January 31 Wednesday – Fatout lists a reading for Sam at Mrs. Gertrude Cowdin’s in New York City [MT Speaking 661]. Note: The undated MTP TS of this invitation, however is as follows:
My dear Mr. Clemens
Won’t you come in to a very informal & impromptu spree on Saturday evening about ten thirty. Our friend Mr. Reid is coming & I have warned him not to appear without you.
February ca. – Sam wrote, likely from New York, to decline an invitation to be present for the 400th anniversary of the founding of the University of Aberdeen, Scotland. The school was founded in Feb. 1495 [MTP].
February – Sometime during the month in New York, Sam responded on Players Club stationery to William H. Rideing’s Jan. 23 request for an essay for Youth’s Companion.
February 1 Thursday – At 2:15 p.m. in New York Sam cabled Livy:
A ship visible on the horizon coming down under a cloud of canvas [MTHHR 20]. Note: As he wrote in his notebook, “The great Paige Compositor Scheme consummated” [NB 33 TS 53].
February 2 Friday – Sam and Livy’s 24th Wedding Anniversary. Early in the year, possibly at or after Feb. 2, as he and Livy began their 25th year of marriage, Sam wrote in his notebook:
Love seems the swiftest, but it is the slowest of all growths. No man or woman really knows what perfect love is until they have been married a quarter of a century [MT NB, ed. Paine p.235].
February 3 Saturday – In New York on Players Club stationery, Sam wrote a response to Edwina Booth Grossman, whose request (not extant) concerned Sam’s communication with her late father, Edwin Booth (d. 1893).
If I had a line from his honored hand it would be at your command at any moment; but it happened that your father & I corresponded only with the tongue [MTP].
February 4 Sunday – Sam had breakfast at noon with Madame Nordica, who gave him a signed picture of herself. He had another engagement to dine at 3 p.m. and again at 7 p.m.
February 5 Monday – In New York at Rogers’ office, Sam wrote to daughter Clara at the Hotel Brighton in Paris, France:
February 6 Tuesday – In New York at the Players Club, Sam wrote a note to Francis Wilson, his “fellow-player and neighbor in the next room”:
…greeting and salutation! And therewithal prosperity and peace, and the continuance of our friendship until the end. Amen. / Mark Twain
On Feb. 7 Sam wrote Livy about this nights’ gathering at Robert Reid’s studio:
February 7 Wednesday – In New York Sam wrote to Livy, explaining that he lost a day when sending letters by English steamers, and there was only one French steamer per week from N.Y. Sam told of arranging to sell a big block of his stock in the new type-setter company with J.M. Shoemaker, a representative of the Standard Oil Co. for the Elmira district.
February 8 Thursday – Sam wrote “How to Tell a Story” for Youth’s Companion (which was not published in that magazine until Oct. 3, 1895). At 6 p.m. he went to Richard Harding Davis’ 5 o’clock tea. Davis and “young” Howard Russell shared 5th Avenue bachelor quarters.
February 9 Friday – In New York at the Players Club, Sam wrote to Livy (this letter may have been written on Feb. 8, but since his stated aim was to write Livy twice a week, this is placed here, as LLMT also assumes.)
Sam explained some misinformation had caused him to miss the French liner to send his letter. He was trying to write less frequently but longer letters, writing twice a week instead of his usual near-daily.
February 10 Saturday – In New York in the evening, Sam wrote “half a dozen aphorisms (in the rough)” [Feb. 11 to Livy].
Orion and Mollie Clemens finished their Feb. 8 letter, Mollie being too ill to add much [MTP].
February 11 Sunday – In New York at the Players Club Sam wrote to Poultney Bigelow, responding to his new book, and a “charming invitation.” Sam wrote about his “great big anonymous historical romance,” on which he’d already written 93,000 words, and only a third of the book (Joan of Arc).
February 12 Monday – In New York Sam continued his Feb. 11 to Livy, which he finished on Feb. 13. He told of the Jan. 29 reception by the Kindergarten Association. See that entry for part of Sam’s letter.
Sam also responded on Players Club stationery to a request by James B. Pond (not extant): “the gods are against it,” he wrote; he’d sail for Europe three weeks from this day, or Monday, March 5 [MTP].
