April 1 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam responded to William Dean Howells’ Mar. 26 letter about A.P. Burbank wanting payment to release rights to the American Claimant play. There would be time enough to talk business with the man later, Sam thought.
April 2 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam answered Edwin Wildman’s Mar. 31 request for an article for Echoes about Sam’s cats:
There is nothing of continental or inter-national interest to communicate about those cats.
They had no history; they did not distinguish themselves in any way.
They died early — on account of being overweighted by their names, it was thought. SOUR MASH, APPOLLINARIS, ZOROASTER, AND BLATHERSKITE…[MTP].
Henry M. Alden for Harper & Brothers wrote to Sam (Lukens Mar. 26 encl.):
April 3 Thursday – Matthias H. Arnot wrote to Sam, enclosing a draft for $5,000 [MTP]. Note: Arnot had agreed to purchase $50,000 worth of Paige royalties, $5,000 at a time.
April 4 Friday – Webster & Co. wrote to Sam that they’d sent the books (unspecified) to Cedar Rapids, as requested, but had not granted his signature on the title page as the letter of the purchaser had asked for. Reports (not extant) enclosed. “We have also sent a copy to the editor of the “Elmira Echo” [MTP]. Note: likely CY books.
April 5 Saturday – An unsigned review of CY, “Mark Twain’s Camelot” ran in London’s Spectator:
Is it not written in this coarse and clumsy burlesque, of which American in general, and Mark Twain in particular, ought to be heartily ashamed? Mr. Howells, however, is in raptures over this sorry performance [Tenney 17].
Maurice Macmillian wrote to Sam [MTP]. Note: this letter is lost in the MTP files.
April 6 Sunday – Orion Clemens wrote to thank Sam for photographs; Mollie thought Livy looked sad in them, the children, “exceedingly well…the house is very handsome.” Orion gave progress reports on the canvass of CY in the area, both by himself and a girl agent there. Ma was walking around and Mollie had “a dreadful cold with chills and night-sweats” [MTP].
April 7 Monday – Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam of F.J. Schulte, a Chicago publisher who had a book he thought would be a second Looking Backward. The book, Caesar’s Column by Ignatius Donnelly (1831-1901) was forwarded to Sam though Hall didn’t know it until Schulte informed him by letter. He understood from Schulte that Howells “and others are taking a great deal of interest in the book” [MTP]. Note: The book would be published this year by Schulte pseudonymously, sales eventually exceeding 250,000. See Gribben 199.
April 8 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to John J. McCook, having mislaid McCook’s letter (Nov. 9, 1889?) until now. He’d forward McCook’s questions to Webster & Co., and offered this about Edward H. House’s lawsuit:
April 9 Wednesday – Andrew Chatto wrote to Sam: “I enclose a copy of a letter just returned from Mefrs. Morgan & Ives, attorneys for Mr. House, concerning the dramatization of” P&P “together with a copy of our reply. Mrs Beringer’s play founded on the story is to be performed at the Gaiety Theatre on Saturday next, and will I hope prove a success.” CY was selling well. [MTP]. Note: Chatto was the only person in England who could authorize the P&P play.
April 10 Thursday – Paulo Fambry wrote from Italy seeking Sam’s permission to translate CY into Italian and to dramatize part of it [MTP].
April 11 Friday – Edgar W. (Bill) Nye wrote to Sam from Helena, Mont. that he “had recently the pleasure of meeting … the gifted cuss known as Joe Goodman.” Nye wanted to get together and smoke “the festive corn cob,” drink and play pool and smoke, “tell Sabbath school stories and stay up late” [MTP].
Daniel C. Smith ?wrote from N.Y.: was Sam open to lecture? Sam wrote “no” on the envelope [MTP].
April 12 Saturday – An English version of the P&P play opened at the Gaiety Theatre in London [MTNJ 3: 482]. Note: this had been authorized by Sam and Andrew Chatto.
Moncure D. Conway wrote from London about the P&P play — he’d seen the first performance of it and could not sleep until he had “put on paper an assurance for you of its wondrous success.” He also thought CY was “a pretty book” [MTP].
April 13 Sunday – The Boston Sunday Globe, p.10 gave a glowing review of P&P with Elsie Leslie, which was in town for a two-week stand (See also the Globe display ad of Apr. 26, 1889, p.3.)
