Home at Hartford: Day By Day

December 10 Friday – Sam probably spent the night in Boston and returned to Hartford this day. He telegrammed Howells, most likely his condolences on discovering the death of Howells’ sister in Ohio. The telegram is not extant, which is how academics say, “it’s lost” [MTHL 2: 574n3].

December 10 Saturday – From the New York Times of this date, p.4 (See also Nov. 7)

KNIGHTS OF THE ORDER OF PIUS

December 10 Monday – Webster & Co. wrote to Sam that they’d written Mrs. Custer about her book and noted “carefully the various orders in yours of the 9th. … We note your suggestion with reference to having a man with a placard. We only know of one instance where this form of advertising was used; when Keenan’s novel “Trajan” was at the height of its popularity Cassell & Co. had a lot of men parading the streets with these placards….We will …get hold of some of these men” [MTP].

December 10 Tuesday – The official U.S. publication date for Connecticut Yankee. Some 25,000 copies were printed before the end of the year [Hirst, “A Note on the Text” Afterword materials p.28, Oxford ed. 1996].

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 – Robert Green Ingersoll sent Sam a copy of his The Ghosts and Other Lectures (1879) inscribed: “Saml Clemens Esq / from his friend / R.G. Ingersoll / Dec 11, 79” [Gribben 344]. (See Dec. 13 entry). Note: Sam had asked for a good copy of Ingersoll’s recent Chicago speech, and read the speech to the young ladies at the Saturday Morning Club on Dec. 13, so this book must have included the speech.

December 11 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to his sister, Pamela Moffett, sending $25 for Christmas gifts for “Annie & her family.” Livy was “pretty thoroughly taxed” Sam wrote. “Jean is as fat as a watermelon, & just as sweet & good, & often just as wet” [MTLE 5: 224].

December 11 Sunday – Joe Goodman wrote to Sam, relating a visit to see Denis E. McCarthy, who’d asked him to go to San Francisco, as he had serious medical problems. Turned out that Denis had improved and the causes of his enlarged heart, etc. were from drinking. He wrote of meeting Senator John P. Jones and of his offers of positions he thought he could get Joe until the vineyard paid [MTP].

December 11 Monday – Stewart L. Woodford (chairman of the dinner committee) wrote from NYC on US attorney’s Office notepaper asking what train they might expect him, and offered to secure a hotel for him [MTP].

December 11 Thursday – Sam “rushed to David Gray’s…with Cable, arrived at noon” and had to wait for his steak to be re-cooked, and so drank two cups of strong coffee that did not agree with him [Dec. 12 to Livy, MTP].

Sam and Cable gave a second reading in Concert Hall, Buffalo, New York.

The Buffalo Times:

December 11 Friday – From Sam’s notebook:

“Howells says [from his Dec. 11 letter to Sam]: I’m reading Grant’s book with a delight I’ve failed to find in novels.” And again: “I think he is one of the most natural—that is, best—writers I ever read. The book merits its enormous success, simply as literature” [MTNJ 3: 217].

December 11 Saturday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Charles Webster that Henry M. Stanley wanted to write a book for them but had to lecture for three or four months and could not do both.

His lecturing, this time, is going to make reputation for him — it destroyed it when he tried it before [MTP].

December 11 Wednesday – The Hartford Times was first out of the chute with a review of CY on page 5.

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 12 Friday – Charles W. Sackville wrote from Wash. D.C. to thank Sam for his “killing” letter to Thomas B. Kirby about the post office mess. He sketched a “monument” of Sam killing Kirby. “…you are his destroyer, but while he shall rot and perish in oblivion, you shall have a monument, erected by a grateful country, before which the Pyramids of Egypt will appear as molehills.” See insert [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Picture of Monument”.

December 12 Sunday – Mollie and Orion Clemens wrote to Sam and Livy about memories of Susy and Jennie, and joy that baby Jean was flourishing [MTP].

December 12 Monday – The official date of publication for P&P. Two copies were placed with the Copyright Office, Library of Congress [Hirst, “A Note on the Text” Oxford edition, 1996].

Sam wrote from Hartford to Joel Chandler Harris in Atlanta.

I judge you haven’t received my new book yet—however, you will in a day or two. Meantime you must not take it ill if I drop Osgood a hint about your proposed story of slave life.....

December 12 Tuesday – Sam replied from Hartford to the Dec. 11 of Julian Hawthorne Sam explained that the way the Canadian laws read, it was impossible for a foreigner to secure a copyright there without making false claims. He mentions that “it is said—Beecher, Jeff Davis, et al” had done it.

“The Canadian law was made, distinctly & professedly, to encourage piracy…” [MTP].

December 12 Friday – Sam took a train from Buffalo at 12:30 A.M. and arrived at Ann Arbor, Mich. at 10 A.M. Sam wrote from Ann Arbor to Livy:

December 12 Saturday – The New York Critic printed an interview with Sam’s mother, Jane Clemens: Sam as a boy avoided school, though he enjoyed reading [Tenney 14].

December 12 Sunday – William Dean Howells, back in Boston after attending the funeral of his sister in Ohio, wrote to Sam.

December 12 Monday – Charles J. Devlin on Spring Valley Coal, Ill. letterhead acknowledged receipt of Sam’s letter and that they were transferring the books “over to the K. of L. Library” [MTP].

Check #  Payee  Amount  [Notes]

3935  Mrs. J.H. Barton  30.00

December 12 Thursday – A day or two before, Livy wrote (letter not extant) to Col. John M. Wilson that Sam was too ill to keep his Dec. 14 engagement at West Point. Wilson answered on this day:

My dear Mr. Clemens:

      Mrs. C’s letter is just received and I regret that you are ill.

December 13 Saturday – Sam read Robert Green Ingersoll’s Chicago speech to the young ladies at the Saturday Morning Club of Hartford [MTLE 4: 180].

Irving S. Upson wrote from Rutgers College to honor Sam with membership in their Literary Society [MTP].

December 13 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James R. Osgood. Sam placed a small order for two books and added,

“I’ve accepted invitation for supper in N.Y. midnight, 20th —they said you & Howells & Aldrich would be there” [MTLE 5: 225].

Sam’s “Letter to the Bazaar Bulletin” for a charity event in Buffalo, was reprinted in the Hartford Courant [Camfield, bibliog.].