July 12 Thursday – Edward H. House wrote “a dreary letter” of failing under the curse of gout for the past 10 months, and of Koto’s seizures, which explained their infrequent letters [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Give [word torn away] account of the Reid interview / Hist game"
July 14 Saturday – Sam wrote to the Hartford Engineering Co., letter not extant, but referred to in the Co.’s July 17 reply.
July 15 Sunday – Karl Gerhardt wrote to Sam & Livy: more about their progress & expenses [MTP].
July 16 Monday – Samuel E. Dawson wrote “to assist any of your friends about copyright” [MTP].
July 17 Tuesday – Hartford Engineering Co. wrote having rec’d his of the 14th and asking again if he would renew his endorsement on the $10,000 bond [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “Can’t do it”
July 18 Wednesday – Sam measured off the winding driveway up to Quarry Farm, and began a game.
July 19 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles A. Dana, editor of the New York Sun. Dana wrote Sam on July 9 and 14.
July 20 Friday – In Elmira, Sam wrote to Joe Twichell, telling more about the pegs-in-the-driveway memory game. Twichell indiscreetly allowed the letter to appear in the Hartford Courant for July 24, much to Sam’s consternation. To compound the error, the letter was printed with two errors [MTNJ 3: 28n47].
July 21 Saturday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Orion, Mollie and Jane Clemens, relating his current “booming” productivity at writing HF, and his new passion, the English history game, which began with pegs up the driveway in Elmira and was translated into an indoor board game:
July 22 Sunday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Mr. Krueger:
July 23 Monday – In Elmira, Sam drafted a “confidential” reply to friend and journalist Noah Brooks’ June 19 letter.
July 24 Tuesday – The Hartford Courant ran an account of Sam’s history-memory game from information supplied by Twichell, much to Sam’s consternation. Howells noted the article in his letter of Aug. 12 [MTHL 1: 437 & n2].
July 26 Thursday – Jean Clemens’ third birthday.
Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster in New York City. Sam asked him to run up to Elmira “about Monday or Monday night” and lend him his head “for a couple of hours” [MTBus 218]. It was only a ten-hour trip, after all. Sam wanted to discuss the new memory game as a commercial product, and get Webster to begin the marketing.
July 28 Saturday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Hamlin Garland (1860-1940) novelist, poet, essayist and short story writer, best known for fiction dealing with Mid-Western farmers. Born in Wisconsin, Garland would move to Boston in 1884. Evidently he’d asked Sam for a free story.
“G’way, Leionidas! You ought to know better. I don’t give ‘em away, I sell ‘em. It’s my grub; it’s the only way I’ve got, to earn a dishonest living” [MTP].
July 31 Tuesday – Charles A. Dana wrote, “It is a shame that Krackowiser should bother you in such a case. He is a crank, however, and his function appears to be to bother somebody. I have known him these many years and have employed him sometimes as a reporter” [MTP]. Note: Dana of the NY Sun.
August – Sometime during August, Sam wrote a one-liner from Elmira to Charles Webster about someone holding a fifth interest at thirty thousand dollars—“That’s a more valuable game than I realized,” he wrote [MTP]. (Unidentified game.)
August 1 Wednesday – Two days after Sam wanted Charles Webster to “run up” to Elmira, he wrote again to Webster.
The implements of the game, & way to play it—are the patentable features & the only patentable features, ain’t they?…So, just go ahead and take out patents, for US, Canada & England [MTBus 218-19].
August 3 Friday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Charles Webster about the history game. Never mind applying for a patent just yet, Sam advised. He’d written to Munn & Co., sending the $25 fee and asked them to search the records to see “whether my game-idea is old or new, patentable or unpatentable” [MTP].
August 4 Saturday – George E. Waring wrote from Wash. DC with plans to go to Elmira [MTP].
August 6 Monday – Webb T. Dart for Magnetic Rock Spring Co. wrote they were shipping this day a case of carbonized water, if drank cold would “certainly find relief from any disease” [MTP].
Karl Gerhardt wrote a statement of expenses for July [MTP].
August 10 Friday – Charles Webster wrote about business matters: History game, insurance, Barton vineyard scheme (that Joe Goodman claimed a “put up job to make money” using the poorest land [MTP].
August 12 Sunday – In Boston, Howells wrote to Sam, advising he’d given a letter of introduction in order to “launch a lord” at Sam. The candidate was 30-year-old William Hillier Onslow, whom Howells had met on his homeward voyage, and who seemed “to know a lot of artists and literary men,” and who expressed a liking for the works of Mark Twain. The Howellses had rented a house at 4 Louisburg Square in Boston, and extended an invitation to Sam and Livy to visit [MTHL 1: 436-7].
August 14 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Ellen C. Taft, wife of the family doctor, Cincinnatus Taft who had been ill.
August 16 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to his mother, Jane Clemens. He expected to be in Elmira until mid-September. Livy remained poorly and “improves so slowly.” Rosina Hay, their German nursemaid had left their employ, replaced by a new girl who only spoke German:
August 18 Saturday – Sam and Livy spent the evening with Mrs. Langdon in celebration of her 73rd birthday the next day [Aug. 19 letter to Olivia Lewis Langdon, MTP].