Home at Hartford: Day By Day

February – “Clemens became an enthusiastic pupil [of Alphonse Loisette (Marcus Dwight Larrowe)] around February 1887, receiving instruction in person and by mail. He provided an endorsement of the method for Loisette’s advertisements and allowed his name to be used in promotional materials in 1887 until the number of inquiries directed to Hartford became intolerable” [MTNJ 3: 277n176]. It was enough to make a man want to forget.

February – In Hartford Sam enclosed S.R. Peale’s Jan. 31 letter to Charles J. Langdon, and asked him to return it to him and let him know what answer he should make to the request [MTP].

February – Sam’s notebook entry concerns Margaret Wade Deland’s first novel, John Ward, Preacher (1888) about the struggles of a Calvinist minister and his wife who does not share his faith. Sam wrote a criticism similar to that he would use against Jane Austen:

February – Harper’s Magazine, Number 477, p.439-44 included Sam’s story, “A Majestic Literary Fossil,” which was collected in 1893’s The £1,000,000 Bank-Note and Other New Stories.

St. Nicholas magazine for children, p.309-13 ran “A Wonderful Pair of Slippers,” which included Sam’s letter to Elsie Leslie.

February – Thomas Bailey Aldrich inscribed his book, The Sisters’ Tragedy, with Other Poems, Lyrical and Dramatic (1891), to Sam: S.L. Clemens, from / his young / friend, / T.B. Aldrich / Feb. 1891 [Gribben 17]. Note: Sam wrote his thanks on Feb. 21, suggesting the book was given sometime after mid-month.

February 19 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Edward House. He’d read rumors in the newspapers that Howells, no longer editor of the Atlantic, might be “going to Switzerland as our Minister.” He added:

“I hope it is true. Winny’s health is getting mighty bad & that country would build her up” [MTHL 1: 350n2].

February 19 Sunday – In Hartford, Sam wrote to an unidentified person:

“The expression of the reverence & admiration which I feel for our great poet could not be compressed into the narrow limits of a toast or a ‘sentiment;’ so I will not make the attempt. / Ys Truly / Mark Twain” [MTP]. Note: in what appears to be another hand, in pencil at the top: “Re: Longfellow.”

February 19 Monday – Sam read a paper titled, “What is Happiness?” to the Monday Evening Club in Hartford. This was his seventh presentation to the Club since his election in 1873 [Monday Evening Club]. An early question in his notebook: “Is anybody or any action ever unselfish? (Good theme for Club Essay)” [MTNJ 2: 498n214]. Sam would further develop his scrutiny on human motivation in What Is Man?

February 19 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Laurence Hutton. He was unable to go to Washington to help with the copyright legislation lobby “but Warner is already there, for a few days, staying with Hawley.” Sam recommended Hutton write Howells, who Sam felt was “the man to go for Hay—pre-eminently.” Sam begged being too busy to write Howells [MTP].

February 19 Thursday – Sam’s P.S. to his Feb. 18 to Livy, simply added that he’d “talked here in Montreal last night.” Before the reading Sam wrote another letter to Livy, enclosing the itinerary for the tour for February.

February 19 Friday – Charles Webster wrote that the $100,000 notes were all paid and that no money was now owed; the firm had $260,000 in the bank and money coming in daily, with $50,000 in receivables he hoped they’d collect by the end of the month [MTP].

February 19 Tuesday – Thomas W. Knox wrote to Sam (enclosed in Webster & Co.’s Feb. 19) and repeating his Feb. 18 letter about wanting to see him [MTP].

Webster & Co. wrote to Sam: “Yesterday turned out to be a red letter day. More orders came in after you left. We thought you would be glad to know that we sold in all 1053 volumes yesterday, amounting at the discount price to $1537.60” [MTP].

February 19 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Abby Sage Richardson, explaining why he was not able to see her the previous Thursday as he’d told Daniel Frohman that Wednesday. Before the N.Y. trip, Richardson had sent them a breakfast invitation. They’d been unable to attend and they wished to thank her for it; Sam wished to exert his rights to emend the P&P play, and to remind her of the contract.

February 19 Thursday – General William Tecumseh Sherman’s funeral followed by a military procession took place in New York City. His body was then taken to St. Louis, where a second funeral was held on Feb. 21 at a Catholic church. Burial was at Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis.

February 2 Wednesday – William Dean Howells ended his twelve-year run with Atlantic Monthly. Thomas Bailey Aldrich succeeded him. Henry Oscar Houghton gained control of the Atlantic. Howells would sign a contract with Sam’s new publisher, James R. Osgood, Howells to produce one novel a year plus shorter pieces for $7,500 annually.

February 2 Thursday – The Clemenses entertained Louis Fréchette at their Hartford home [MTHL 1: 389].

Kate D. Barstow wrote from Wash. DC to request additional $50 from Sam for her medical training [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Request complied with.”

February 2 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James R. Osgood asking for proofs of LM and a chapter (52) containing the convict’s letter to Twichell [MTP].

Karl Gerhardt wrote with his needed expenses for Feb. He was “anxious to finish Mr. Warner’s Medallion” [MTP].

February 2 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to William Dean Howells. George W. Cable was at Sam’s house and down with the mumps. Sam expected Cable to get well in a “couple of weeks.” He related Mallory’s contact the night before at the play. Before Sam would make a decision about doing business with the Mallory brothers on the new Sellers play, he needed:

February 2 Monday – Sam wrote from Chicago, Ill. to Livy, that he loved her dearly fifteen years ago but loved her “more dearly now.” He reflected how they were,

“…well off; but poor [then], compared to what we are now, with the children…those dear rascals” [MTP].

February 2 Tuesday – In Hartford Sam wrote to an unidentified man who evidently had asked him to write more opinion of copyright law:

I had very little to say, & I said it in the current Century & before the committee…And anyway, writing miscellaneous[s] articles is a thing which I disenjoy [MTP].

February 2 Wednesday – In Hartford Sam wrote a one-liner to Bruce Weston Munro in Toronto that he had not received an item Munro had sent, probably the novel Munro had written of sending [MTP]. See Oct. 21, 1881 entry for more on Munro [MTP].

February 2 Thursday – A.F. Kelly wrote for the Clearfield Bituminous Coal Co. that “The papers executed by you were duly received.” Payment would be sent [MTP].

February 2 Saturday – Sam gave a speech at Prof. William D. Cabell’s residence on Mass. Ave., Washington, D.C. for the Norwood Ladies’ Literary Association. This was reprinted by Louis J. Budd in “A Rediscovered Mark Twain Speech: New Laws and Old Yarns,” Essays in Arts and Sciences 23 (Oct. 1994): 59-66, and is also contained in a Washington Post article for Feb. 4, 1889, p.2, “‘Mark Twain’s’ Speech.”

February 2 Sunday – Sam and Livy’s 20th Anniversary, which they both seemed to have overlooked — from a letter to her mother, Livy wrote:

Until I wrote the date… I had not remembered that this is my wedding day. Mr. Clemens is in New York for the day, he went yesterday and will I think return tomorrow…. Susy has gone to church Clara is in New York with Miss Foote attending to her teeth, Jean is upstairs reading. / It is a grey Sunday and looks like snow [Salsbury 273].

February 2 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote to James Whitcomb Riley in Indianapolis, thanking him for the “darling” poem (“Erasmus Wilson” collected in Neighborly Poems 1891) sent on Jan. 30. Sam claimed Riley was “the only man alive” who could read his poems “exactly right.”