Home at Hartford: Day By Day

August 13 Saturday – In Elmira Sam responded to Charles Hopkins Clark, who evidently had asked about the inclusion of some material for the Library of Humor. Sam answered that he would ask Webster, and in the meantime Clark might “rake together an uncopyrighted page or two from Warner & Howells” [MTP].

August 13 Monday – Sam wrote check # 4313 to Theodore Crane for $30, likely part payment for summer expenses. For some reason he entered this in his notebook in May 1889.

August 13 Wednesday – In New York on this date, Sam signed a new contract drawn up by James W. Paige, who sold all rights in his typesetter for $250,000. Sam was to pay Paige this amount within six months, which put him behind the gun to acquire major financing [MTHL 3: 571].

At the Murray Hill Hotel, Sam wrote again to Franklin G. Whitmore, who was vacationing at Montewest House in Branford, Conn.

August 13-14 Wednesday – It is possible but unlikely that Sam made the intended trip to Hartford through New York during this period; it would have been a rushed trip, since he was in Elmira on Aug. 15 when Kipling arrived. In his Aug. 2 to his brother he wrote: “I go to Hartford a couple of days hence to remain a spell.” No outgoing letters from Sam are extant for the period. Further, Sam refers to a “made delay by going away” in his Aug.

August 14 and 15 Sunday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Dr. John Brown. The butler, Sam’s “black George” had taken a card from Dr. Stearns, who was on his way to Scotland, and forgotten to tell Sam.

August 14 Sunday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Benjamin H. Ticknor about the advertising circular for P&P, and the illustrations he’d chosen for a run of 20 special books. Frank T. Merrill was the principal illustrator of the book and Sam wrote:

August 14 Monday – Sam wrote to James R. Osgood, letter not extant but referred to in Osgood’s Sept. 2 reply.

John G. Scott wrote from Jamestown, NY to beg for $10 [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Dead-beat”

Charles Webster wrote (only the env. survives) [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “K. Statement"

August 14 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Ellen C. Taft, wife of the family doctor, Cincinnatus Taft who had been ill.

August 14 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster—more about the Huck Finn proofs “If all the proofs had been as well read as the first 2 or 3 chapters were, I should not have needed to see the revises at all. On the contrary it was the worst & silliest proof-reading I have ever seen. It was never read by copy at all—not a single galley of it.” He added that the game had only a year to file patent; see Oct. 9 entry [MTP].

August 14 Friday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Daniel Whitford, his attorney, asking if he knew the “President of the Balt & Ohio Tel Co, or parties connected with the new Co.” Sam was touting Paige’s telegraph invention. “Any idiot can operate it. No experts required” [MTP].

Daniel Whitford for Alexander & Green wrote that the Century people had given up all claim to the picture of Gen. Grant [MTP].

August 14 Saturday ­– Sam’s notebook recorded a score of 48 to 25 for C. against T.W. (Clemens vs. Theodore W. Crane). This is listed as perhaps a “popular parlor game during summers at Quarry Farm” [MTNJ 3: 229]. Poor Crane lost on each day.

August 14 Sunday – In Elmira Sam wrote two letters to Franklin G. Whitmore. The first letter gave two paragraphs to the motor Paige was adding to the typesetter. The last dealt with the market, and a planned competition:

August 14 Tuesday – Robert Underwood Johnson of Century Magazine wrote Sam, asking to use segments of Gen. Sheridan’s Personal Memoirs in the book version of the Century’s “Battles and Leaders of the Civil War” series. In turn, Johnson offered to consider “autobiography of a slave” which had been offered to Sam by Mary Duncan, a poor sick Tennessee woman [MTNJ 3: 387n296]. (See also Aug.

August 14 Wednesday – Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam enclosing the finished title page for CY. He also mentioned Charles A. Durfee, who was in with a book of quotations to publish [MTP].

August 14 Thursday – In Washington, D.C. [MTHL 3: 572] Sam wrote to Whitmore, probably still in Branford Conn. Word had arrived of 87-year-old Jane Clemens’ stroke. Sam abruptly prepared to leave for Keokuk:

Dear Brer:

Better fix up the Bk ac/ with this $1000. I leave for Keokuk in the morning. Mother very ill [MTP]. Note: Jane would die on Oct. 27, 1890.

Meanwhile, Livy left Onteora to spend a week with her ailing mother [MTNJ 3: 575n2].

August 15 Sunday – Mollie & Orion Clemens wrote to Sam and Livy. Mollie wrote about attending Judge Joseph Montgomery Casey’s silver wedding anniversary. Orion didn’t go due to the expense. Orion wrote on the letter a paragraph about writing the 454th page of his auto MS. [MTP].

August 15 Monday – Sam wrote a short note from Hartford to Benjamin H. Ticknor, agreeing with Ticknor’s processing an engraving cut down to the required reduction. Sam would wait for Chapter 1 of P&P to evaluate the book fully illustrated consecutively [MTP].

August 15 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster, rather peeved about an eighteen dollar charge for a picture, about comparing engraving on wood with brass, etc. As usual, it fell on Webster’s head to give Sam “the details of this expense, & explain them” [MTP].

August 15 Friday – Bissell & Co. wrote to Clemens that the Am. Express in Europe would look up his dividend and advise [MTP].

August 15 Saturday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Robert Underwood Johnson, of the Century Magazine. He began a draft of this letter in his notebook [MTNJ 3: 172]. Webster & Co. intended to use what was purported to be the last photograph of Grant for the deluxe edition of the Memoirs, but Webster wrote Sam on Aug.

August 15 Monday – In Elmira Sam had received a report from Frederick J. Hall and Charles Webster on the business. Sam replied and thanked them for the information, which he thought clear. He made some conclusions: a book had to sell 30,000 to gain half profits, 20,000 one-third at ten percent royalties. At 15,000 sales it could stand a 7 ½ percent profit, and a book selling only 10,000 would not be profitable under any terms.

August 15 Wednesday – Grace E. King wrote to Sam: “What a pleasure your letter gave me!” [MTP]. Note: unfortunately, reading Grace’s handwriting is not a pleasure.

August 15 Thursday – What Baetzhold calls “one hot August morning” during the family’s summer stay at Quarry Farm, a relatively unknown young man tramped up the hill to visit. A year later, after a meteoric rise in literary circles, he would be widely read and discussed. Sam would later say, he knew this man’s work “better than I know anybody else’s books”: Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936). The exact date of Kipling’s visit, Aug.

August 15 Friday – Sam left Washington for Keokuk and his ailing mother. The entire day would be spent on the train. (A letter from Sam in Tannersville, N.Y. to the Rogers Peet Clothing Store assigned this date is probably mis-dated.)

August 16 Monday – John M. Hay wrote from Wash. D.C. “Here is the Meisterstück. It got into such appreciative hands among the Campfire Club that it was read into rags…it is returned with thanks and laud [1601?]. I would I might see you one day. But I have no hopes until after 4th March week, when I quit the livery of office. / I congratulate you on your new baby” [MTP].