane arrived at the Clemens home for a short stay and to share Thanksgiving celebrations [Livy to Grace King Dec. 4].

The New York Press Club billed Sam $3 for dues to Dec. 1, 1888 [MTP].

November 28 Thursday – Thanksgiving – Sam gave a reading for the YMCA (Young Men’s Christian Association) in their reading room, Hartford. A summary and some text of the speech was printed in the Hartford Courant, November 29, 1889, p.1 “Thanksgiving Exercises”:

November 28 Friday – In Elmira Olivia Lewis Langdon died. She was 80. Livy and her sister Susan Crane were with her, and Susy and Clara Clemens were on their way (they may have left this day or Nov. 29). A telegram (not extant) was sent to Sam in Hartford. He answered:

Livy darling, my heart goes out to you [MTPO].

November 29 Saturday – Jesse Madison Leathers wrote to Sam after receiving his of Nov. 26 (not extant); he thanked Sam for a Feb. invite. He noted the recent death of the Earl of Durham and considered sending a cable, but thought better since “they do not know us.” He speculated the son would be easier to deal with (Leathers intended to be a claimant of the estate) than the father [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “From the rightful Earl of Durham.

November 29 Monday – George Stronach, Hartford, billed Sam $15.42 for windows, sash, keys, drawer casters, misc. work in house. Samuel Collins, Hartford dealer “in all kinds of Flagging stone” billed $23.40 for “234 ft. of curb & gutter” [MTP].

November 29 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Montreal to Livy.

November 29 Thursday – Dora Knowlton “a stranger to you” and an actress, wrote from NYC to ask if he’d allow her to dramatize P&P [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Can’t / P&P”

November 29 Saturday – Sam and Cable gave a second reading in Academy of Music, Baltimore, Md. From the Baltimore Morning Herald of this day:

November 29 Sunday – Sam wrote to Frank R. Stockton, thanking him for his good wishes [AMT 2: 576].

The Critic ran affectionate essays by Charles Dudley Warner, Oliver Wendell Holmes (a poem), Joel Chandler Harris, and Frank P. Stockton on the eve of Sam’s 50th birthday. These were reprinted in many newspapers, even in the London Pall Mall Gazette of Dec. 12, 1885.

November 29 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote a one-line acknowledgment of Webster & Co.’s check for $10,000.

Sam read a story at an Authors Reading event in New York City [Fatout, MT Speaking 657].

Charles P. Green wrote to Sam [MTP]. Green inscribed and sent Sam John Palmer’s Journal of Travels in the United States of North America, and in Lower Canada,…in 1817 (1818):

November 29 Tuesday – Sam had that unspecified “morning business” meeting in Hartford he wrote about to Fairbanks on Nov. 25.

In the evening the Clemenses gave a dinner party of Senator and Mrs. Joseph Hawley. The guests included the George Warners, Mrs. Charles Dudley Warner (Susan), Koto House, Mary Barton, Ward Foote and Joe Twichell [MTNJ 3: 353&n171].

November 29 Thursday – Thanksgiving – In Hartford Sam answered the Nov. 26 from Orion, somewhat upset to discover no attendant had been hired for their mother.

November 29 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote to his old friend, Joe Goodman.

Things are getting into better and more flexible shape every day. Papers are now being drawn which will greatly simplify the raising of capital; I shall be in supreme command; it will not be necessary for the capitalist to arrive at terms with anybody but me. I don’t want to dicker with anybody but [Senator John] Jones. Try to see if you can’t be here by the 15th of January.

November 29 Saturday – In Hartford around noon, having received word of his mother-in-law’s death, Sam wrote to Livy in Elmira:

Livy Dear, another night & another morning are past, & so we realize again that the world stands still for nothing — goes on & on, no matter what happens.