Home at Hartford: Day By Day

December 13 Tuesday – Tiffany & Co. wrote acknowledging receipt of another thousand [MTP].

Murat Halstead for Cincinnati Commercial Gazette wrote a nearly illegible letter, honored here by omitting the few words discerned [MTP].

December 13 Thursday – Karl Gerhardt wrote; only the envelope survives [MTP].

December 13 Saturday – Two copies of Adventures of Huckleberry Finn were deposited in the Copyright Office, Library of Congress, though the official publication did not take place until Feb. 18, 1885 [Hirst, “A Note on the Text” Oxford edition, 1996].

December 13 Sunday – William M. Clemens for Chicago Literary Life Magazine wrote “sorry” Sam was 50 [MTP].

Prof. John Fiske wrote asking if he could “accept your kind invitation for the 23d instead of the 16th?” [MTP].

December 13 Monday † – In Hartford Sam responded to Howells’ Dec. 12 (Sam probably misdated this letter as Dec. 12, but the mails weren’t that good. Or, perhaps in his grief, Howells misdated his letter). Sam understood Howells’ inability to preside at the Tavern Club, but Dec.

December 13 Tuesday – Funk & Wagnalls wrote offering Sam $1,000 for ten articles (1500 words each) on “The People I have Met,” or “Several Chapters From my Life” [MTP].

Check #  Payee  Amount  [Notes]

3936  E. Steger & Co.  0.80

3937  Estes & Lauriat  3.60  Boston Bookseller

3938  Mr. A.A. Welch  4.00

December 13 Thursday –Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam enclosing Dec. 11 Beecher to Webster letter. Negotiations with the Beecher family had taken months; Hall reported that they had returned the $5,000 advance paid before Henry Ward Beecher’s death. In return, Webster & Co. gave back the manuscript of the Life of Christ [MTLTP 252n1].

December 13 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote an invitation in Livy’s behalf to Elinor M. Howells.

I write for Mrs. Clemens, who is still blind, after a nine months’ struggle with the oculists. To read a page or write one gives her a two-days’ headache. Please run down here with W.D.H., & be shut out from all save the family, & have some good talks & quiet good times, & the refreshment of rest in unfamiliar surroundings [MTHL 2: 623].

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 14 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Robert Howland in San Francisco, old friend from Carson City days, thanking him for the pictures and reminding him to “put in an appearance here when you come east” [MTLE 4: 179].

Sam also wrote to Gen. William E. Strong, letter not extant but referred to in Strong’s Dec. 19 reply.

December 14 Wednesday – Jeannette L. Gilder wrote:

December 14 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Stewart L. Woodford (1835-1913), attorney and ex-congressman from New York. Sam informed him that the Brunswick was his hotel and that he purposed to arrive there the evening of Dec. 21 for the Dec. 22 ceremonies; he thanked him for the reminder, but Judge Russell had written him the information [MTP].

December 14 Friday – In Hartford, Sam inscribed 1601, Conversation As It Was By the Social Fireside in the Time of the Tudors to George Iles (1852-1942), American author and editor in Montreal. “Dear Iles— I beg a thousand pardons, but I had forgotten all about it. / . Truly Yours / S L C. / Dec 14/83” [MTP].

December 14 Sunday – Sam and Cable gave a reading in Muskegon, Mich. on Dec. 14. Previously reported as Dec. 4. See SLC to Andrew Chatto on Dec. 14, also from Muskegon. Mark Twain Journal misreported the date.

December 14 Monday – The Monday Evening Club met at the Clemens home with a discussion of “Eloquence.” Susy Clemens attended the meeting. “The essayist of the evening contended that the only form of eloquence was verbal.

December 14 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Charles Webster, who in his Nov. 30 letter suggested a book from Henry M. Stanley would be a “good hit.” Sam agreed. He also referred a “Lieutenant Owen” (William Miller Owen, who in 1885 published a Civil War book with Ticknor & Co.) to Webster for a possible publication, calling him “not quite a stranger.” He also wrote of his sales job on Henry M. Stanley:

December 14 Wednesday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam, evidently responding to Sam’s veto on the interview with the St. Louis Republican. Orion agreed the man would “get nothing contraband out of this oyster.”; Ma hacked all night; Orion enclosed a waybill for hickory nuts sent; he never got the Pope book [MTP].

Eva G. Goddard wrote a “begging letter” from Terrell, Tex. Asking for a book with a picture [MTP].

December 14 Friday – Livy and Sam began a letter to Olivia Lewis Langdon that Sam finished Dec. 19. Livy missed her mother and wished they might be together at Christmastime. Theodore Crane was taking some sort of “electricity” treatments, which left pain in his arm and a discouraged outlook, then shared by Sue Crane. Still, Sam reported that Theo was “doing comfortably well, & is slowly improving” [MTP].

December 14 Saturday – Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam about books offered the firm and his ideas for each: Henry Clews’ Twenty Eight Years in Wall Street; an authorize biography of Jefferson Davis by Colonel Scharf; and History of the Supreme Court of the United States, author not named [MTP].

December 15 Monday – William Gray Thomas wrote from Oakland, Calif. to ask Sam if he’d read a novel Thomas had written. Thomas grew up in Florida, Mo., Sam’s birthplace and was known then as “Willie Gray Thomas,” and remembered Sam well. “…you have made such a noise in the world that I could not well help it” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the back of the letter., “Can’t do it.”

December 15 Thursday – Henry Clay Trumbull for Philadelphia Sunday School wrote: “I am so glad you can come on the 21st. I want a few friends to come in and see you that evening” [MTP].

December 15 Friday – Stewart L. Woodford wrote: “Thanks for card just received. I sent it to Judge Russell, who will secure your rooms at the Brunswick and wait upon you at 545 sharp, Friday afternoon to bring you to Delmonico’s” [MTP].

Karl & Hattie J. Gerhardt (to Sam and Livy) wrote enclosing the bill of lading for the box sent (baby bust). He mentioned making a sketch for the Paul Revere statue contest [MTP].

December 15 Saturday – Worden & Co. wrote requesting $2,500 as “additional margin” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Sent $3000 Dec. 18”

M.U. wrote from Hartford urging Clemens “to turn away from your vanities, and seek with all earnestness the Lord God of Hosts” [MTP] Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Religious fanatic / Self-righteous Rot"

December 15 Monday – Sam wrote two letters from Toledo, Ohio to Livy. After remarking on the “prettiest furniture” of the hotel the night before in Jackson, Mich., Sam told of his day:

“We got up at 5 & took the train. All the way, in the cars, was a mother with her first child—the proudest & silliest fool I have struck this year. She beat the new brides that one sees on the trains” [MTP].

December 15 Tuesday – Denis E. McCarthy died in Irvington, Alameda County, Calif. He was 55. The New York Times reported his death on Dec. 18, 1885, p.2. The article mentions his association with Sam, “then a young and comparatively unknown writer.” It also recounted the fake robbery on the “divide,” which may have caused a permanent breach with Sam. McCarthy died as editor and proprietor of the Virginia City Chronicle, which he ran from 1873. Too much demon rum killed him.