February 28 Wednesday – Mary Mason Fairbanks wrote long to Sam & Livy. In part:
My dear unreliable boy, but much more reliable daughter!
I hardly know where to take up the broken thread. I feel as if you had been to Europe.
February 29 Thursday – The American Publishing Co. made official announcement for Roughing It, even though copies had been available and the first review had even appeared in the Utica New York Morning Herald and Gazette [MTL 5: 45n4].
The New York Weekly Reformer of Watertown, N.Y. ran a wildly ridiculous spoof account by Eli Perkins (pen name of Melville A. Landon) of Mark Twain’s life: “Interesting Biography of Mark Twain,” which began:
March – Sam’s sketch “Roughing It” ran in American Publishing Co.’s in-house promotional monthly, American Publisher [Camfield, bibliog.]. Similar to Roughing It, Ch. 57.
March 2? Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Mary Mason Fairbanks responding to her letter of Feb. 28 and asking for her to visit. He also wrote: “We are getting to work, now, packing up, & fixing things with the servants, preparatory to migrating to Elmira”. Livy probably wanted to have the baby in Elmira [MTL 5: 49].
March 3 Sunday – Sam wrote a short note from Hartford to James Redpath, asking for George Fall to send Sam’s bill [MTL 5: 52].
March 4 Monday – The St. Louis Missouri Democrat ran a short item on page two about the newly released RI:
It is not necessary to say one word about this work, as it is already widely known. It is equal to Mark’s Innocents, profusely illustrated and of course no one would think of being without it….[Budd, Reviews 100].
March 7 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Redpath & Fall. Sam remitted less than his bill and haggled over the balance for hiring a train to reach an out-of-the-way lecture. In response to ills plaguing the two men, Sam wrote:
March 12 Tuesday – Sam had a painful meeting with Elisha Bliss. An unsent draft of Mar. 20 shows that Sam was somewhat reassured by the meeting of this day. Sam probably went to a party at the Hartford home of Joseph R. Hawley, editor of the Hartford Courant. Andrew Hoffman claims that Bliss kept two sets of books [195].
March 15 Friday – Bill paid dated Mar. 11 from D.S. Brooks & Sons, Hartford dealer in “hot air furnaces, cooking ranges, stoves and tin ware, low down grates and Marbelized slate mantles”; $18.50 for fireplace grate & pan, fitting [MTP]. Note: A cheery or cozy fire was an important comfort for the Clemens family.
March 18 Monday – Sam wrote to William Dean Howells, thanking him for sending his book, Their Wedding Journey. Sam wrote:
“I would like to send you a copy of my book, but I can’t get a copy myself, yet, because 30,000 people who have bought & paid for it have to have preference over the author” [MTL 5: 58].
Charles Dudley Warner gave RI a glowing review in the Hartford Courant:
March 19 Tuesday – “Tuesday’s child is full of grace,” goes the old verse, and on this Tuesday the most graceful of Sam’s children was born at Quarry Farm. Olivia Susan Clemens, known as “Susy,” was named for her grandmother, Olivia Lewis Langdon, and her aunt, Susan Langdon Crane.
March 20 Wednesday – Mary and Abel Fairbanks arrived at the Langdon home in Elmira and stayed several weeks [MTL 5: 60n1].
March 21 Thursday – Sam wrote from Elmira to Elisha Bliss about the new book of sketches. Sam felt the Frog story should be left out. Bliss had consistently wanted the story included. Within a few days, Sam agreed to a deal with George Routledge & Sons to reprint his sketches in England. Sketch books would be published in 1874 and 1875 [MTL 5: 69-70].
March 24 Sunday – Joe Goodman wrote from New York City to Sam in Elmira, responding to news of Susy’s birth:
I have overhauled everything from a cook-book to the Book of Common Prayer to find some befitting form of congratulation for the happy event in your household—but am forced at last to fall back upon my own homely greeting and simple assurance of good-will.
March 25 Monday – In a Mar. 28 letter from Susan Crane to Alice Hooker Day, Susan wrote of Livy’s condition on Mar. 25:
March 27 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Elmira to John Henry Riley outlining amounts Sam would pay for someone to transcribe Riley’s dictation for the South Africa diamond book. Within a few weeks Riley would fall critically ill, and the book idea wasn’t completed [MTL 5: 71].
March 28 Thursday – See Mar. 25 entry for letter written by Susan Crane this day.
March 31 Sunday – Sam wrote a short note from Elmira to James R. Osgood, a Boston publisher with a list of prestigious authors, and editor of the Atlantic Monthly.
April – Sam’s sketch “Horace Greeley’s Ride” (Roughing It, Ch. 20) ran in American Publishing Co.’s in-house promotional monthly, American Publisher [Camfield, bibliog.].
April 1 Monday – Mary Mason Fairbanks wrote from Cleveland about her visit to Elmira, the babies, her desire for Sam to visit for his health [MTL 5: 74-5].
In New York, Bret Harte wrote congratulating Sam on Susy’s birth:
April 2 Tuesday – Joe Twichell replied to the notice of Susy’s birth.
April 6 Saturday – The London Examiner under “Life in the Western States” ran a review that declared:
Roughing It is, in some respects, superior to The Innocents at Home. It is more consecutive and less fragmentary, but both are equally racy and entertaining [Budd, Reviews 103]. See Feb. 1872 entry
April 8 Monday – Bill paid to W.B. Willard, flour & grain dealer, $6.55 [MTP].
April 11 Thursday – Sam left for New York, probably with Charles Langdon, who sailed for England on Apr. 13. Twichell had planned to be in New York on Apr. 9, so it’s possible Sam went earlier and met him there [MTL 5: 75].
April 12 Friday – Sam was at the Astor House in New York [MTL 5: 75].