April 14 Monday – Mollie Clemens finished her Mar. 30 letter to Sam and Livy (clipping encl.):
I wrote the first of this upon the receipt of Livy’s letter — laid it down — and never got at it til now. Ma was quite comfortable for several days, but for three days is not nearly so well. Yesterday’s Gate City contained the enclosed printed letter. We suppose “Prince & Pauper” is in Chicago from this. Sam choose your own time to come, so you don’t put it off too long…Will you go to Elmira this season? [MTP].
April 15 Tuesday – Sam inscribed a copy of HF to an unidentified person: Everything in this book is true — at least in measure. / Mark Twain/ Hartford/ April 15/90 [MTP].
April 16 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam telegraphed Joe Goodman in Fresno, Calif.
TAKE THE EARLIEST TRAIN EAST YOUR BUSINESS WILL POSSIBLY ALLOW JOE I THINK IT WILL PAY FIRST RATE ANSWER [MTP].
In the evening the Clemens family sans Jean went to a Nook Farm wedding; Miss Mary Robinson and Louis R. Cheney tied the knot [Salsbury 276]. Livy described the decorations at the wedding in a letter to her mother on Apr. 20.
April 17 Thursday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Edgar W. (Bill) Nye, answering his Apr. 11:
I am just your man! I expect Joe Goodman East before many weeks, & when he comes, we’ll foregather, you & Riley & Joe & I, & just have an elegant time — a time that will beggar description, if that it the right literary phrase & sufficiently unhackneyed; & if it ain’t, we’ll substitute a time that will cast a gloom over the whole community [MTP].
April 18 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Joe Goodman having received his telegraph of the day before and his earlier letter. A. Hoffman puts Joe in Washington at this time, attempting to hook Senator Jones into backing the Paige machine [359], but from his Apr. 17 telegram and letter of this day it’s clear he was in Fresno. Sam wanted Joe to go inspect the new Mergenthaler Linotype machine, because he and Paige weren’t allowed to sit and watch it run now.
April 19 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall. Sam’s business manager for Hartford affairs, Franklin G. Whitmore, had offered to invest $10,000 or $12,000” at a “usurious rate of interest — 8 or 10 per cent” and even preferred to buy an interest in Webster & Co. He had worked as a general agent for the company in 1888 for the Library of Humor. Sam advised Hall to take Whitmore on for a year and then see if an interest might be sold him. At first Sam spoke approvingly of the idea:
April 20 Sunday – In Hartford Livy wrote to her mother, Olivia Lewis Langdon referring to Apr. 18 (see that entry).
James B. Pond wrote to Sam: “The arrangements are completed & all here accepted & will be present next Sunday morning to give Max O’Rell a send off.” Pond named eleven men who would be there, including Augustin Daly, George Kennan, Edmund C. Stedman and Richard Watson Gilder; he hoped Sam would not miss it; O’Rell was “worthy of it” [MTP].
April 21 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Frederick J. Hall about a possible book to publish and the way he’d like to respond to suggested books:
Now here’s a simple system, & certain-sure of a result: When you propose to me, & detail your argument for or against, enclose a blank note, & I can fill out & sign & return that note without saying a word.
Sam also said he thought well of “the MacAlister [sic] etiquette book” [MTP] Society as I Have Found It, by (Samuel) Ward McAllister (1890) was published by Cassell Publishing Co. [Gribben 434].
April 22 Tuesday – Henry Green wrote from Hartford to Sam about his new invention:
…a new system of mechanical instrument to supplant, or to be as great a novelty as the organette was. I do not expect the earth from it but I should like to find someone to help me take out the patent & put the thing where it will do some good. It is needless to tell you I am a poor man…[Sam wrote on the env., “Inventor of a musical organ. Will go & call on him”] [MTP].
April 23 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote a short note of response to Andrew Carnegie’s Apr. 22 note. He regretted missing Carnegie at home on his last trip to New York, but expected to “be down in a day or two” and would call again [MTP].
Webster & Co. wrote to Sam but only the envelope survives [MTP].
Emily Cheney wrote from South Manchester, Mass:
April 24 Thursday – In Hartford this was the day of the big test of the Paige typesetter for Senator John P. Jones and contingent. They arrived from New York about noon. Sam met the group at the train depot, took them home and fed them a big dinner. Kaplan writes this reception was “calculated to make them grateful and happy,” and that they were “plied with Roman punch, champagne, brandy and his best stories, and then loaded into the family carriage.” The machine failed. The contingent “marched out in disgust” leaving Sam in a deep depression [304].
April 25 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Moncure Conway who had sent news about the English version of the P&P play.