• Elmira, Summer of 1887

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    As usual, the family vacationed in the summer of 1887 at Quarry Farm, leaving Hartford on June 21, spending a week in New York, and arriving in Elmira on June 29, Sam devoted his working months at the farm to reading and writing, indulging in particular his taste for history and biography with Thomas Babington Macaulay's The History of England from the Accession of James II (1849), The Memoirs of the Duke of Saint-Simon on the Reign of Louis XIV and the Regency (1857), Prince Metternich’s Memoirs (1880), George Standring’s The People’s History of the English Aristocracy (1887), and rereadin

  • June 24, 1887 Friday 

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    June 24 Friday – The Clemens family continued on to Elmira, staying at the Langdon house until June 28 [June 28 to Whitmore]. This was a ten-hour trip by rail; Sam’s routine was to hire a special “hotel” car from the Erie & Lackawanna Railroad. Livy’s mother, Olivia Lewis Langdon, was growing frail, and Livy would spend many summer days in town beside her [A.

  • June 25, 1887 Saturday

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    June 25 Saturday – Only the envelope survives, postmarked this date at Hartford to Franklin G. Whitmore [MTP]. Since the Clemens family left Hartford on June 22, this may have been left for the servants to mail.

  • July 1887

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    July – Edward McGlynn, Roman Catholic clergyman and social reformer was ex-communicated for his support of Henry George for Mayor of New York. Webster & Co. Had planned to publish a book by McGlynn but the action by the church killed the market for the book. Such losses led Sam to list McGlynn, Beecher, the Hawaiian King, and Stanley in his notebook, together with, “Let’s insure Lt. Gen.

  • July 2, 1887 Saturday

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    July 2 Saturday – In Elmira Sam attended the baseball game but declined to umpire. From the Brooklyn Eagle of July 3, 1887, p 16.

    THE MAYOR PLAYED BALL

    L.. — —

    But Mark Twain and Thomas K

    Beecher Declined to be Umpires

    ELMIRA, N.Y., July 2

  • July 4, 1887 Monday

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    July 4 Monday – In Elmira Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore asking if he’d framed “that motor-agreement” with Paige. He also informed him of the birth of a healthy, 8 lb.

  • July 6, 1887 Wednesday

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    July 6 Wednesday – In Elmira Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore, mostly about trying to set a dollar limit with Paige on the justifying motor. Sam urged diplomacy with Paige. He also complained of an obstacle to his continued fiction efforts:

  • July 7, 1887 Thursday

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    July 7 Thursday – In Elmira Sam responded to Margaret A. Bentley of Oakland, Calif., who evidently had written asking if Sam remembered a former riverboat pilot. It was likely, Sam wrote, that if he ever met the man he was a “cub” at the time and etiquette would have prevented the honor of such an introduction [MTP].

  • July 8, 1887 Friday

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    July 8 Friday – In Elmira Sam wrote to Franklin G. Whitmore about bills and orders. Sam was also keeping close notice on the Mergenthaler linotype machine on trial at the N.Y. Tribune:

  • July 10, 1887 Sunday

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    July 10 Sunday – In Elmira and evidently past his bout with dyspepsia, Sam wrote to Mollie Clemens about a perfect day on the idyllic hilltop in his octagonal study at Quarry Farm.

  • July 14, 1887 Thursday

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    July 14 Thursday – James W. Paige per Charles Van Schuyver wrote to Sam, having received his of July 12. Paige had just consulted with H.W. Beadle, patent lawyer on a patent claim, who said they had “a very effective case…we were the first to employ an auxiliary type-driver” [MTP].

  • July 15, 1887 Friday

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    July 15 Friday – In Elmira Sam responded to Frederick J. Hall’s question about the Hawaiian King’s book. The prospectus was not ready, so Sam felt the recent publicity didn’t have “enough permanency…to do us any real good,” and that moving up the canvass for the book “might disarrange Mr. Webster’s plans, anyway.” Based on checks reported received by Hall from Slote & Co.