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 – 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 – 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.
November 30 Sunday – Sam’s 55th Birthday.
In Elmira funeral services and burial were held for Olivia Lewis Langdon. Livy was joined by her daughters, Clara and Susy Clemens. Sam remained in Hartford. From the Dec. 1 Elmira Daily Advertiser:
December – Sam’s notebook for this month gives the titles of two books: Ludovic Halévy’s novel, L’Abbé Constantin (1882) and Anatole France’s novel, The Crime of Sylvestre Bonnard. Sam would recommend the first in a letter from Washington, D.C. to Livy on Jan. 13, 1891 [MTNJ 3: 595].
December 1 Monday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam: “Cyclopedia of Religious Knowledge received. Thanks” [MTP].
Wm. B. Smith & Son, Flour, Grain, Feed, Baled and Loose Hay and Straw, Hartford, billed $48.61 for purchases Nov 8, 24, 25 for wheat, bran, provender oats, straw; Paid Dec. 5.
Neil Stalker, Fine Road and Track Harness, Horse Clothing, etc. billed $15.45 for items Sep 12, 19, Oct 1, 18, 31, Nov 14, 15, 21: chamois, sponges, lines, halter repair, collar rep. Castile soap, slipper & strap repair; Paid same day [MTP].
December 2 Tuesday – Sam declined an invitation, likely from Herbert Gunnison (1858-1932), publisher of the Brooklyn Eagle, as he suffered from “a domestic affliction,” likely the Nov. 28 passing of his mother-in-law, Olivia Lewis Langdon [Christie’s Lot 1 Sale 1083 May 24, 2002; avail online]. Note: Sam’s decline was in Gunnison’s autograph collection; Gunnison and Clemens were likely acquainted.
December 4 Thursday – Joe Goodman wrote to Sam: “I took a run down to San Francisco for a day to see Jones. He told me there would be no use seeing Hayward or Hobart as they had recently sustained a loss of upward of a million in some mining speculation.” Jones told him that he wasn’t going to deal with men who would have to struggle to raise a quarter million, but was “going straight to Westinghouse, Carnegie, Morton, Jay Gould, etc. any one of whom, if he could get him interested, could organize the company without difficulty” [MTP].
December 5 Friday – Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam, financial statement enclosed. “Books sent out during November, 1890, showing 6,359 total including 824 CY. Hall asked Sam to notice that they were selling “a great many of your old books published by the American Publishing Company. This is all owing to our new store scheme.” Hall explained why November was below the prior month — very few of the total books sold were done by general agents. Nearly all were sold directly by the firm [MTP].
December 6 Saturday – James N. Kimball wrote to Sam asking for permission to use the story “Baker’s Blue Jay” [MTP]. See. Dec. 7, 8.
December 7 Sunday – In Hartford this day or the next, Sam wrote a note to Franklin G. Whitmore, directing him to tell James N. Kimball to “go ahead” [MTP]. See Dec. 6, 8.
December 8 Monday – Sam wrote to Houghton, Mifflin & Co. inquiring about Alexander Brown’s work, The Genesis of the United States. Brown wrote Sam on Dec. 4. Sam’s letter is not extant, but is referred to in Houghton’s Dec. 10 reply [MTP].
Franklin G. Whitmore wrote a note for Sam to James N. Kimball, giving him permission to “use or reproduce the story shorthand from his book ‘The Tramp Abroad’ Namely: ‘Baker’s Blue Jay I am” [MTP].
December 9 Tuesday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam and Livy. To Sam: “This express box contains Ma’s Bible, with the record of her great-grandfather’s death 120 years ago, her father’s snuff box, her own mother’s ring, with ‘P.L.’ for Peggy Lampton, who died 72 years ago, and other things.” To Livy: “Sam and I can sympathize with you in your great loss” (at her mother’s passing). Mollie also conveyed her sympathies [MTP
Dunham Wheeler wrote from N.Y. to Sam:
December 10 Wednesday – In Jefferson, Ohio, where he was visiting family, William Dean Howells sent a letter of condolence to Livy.
My dear Mrs. Clemens:
I did not think, when I wrote to poor Clemens the other day about his mother that I should so soon be telling you I grieved with you for the loss of yours. I am glad I knew your mother for to have known that gentleness was to have felt its blessing.
