Midwest Lecture Tour – Visits to Elmira & Hartford – Sam & Livy Engaged - Sam Met William Dean Howells – Innocents Abroad a Great Success - Buffalo Newspaper Purchased with Jervis Langdon’s help – Grueling Lecture Schedule
1869 – Sometime during the year Clemens took out a $10,000 life insurance policy with Continental Life Ins. Co of Hartford [MTP]. Note: see June 16, 1877.
December 1 Wednesday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) for Brooklyn Library Society, at the Bedford Avenue Reformed Church, Brooklyn, New York. Sam’s lecture schedule allowed him to spend most of Dec. 1 to 6 with Livy in New York City [MTL 3: 428n1].
December 11 Saturday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Town Hall, West Meriden, Conn. [MTL 3: 415].
“Around the World Letter No. 4” was printed in the Buffalo Express. The article included humorous sketches on the early days in California [McCullough 108].
December 13 Monday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Union Hall, New Britain, Conn. [MTL 3: 415].
December 14 Tuesday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Warren, Mass. [MTL 3: 415].
December 15 Wednesday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Armory Hall, Pawtucket, R.I. [MTL 3: 415].
He wrote a short note from Boston to his mother and family about his lecturing, Livy’s trousseau, which Jervis Langdon called her “trowsers,” and his contracting a cold; he was feeling too low to answer Pamela’s letter [MTL 3: 425].
December 16 Thursday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) at Rumford Institute, Waltham, Mass. [MTL 3: 415]. See Oct. 8.
December 17 Friday – Sam wrote from Boston to his sister, Pamela Moffett. Sam was “killed up with a cold, & shall not lecture to-night—so there goes a few weeks board.” The canceled lecture was for Abington, Mass. Sam related that Livy’s “heart is thoroughly set upon” Pamela and Annie coming for the wedding.
December 18 and 19, 1869 Sunday
December 18 and 19 Sunday – The lecture planned for Lynn, Mass. was also canceled due to Sam’s cold [MTL 3: 485n16]. Sam wrote from Boston to Livy about Joe Goodman coming to Elmira for the wedding and other matters. Sam went with Joseph R. Hawley to a dinner in honor of Francis W.
December – William Dean Howells published a very positive review of IA in the Atlantic Monthly:
“It is no business of ours to fix his rank among the humorists California has given us, but we think he is, in an entirely different way from all the others, quite worthy of the company of the best.”
December 20 Monday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Canton, Mass. [MTL 3: 415].
December 21 Tuesday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Hudson, Mass. [MTL 3: 415].
Sam wrote from Boston to Livy.
December 22 Wednesday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Mercantile Library, Portland, Maine [MTL 3: 415].
Letters Sam wrote to Livy on Dec. 21 and 22 (letter numbers 161-2) are lost [MTL 3: 437-8n1].
December 23 Thursday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Town Hall, Rockport, Mass. [MTL 3: 415].
December 24 Friday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) in New Hall, Slatersville, Rhode Island. Sam had been scheduled to lecture in Salem on this Christmas Eve, but changed to Slatersville to fill in for his sick friend, Josh Billings [MTL 3: 438n3].
December 25 Saturday – Christmas – Sam wrote from Boston to Livy wishing her a happy Christmas.
“I shall expect a letter in the loved & familiar hand in New Haven day after tomorrow, though—& a month after that, we shall close our long correspondence, & tell each other what our minds suggest, by word of mouth. Speed the day!” [MTL 3: 435].
December 27 Monday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Music Hall, New Haven, Conn. [MTL 3: 416].
Sam wrote from New Haven to Livy just before the lecture.
“I stopped two hours in Hartford today & Twichell & I bummed around together…Twelve thousand copies of the book sold this month. This is perfectly enormous. Nothing like it since Uncle Tom’s Cabin, I guess” [MTL 3: 440].
December 28 Tuesday – Sam wrote from New York to Joseph Twichell sending him a rail ticket he didn’t need. He also wrote to Elisha Bliss, about sending Dan Slote more books at a discount to sell to his friends.
In the evening, Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Taylor Hall, Trenton, New Jersey [MTL 3: 441-3].
December 29 Wednesday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Opera House, Newark, N.J. [MTL 3: 416].
“An Indignant Rebuke,” an unsigned article attributed to Sam, was printed in the Buffalo Express [McCullough 120].
The Boston Evening Transcript ran a letter by Sam about pretentious Americans, returning from Europe:
December 3 Friday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Collingwood’s Opera House, Poughkeepsie, New York.
Sam wrote from Brooklyn, New York to the editor of the Brooklyn Eagle, that a “misunderstanding” had resulted in canceling his second Brooklyn lecture [MTL 3: 417].
“The Richardson Murder,” an unsigned article attributed to Sam, was printed in the Buffalo Express [McCullough 101].
December 30 Thursday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Landmesser Hall, Wilkes-Barre, Pa. [MTL 3: 416].
“The Hyenas,” an unsigned article attributed to Sam, was printed in the Buffalo Express [McCullough 121].
December 31 Friday – Sam telegraphed Whitelaw Reid on or about this day. The dispatch is not extant but mentioned in Reid’s letter of Jan. 1, 1870.
Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Opera House, Williamsport, Pennsylvania [MTL 3: 416].
December 4 Saturday – Sam telegraphed from New York to James Redpath about the “infernal mite society, a pure charity speculation” and the mix-up for the second Brooklyn lecture [MTL 3: 418]. Note: this in reply to the following Redpath telegram sent to the home of Henry and Fidele Brooks:
“Please see Miss Wason, Brooklyn.
December 6 Monday – Sam’s article “MARK TWAIN’S IDEA OF A GOOD LETTER” was reprinted in the Grass Valley, California, Daily National. Sam’s niece, Annie Moffett’s letter was the object of Sam’s admiration [Fatout, MT Speaks 58-9].
William F. West, Horatio C. King & Lorin Palmer wrote:
Dear Sir,
December 7 Tuesday – Sam lectured (“Savages”) in Academy of Music, Philadelphia, Pa. [MTL 3: 414n1].
George L. Fall, partner of James Redpath, wrote to Sam with upcoming lecture details [MTP].