Home at Hartford: Day By Day

June 17 Thursday – The Clemens family left New York and took the ten-hour train ride to Elmira, where Sam wrote a letter to Charles Webster about the Pope’s biography. Sam detailed what he felt a presentation copy of Leo XIII’s book should look like, feel like, and cost — a book bound in:

June 17 Friday – James W. See of Hamilton, Ohio wrote to Sam desiring to represent and/or manufacture the Mark Twain Scrapbooks in the West [MTP]. A soldier’s monument was dedicated in New Haven — Sam may have been invited and attended, since he had been elected a life member of the Putnam Phalanx, a social and ceremonial military organization [MTNJ 3: 294n230]. Note: Sam wrote on the envelope, “Brer. W.

June 17 Sunday – Livy wrote to Grace King (in a letter not sent until Aug. 7 from Elmira):

June 17 Monday – In Elmira Sam wrote to Anna Laurens Dawes, a Washington correspondent from Pittsfield Mass. and daughter of Henry L. Dawes, senator of Mass. Sam gave a reading for her young ladies’ club in 1885. (See Mar. 1, 1885, Sept. 23, 1885). Sam thanked Miss Dawes.

June 18 Friday – Howells sent Sam a copy of his book, The Undiscovered Country (1880) inscribed: “S.L. Clemens / with ever so much affection, / W. D. Howells. / Belmont, / June 18, 1880” [Gribben 336].

June 18 Saturday – Charles Webster wrote to Sam: “By giving one more turn to the screw we have succeeded in getting $2200 out of Slote instead of $2000”: two notes for $1,200 and $1,000 signed by Alonzo Slote, Dan’s brother (d. 1901). Release enclosed for Sam to sign [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Slote Released.”

June 18 Sunday ca. – The famous four-generations picture was taken in New York on or about this day, Jane Clemens’ 79th birthday: Jane, daughter Pamela Moffett, granddaughter Annie Moffett Webster, gr-granddaughter Jean Webster (See Webster, p. 193).

June 18 Monday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster. Sam anticipated a suit about the “strawberries interview” about Duncan, and directed Charley not to say anything to George Jones  (1811-1891), one of the founders of the New York Times.

June 18 Wednesday – The Clemens family had escaped Hartford just in time. June 18 in Hartford was Buckingham Day, a local civic celebration for Union veterans. From the Hartford Courant:

June 18 Thursday – Sam wrote from New York to James B. Pond thanking him for another jackass that Homer Pond had sent and asking if Pond would pay Homer, then he’d reimburse him once he was in Elmira.

June 18 Monday – W.W. Bierce on Memphis Gas & Light letterhead wrote to Sam (Bierce to Charter Oak Co. June 18 enclosed): “I like you! But I’m damned if I like everybody in Hartford.” Bierce had inquired around about the defunct Charter Oak Insurance Co and brought his complaint to Mark Twain [MTP].

Chatto & Windus wrote to Sam, advising they’d accepted Tauchnitz’s offer of £40 “for a selection of about one third of” the Library of American Humor [MTP].

June 18 Tuesday – In Elmira Sam wrote to Henry M. Stanley, anxious to stay in contact for a possible book to publish. Sam was feeling a financial pinch more than ever and he made a friendly plug for Webster & Co.

Goodness only knows where you are at this date, but working courageously toward the end of your amazing trip; according to latest rumors — & may you arrive!….we hope you will give us a chance at your account of this great journey before you close with any other American firm [MTP].

June 18 Wednesday – ‡ See addenda

June The Atlantic Monthly, “Contributors’ Club” ran Sam’s unsigned reply to a letter from “A Boston Girl,” criticizing his grammar [Wells 23]. (See Aug. 9 entry to Howells.) Also in this issue Sam’s “A Telephonic Conversation.” [23].

June – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster advising him that Woodman, Dan Slote’s former partner, might be someone valuable to consult on scrapbook matters [MTP].

Sam inscribed: “S.L. Clemens, Hartford, June, 1881” on the flyleaf of Charles Anthon’s (1797-1867) Classical Dictionary (1880), which treated Greek and Roman literature and history [Gribben 25].

June – The Stolen White Elephant was a collection of stories published by James R. Osgood. Sam wrote the title story in 1878, and the earliest copies printed early in June [Hirst, “A Note on the Text,” Oxford Edition, 1996]. This book combined the elephant tale with all those in Punch, Brothers, Punch! (1878) as well as several others, including two on the “McWilliamses” [Rasmussen 445].

June – Osgood & Co. published The New Guide of the Conversation in Portuguese and English, by Pedro Carolino, with an introduction by Mark Twain, written a year before. Paine calls it “an absurd little volume” [MTLP 1: 431]. (See June 4 entry.)

June – Sometime during the month, Sam wrote from either Hartford or Elmira to Charles Webster, suggesting the text and layout for business envelopes, which included “Personal Memoires of General Grant” in red ink [MTP].

June – Sam’s notebook (for approximately June): Get “The Midge” by HC Bunner [MTNJ 3:240; Gribben 111]. Note: Henry Cuyler Bunner’s (1855-1896) sentimental novel (1886).

June – Beginning this month, Arthur H. Wright would send Sam extensive reports of Webster & Co.’s finances. Wright had been hired as a cashier. Some shift in responsibilities since Fred Hall’s May 19 “glaring deficiencies” letter is evident by Wright’s reports [MTNJ 3: 388n297].

June – While preparing to leave for Elmira, Sam entered in his notebook The Beginnings of New England; or, The Puritan Theocracy by John Fiske (1889) [3: 495; Gribben 232].

June – Sometime during the month Sam answered E.W. Stephens’s May 20 invitation. Sam wrote he’d been “ailing for two or three weeks,” and that he’d made passage for the family to Europe and expected to be there “from the end of June till near October,” though this didn’t mean he would be able to go, since “Providence will rip up the engagement when the time comes.” [The Clemens family did not go to Europe this year.]

June – Prior to leaving for Europe, Sam gave Frederick J. Hall a story titled, “The Californian’s Tale,” which was put in Webster & Co.’s safe. This was a story of a man who deludes himself that his wife is merely away, when she was captured by Indians some nineteen years before. Sam would send another MS of the story in Oct. 1892, postdated, “Florence, Jan. ‘93”, so that it would seem to be new work. Before Hall could include it in a collection, Sam sent the story to Arthur G.

June 19 Saturday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Miss Simon, who evidently requested an autograph [MTLE 5: 130].

June 19 Monday – Sam entertained James R. Osgood at his Hartford home and “had a pleasant talk bout our trip & all…[the] charming people” he’d met [June 20 letter to Cable, MTP].