Home at Hartford: Day By Day

June 1 Saturday – An earlier entry in Sam’s notebook gives this as the date for Julia Langdon’s high school graduation. The oldest daughter of Charles Langdon, “Julie” had been chosen valedictorian. Sam and Susy Clemens were invited to attend; Sam wrote, “Best weather. / Bad weather up to 6” [MTNJ 3: 470n221]. Thus he and Susy may have made the trip to Elmira, weather permitting, though no further record of such a trip was found.

June 1 Monday – Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam having received his telegram. He’d heard nothing from Bok and feared he might be “sore” about the contract withdrawal. Hall proposed to go to Phila. to see Bok and get an offer out of him, which would legally cancel the prior offer. Hall would try to come to Hartford Wednesday or Thursday. The “biggest month” yet on sales of LAL had resulted in “being put very rapidly into the soup” since the sales were paid for in instalments [MTP].

June 10 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to his old editor friend in Buffalo, David Gray. Sam feared negative newspaper reviews of A Tramp Abroad might limit sales, as he had his other books. So, he sent Tramp to only Gray and Howells, knowing that if they didn’t care for it he would receive kind silence. Instead they praised it, so Sam was thankful. Sales were now at 50,000—more, Sam claimed, than any previous book sales for the same length of time.

June 10 Friday – Sam attended the West Point graduation exercises for the class of 1881. He sat on the dais with the other dignitaries, even though he had no speaking role. General Christopher C. Augur gave the graduation address. There were other speakers as well, including Dr.

June 10 Saturday – The official issue date of The Stolen White Elephant.

Sam wrote from Hartford to Chatto & Windus, asking for copies of the London periodical Tom Hood’s Comic Annual for 1873, 1874, and 1875. Sam’s article, “How I Escaped Being Killed in a Duel” ran in the 1873 volume; and the 1874 issue ran a version of his sketch “Jim Wolf and the Cats” [MTNJ 2: 485n179].

June 10 Sunday – An interview dated June 9 ran on page 1 of the New York Times: “MR. MARK TWAIN EXCITED ON SEEING THE NAME OF CAPT. C.C. DUNCAN IN PRINT”.

June 10 Tuesday – Charles A. Dana for the New York Sun wrote to suggest Sam write 16 or 18 thousand words, which would allow them to divide it into two parts; or two stories [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Wants 2 stories or 18000 words”

June 10 Wednesday – Sam was attending to “imperative business” in New York. This is the third day of a three day stay there [Sam to Moffett, June 12].

Daniel Whitford for Alexander & Green wrote they couldn’t get “the note of introduction to Mr Bates President of the Baltimore & Ohio Telegraph Company (which you desire) until tomorrow” [MTP].

June 10 Friday – Sam and Livy returned to Hartford from their short “vacation” to Frederick E. Church’s mansion near Hudson, New York [MTNJ 3: 293n227].

E.S. Walton of New York, whose enclosed card reads, “Leading Comedian” wrote to Sam:

June 10 Sunday – Sam and Livy met the Finnish Baroness Alexandra Gripenberg (1857-1913) at 8 p.m. at the Hartford home of George Warner. She was a leader in the temperance and suffrage movements. The Baroness came to America as a delegate to the meeting of the International Council of Women inM Washington on Mar. 26. She arrived in Hartford on June 7 to visit her friend, Isabella Beecher Hooker.

June 10 Monday –The Hartford Courant, p.8 under “City Personals,” reported: “Mr. S.L. Clemens and family leave this week for their summer home in Elmira.”

June 10 Tuesday – Jane Clemens wrote a short paragraph of delusion to her long-dead parents; Orion Clemens added to it a letter to Sam finished June 15 [MTP].

Richard W. Gilder for Century Magazine wrote to Sam:

I don’t know why you should say that the paragraph you send me has a “doubtful look.” If matrimony is a good thing the more of it the better. To be sure I never heard of the young lady whom, according to the papers, I am to marry in June, but probably this proves that the match was truly made in heaven [MTP].

June 11 Friday – Sam wrote two pages from Hartford to Mary M. Booth (Mrs. Edwin Booth) in response to her request for his autograph:

June 11 Saturday – Sam said goodbye to his West Point friends and returned to Hartford.

At Hartford Sam wrote to John Henton Carter (“Commodore Rollingpin”) of St. Louis, giving him permission to use “any published sketch of mine you choose,” but Sam added that he couldn’t “furnish anything new,” being “limited by existing contracts” [MTP].

June 11 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to James R. Osgood:

“I wish you would set a cheap expert to work to collect local histories of Mississippi towns & a lot of other books relating to the river for me.

“Meantime all those people who promised to send such things to us ain’t doing it, dern them” [MTP].

June 11 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Andrew Chatto, releasing them from “any legal expenses incurred on account of the within…” [MTP]. Note: enclosure not described.

June 11 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster, shipping back Kemble’s pictures for Huck Finn. After modifications, Sam thought, “this batch of pictures is most rattling good,” and only wanted one removed—“the lecherous old rascal kissing the girl at the campmeeting.” Sam didn’t want any pictures of the campmeeting—“The subject won’t bear illustrating” [MTP].

June 11 Thursday – In Hartford, Sam wrote to the editor of the Christian Union. Sam’s letter, a reaction to a Union article, “What Ought He to have Done,” ran in that publication on June 16 on pages 4-5, and is a great argument for the proper application of a whipping to a wayward child, given in the right spirit “with hearts wholly free from temper.” Significantly, Sam ended the letter about proper parenting by referring to Livy:

June 11 Friday – In Hartford Sam wrote to Charles Webster, telling him to:

See that you go for Wannamaker [sic] — otherwise I will go down there & rise up in his Sunday School & give him hell, in front of his whole 3000 pupils [MTP]

June 11 Saturday – In Hartford Sam responded through Franklin G. Whitmore to E.S. Walton’s June 10 inquiry: Tell him arrangements have already been made” [MTP].

Sam also wrote to Frederick E. Church about the recent stay at Church’s mansion.

It was an ideal holiday, in a Garden of Eden without the Garden of Eden’s unprotection from weather [MTP].

June 11 Monday – Frederick J. Hall wrote to Sam about the Iowa lawsuit against R.T. Root, a general book agent who had not made required payment for Grant’s Memoirs. Hall recommended, “if we can get fifteen, or even twelve thousand dollars, it is best to accept it.” No settlement was made, however, and the court case continued until Jan. 1889, when Webster & Co. won a judgment of $31,433.33. Webster & Co.

June 11 Tuesday – In Hartford, Sam wrote a short note to George Washington Cable, who evidently had asked for copies of a pamphlet Sam used to have, Samuel Watson Royston’s short novel, The Enemy Conquered, or Love Triumphant. “They are lost!” Sam responded, “I have searched everywhere & cannot find a vestige of that pamphlet.” He closed “in haste” as they were “just leaving for Elmira” [MTP; Gribben 593; MTNJ 3: 490n29].

June 11 Wednesday – Sam referred to this as “that first day” in New York (by calculation from his June 14 to Livy). In that letter Sam talked of being with Joe Goodman in New York. He also wrote about the stay there:

June 12 Saturday – Howells wrote from Boston to Sam about Sylvester Baxter’s interview of Sam. He acknowledged receipt of Orion’s manuscript, as well as Sam’s sketch, “Edward Mills and George Benton: A Tale,” which Howells thought “wunderbar” [MTHL 1: 314].

Sam met with the young ladies of the Saturday Morning Club.

June 12 Sunday – Clemens wrote to Dwight H. Buell asking if he might buy stock in the typesetter early. This letter not extant but referred to in Buell’s June 14 reply.