I am sorry for you with all my heart. Don’t vex yourself with any sort of answer [MTHL 2: 634].
December 11 Thursday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Mollie Clemens:
Give these to Al Patterson. I knew Doctor Hayes 20 years ago, when he assisted when father Langdon was on his death bed. I heard a few years later of Dr. Hayes’s wonderful cures of asthma, but had forgotten all about it [MTP]. Note: Sam likely sent information of the doctor’s cure, for Patterson, a Keokuk friend or neighbor.
December 13 Saturday – Sam took daughter Clara Clemens to New York on the 8:29 a.m. train from Hartford. Clara was taking piano lessons twice a month in New York from Miss Jessie Penney. Father and daughter traveled with Henry C. and Mrs. Robinson. Sam was seeking Robinson’s legal assistance in framing a new contract with James W. Paige. At the Players Club, Sam wrote a short note to Frederick J. Hall:
Got belated, or I would look in. Am leaving for home.
Please send Mrs. Clemens 2 copies of the cook book — new edition.
December 15 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Andrew Chatto, his English publisher, asking him to “tackle with attention” Fred Hall’s idea. Sam wished him a Merry Christmas [MTP].
Sam also wrote to Hall, encouraging him to “go for the good Chatto with” his “scheme, which is a wise one.” He explained the IA book was for a nursemaid of Jean’s who was now with the Rev. R. Heber Newton family, so to check the directory and send the book there [MTP].
December 16 Tuesday ca., before – In Hartford Sam wrote to Richard Watson Gilder:
December 17 Wednesday – William J. Bok for Bok Syndicate Press wrote asking if Sam received his “letter of explanation” and was “much troubled” since he hadn’t heard back. He would be in Hartford in Feb. and would consider it an “honor to call.” He advised that Mrs. Henry Ward Beecher was “about to publish a series of most interesting articles for my brother Edward’s ‘Ladies’ Home Journal” [MTP].
Oscar Fischer wrote to Sam seeking to translate CY into Danish. Sam had Whitmore refer him to Chatto, as he did with all requests for translating his works [MTP].
December 18 Thursday – Sam’s notebook:
Framing new contract with Robinson & Whitmore [3: 595].
Note: note #80 here explains the new agreement aimed at guaranteeing Sam a nine-tenths interest in the typesetter even should Sam fail to buy out James W. Paige by the deadline of Feb. 13, 1891. Henry C. Robinson drew the contract, which would be sent to Paige on Dec. 26. See Paige’s response in that day’s entry.
December 19 Friday – Sam’s notebook:
Dec. 19/90 Take the 9th Ave. Elevated, every time. Passes within 1 block of both the Xstopher st & Desbrosses ferries. Take West shore car to 9th Ave. station. From hotel door to the ferry stations ½ hour is plenty of time. Came to N.Y. in early train with Beecher [3: 596]. Note: Rev. Thomas K. Beecher, pastor of the Elmira First Congregational, was in Hartford. It’s not known if the two had business together in N.Y. or merely shared the same car.
December 20 Saturday – Sam was becoming incensed at the endless delays and tinkering done on the typesetter by James W. Paige and his assistant Charles Ethan Davis. Sam’s notebook:
December 21 Sunday – † In Hartford Sam telegraphed Frederick J. Hall:
Come up at noon [.] forever — damn the idiotic telephone [MTP]
December 22 Monday – Sam’s notebook:
Let Ham drop his indebtedness & 1/20 [3: 597].
Note: William J. Hamersley had not contributed his required on-going funds for the development of the typesetter, so Sam suggested forgiving the indebtedness and reducing Hamersley’s ownership share from 1/10th to 1/20th. In a later entry Sam wrote that the 1/20th from Hamersley should be given to Joe Goodman.
December 23 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote a letter to the editor of the New York World, which was published on Christmas day:
It is my heart-warm and world-embracing Christian hope and aspiration that all of us — the high, the low, the rich, the poor, the admired, the despised, the loved, the hated, the civilized, the savage — may eventually be gathered together in a heaven of everlasting rest and peace and bliss — except the inventor of the telephone. MARK TWAIN / Hartford, Dec. 23