February 14 Tuesday – Sam signed both names on a short note to an unidentified man who evidently had asked for a valentine:
Dear Sir: / I am only too proud of the chance to help, with this the only Valentine I venture to write this day—for although I am twain in my own person I am only half a person in my matrimonial firm, & sometimes my wife shows that she is so much better & nobler than I am, that I seriously question if I am really any more than about a quarter! [MTP, drop-in letters].
February 15 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to Elisha Bliss, acknowledging a quarterly royalty check for $1,452.62 for sales of 8,024 copies of Innocents. Sam wrote that Riley had sailed from London on Feb. 1 on a 30-day voyage. On the subject of Livy, Sam answered Orion’s concern:
February 16 Thursday – From Buffalo, Sam sent a request to Elisha Bliss: Please mail or send in your own way, a cloth copy of Innocents Abroad to SIDNEY MOFFETT New Market Shenandoah Co.,Va; & charge to my ac / [MTP, drop-in letters].
February 17 Friday – Sam wrote a short letter to his mother and family about Livy’s improvement, though she:
“…still is very low & very weak. She is in her right mind this morning, & has made hardly a single flighty remark” [MTL 4: 352].
Sam also responded to an autograph seeker, Fannie Dennis, who wished both an autograph and sentiment:
February 21 Tuesday – Petroleum V. Nasby, “enormously fat & handsome,” stopped by.
“We had a pleasant talk but I couldn’t offer him the hospitalities because my wife is very seriously ill & the house is full of nurses & doctors” [MTL 4: 335-6 in letter to Redpath the next day].
February 22 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Buffalo to Orion. “Livy is very, very slowly & slightly improving, but it is not possible to say whether she is out of danger…” [MTL 4: 334].
February 23 Thursday – Edson C. Chick wrote from offices of The Aldine, NYC to send copies of the March issue. “Having made the announcement of portrait we are anxious for copy…Thanks for photograph…P.S. Bret Harte & John Hay will do something for us soon” [MTP]. Note: The Aldine, a monthly arts journal published in New York in the 1800s.
February 25 Saturday – Bret and Anna Harte and their two sons, Woodie and Frankie, arrived in Boston around 11 AM. A crowd was at the train station to welcome Harte, including 33-year-old William Dean Howells, assistant editor of the Atlantic under James T. Fields.
February 26 or 27 Monday – Sam telegraphed from Buffalo to Edson C. Chick, managing editor of the Aldine, a graphic arts and literary magazine published by James Sutton & Co. of New York (1871-3). Sam had sent a portrait of himself but not an autobiographical sketch, which Sam felt was “too long, as it stands, to be modest” [MTL 4: 337].
February 27 Monday – Edson C. Chick wrote from offices of The Aldine: “Dr. Mark / Telegram recd. Many Many thanks. [I] enclose manuscript. You have helped me out of my difficulty like a ‘big hearted boatman’ as you are…” [MTP].
February 28 Tuesday – W.S. Cassedy wrote from Rosston, Penn. to ask Clemens to read his MS about “the imaginary visit of a China man to this country” [MTP].
March – Mark Twain’s (Burlesque) Autobiography and First Romance was published (Note: Rasmussen gives February, p.49). “First Romance” was joined with the work but was first published on Jan. 1, 1870 in Buffalo Express [Budd, “Collected” 1008].
March 1 Wednesday – Sam sold his one-third interest in the Buffalo Express to George H. Selkirk for $15,000, to be paid over five years. Sam still owed Thomas A. Kennett (1843-1911). Sam repaid Jervis Langdon’s estate by the end of 1871, but by 1878 Selkirk had still not completed payment [MTL 4: 338].