March – From Livy’s diary:
“George brought them [the children] a beautiful great maltese cat, about a year old that his wife raised—it is a splendid creature and is getting wonted already” [Salsbury 117].
George Stronach performed misc. house repairs and chair repairs, billing $7.80 and dating it simply “March.” The bill was marked paid on May 15 [MTP].
March 1 Monday – Orion finished his Feb. 29 to Sam. “Yours of the 26th just received…‘The Autobiography of a Coward’ will be commenced within an hour and the first chapter sent to you within a week. The writing will be according to your suggestions. / I congratulate you on your invention. / I am glad you are going to finish Prince and Pauper” [MTP].
March 3 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Frank Bliss about particulars in the publishing of A Tramp Abroad [MTLE 5: 31].
March 5 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Orion agreeing to look at Orion’s manuscript. He answered questions about Kaolatype patent, rights, etc. He ended the short letter by saying he’d:
“…added 114 pages to Prince & Pauper. I thought that might almost complete it, but it doesn’t bring it to the middle, I judge” [MTLE 5: 32].
Sam also wrote to Howells in Belmont, Mass.
March 6 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles H. Clark (John Quill or Max Adeler) of the Hartford Courant, denying he hadn’t ever killed any Indians, nor had Dan De Quille. Such a rumor had been “gotten up by the Indians” he wrote.
March 8 Monday – Sam inscribed this date and his signature in a copy of Sketches, New and Old to an unidentified person [MTLE 5: 35].
March 9 Tuesday – C.E. Goodspeed wrote from Newton Centre, Mass. to ask for an autograph [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Auto fiend / 1880 / Cheek”
Sam wrote to W.A. May in Scranton Pa. Letter not extant but referred to in May’s Mar. 11 reply.
March 10 Wednesday – Sam and Livy went to the theater to see William Dean Howells’ play, Yorick’s Love, by a leading Spanish author, Estebanez, with Lawrence Barrett. Sam loved it and wrote: “The language beautiful, the passion so fine, the plot so ingenious, the whole thing so stirring, so charming, so pathetic.” It was “the language of the Prince & the Pauper,” he wrote Howells on Mar.
March 11 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells, sharing the plot of Prince and the Pauper, and noting:
March 13 Saturday – Two copies of A Tramp Abroad were placed with the Copyright Office, Library of Congress [Hirst, “A Note on the Text” Oxford edition, 1996].
March 14 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to an unidentified person about responses to distressed nation appeals.
“…it is only when she [a nation] asks for bread, that creed & party are forgotten & the whole world rises to respond” [MTLE 5: 43].
March 15 Monday – Sam wrote to Christian Tauchnitz in Leipzig, Germany; the letter not extant but mentioned in Tauchnitz’s May 3 reply.
March 16 Tuesday – In Hartford, Sam wrote a long inscription to Twichell in a copy of A Tramp Abroad, marking various pages where things happened, pointing out how imagination had “preposterously expanded” some things.
“We had a mighty good time, Joe, & the 6 weeks I would dearly like to repeat, any time—but the rest of the 14 months, never. With love, Yours, Mark” [MTLE 5: 45].
March 18 Thursday – Emma J. Stafford wrote to Sam asking for a letter for their church “Evening with Mark Twain” as they’d done with several other famous men [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “No. A heavy curse fall on the particular devil who invented this most offensive form of persecution. / SLC”
March 19 Friday – Susy Clemens’ eighth birthday.
Sam’s Mar. 19 letter to Texas schoolboy, David Watt Bowser, includes the sentence, “I wrote all day yesterday…on the fifteenth chapter of a story for boys entitled ‘The Little Prince & the Little Pauper,’ —laid in the time of Edward VI of England…” [MTP].
March 20 Saturday – This was the approximate issue date for A Tramp Abroad. Sam wrote from Hartford to Elisha Bliss. Sam liked the look of the book, but noted that both Roughing It and Gilded Age sold “nearly double as many copies, in this length of time, so I imagine the Canadians have been working us heavy harm.” He was also glad the newspapers hadn’t knocked the book.
March 21 Sunday – An unknown boy wrote from Chicago to Sam; only the envelope survives [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “A Boy’s Request”
March 22 Monday – In Boston, Howells wrote to Sam about the “charm and the solid delightfulness” of A Tramp Abroad.
Well, you are a blessing. You ought to believe in God’s goodness, since he has bestowed upon the world such a delightful genius as yours to lighten its troubles [MTHL 1: 293].
William Haskell Simpson (1858-1933) wrote on Univ. of Kansas Chancellor’s Office, Lawrence, Kansas letterhead.
March 23 Tuesday – Orion Clemens wrote to Sam, clipping enclosed from the Keokuk Gate City from Mar. 23 about a gold strike in Silver Cliff, Colo.
March 24 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells, thanking him for his complementary letter of Mar. 22. Howells’ letter and Sam’s response:
March 25 Thursday – Sam’s letter to Mary Keily of Feb. 21 ran in the Towanda Pennsylvania Reporter, page one [MTLE 5: 24]. Note: why it was published is not clear, except that Mark Twain was now so famous and well known, that nearly any letter from him made news.
March 26 Friday – David Watt Bowser wrote from Dallas to thank Sam for answering his letter. Laura Hawkins Dake, his teacher, was “so glad that you are such a famous man, and that you remember her so kindly, for she remembers you as the best friend of her youth” [MTP].
March 27 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Andrew Chatto after receiving his message that he’d not received the final batch of copy for Tramp. Evidently, Elisha Bliss had dropped the ball on coordinating materials and cabling the date of publication to Chatto.
March 30 Tuesday – William Dean Howells wrote to Sam.
“Thanks for your Club Contribution. It’s good, and powerfully true but you wont be allowed to get your adverbs wrong in this magazine. John is reading Tom Sawyer, and [illegible].” Note: see MS notes in source. [MTHL 2: 880, 890].
Edson Q. Beebe wrote from Montrose, Penn. to ask Sam his opinion of boys [MTP].
March 31 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Moncure Conway about the mix-up and mess between Elisha Bliss and Andrew Chatto over engravings for TA. Sam asked Conway to intercede and clear things up [MTLE 5: 56].
Charles E. Chapin wrote a postcard to advise Sam of new rates for Hartford Ice Co. [MTP].