Sam’s notebook:
February 13 Tuesday – At 1 a.m. in New York, Sam finished the multi-part letter to Livy he began on Feb. 11. The broker from Elmira with whom Sam wanted to sell stock in the new Paige company, J.M. Shoemaker, was thought to be blocked by a snowstorm which began at noon on Feb. 12. H.H. Rogers had invited Sam to dinner (on Feb. 12) and offered to keep posted by telephone on Shoemaker’s arrival at the Players Club, and also to be on hand should there be problems in the trade.
February 14 Wednesday – J.M. Shoemaker arrived in New York. Sam wrote of a meeting between himself, H.H. Rogers and Shoemaker on this day:
February 15 Thursday – At 11:30 p.m. at the New York Players Club, Sam wrote another long letter to Livy. Near the end he outlined the day’s activities:
It has been a mighty busy day. I had myself called at 9. At 10 I was down at Mr. Rogers’s office.
Samuel Clemens, H.H. Rogers, and J.M. Shoemaker met again to plan the sale of stock in the new Illinois company, the Paige Compositor Co.
February 16 Friday – Sam’s notebook in N.Y.:
Feb. 16. An ostensible gentleman sat at table in the grill room this morning & struggled with the excrement in his head, trying to cough it out, bark it out, snort it out, snuffle it out, hawk it out, till I was so sick that I was obliged to ask him if he wouldn’t please go to the privy & finish [NB 33 TS 56].
February 17 Saturday – In New York Sam responded to a note of invitation from Helena de Kay Gilder (Mrs. Richard Watson Gilder). He’d not answered sooner because he anticipated seeing her the previous night, and was “at work nearly all night the night before [Feb. 15] on a gigantic letter to Mrs. Clemens.” Evidently, the event he was invited to was past, as he ended wishing he might have “better luck next time” [MTP].
February 18 Sunday – The New York Times, p.2 “City and Vicinity” announced that “Mark Twain” and James Whitcomb Riley would give readings in Madison Square Garden on the evenings of Feb. 26 and 27.
In the evening in New York on Players Club stationery, Sam answered an invitation to breakfast (not extant) from Frank Fuller. Yes, he changed his program each time he gave it but didn’t know whether James Whitcomb Riley did or not; he hadn’t seen Riley.
February 19 Monday – In Paris, Livy cabled Sam that daughter Susy was better [Feb. 20 to Livy]. Frederick J. Hall located the lost MS, “In Defense of Harriet Shelley,” [Feb. 20 to Livy] which Paine calls “one of the very best of his essays” [MTLP 590]. See also MTB 988. Note: North American Review would publish the essay in July 1894.
February 20 Tuesday – In New York at the Players Club, Sam wrote to Livy. The first part of the letter is lost. What remains opens with notes about a conference with Rogers:
He is fast coming to the opinion that I had better assume the debts & close up the concern [Webster & Co.] & turn over my own books to the Century Co on the best terms I can get. They want my books badly, but don’t value any of the others.
February 21 Wednesday – In New York at the Players Club Sam’s wakeup call came at 8 a.m. He’d packed his valise before going to bed so had nothing to do except have coffee and shave. He went to the station and met Mrs. Annie Rogers with her sister and brother-in-law the Grinnells.
February 22 Thursday – In Fairhaven Mass., Sam was up at 9 a.m. had breakfast, and “superintended a while” in the setup for the dedication ceremony. He then rested until noon while H.H. Rogers worked to complete the preparations.
At 1 o’clock he [Rogers] went to his mother’s house (she is in her 84th year, & took her to the hall ahead of the crowd; the family left here for the hall at 1.30, & Mr. Rogers & I walked down at near 2. The place was crammed, of course.
February 23 Friday – At mid-day in Fairhaven, Mass., Sam wrote to Livy, relating the events of the past two days there (see Feb 21-22). Sam would skip a mid-day dinner choosing to eat in the evening. He wanted to save himself for another dance, expected to dance all night, and wished she was there. He related a conversation he had yesterday during a walk with Rogers, who offered to give him a vacant lot in Fairhaven if he’d build a home on it.