• Mark Twain Day By Day: 1874

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    England to Home Again – Sketches No. 1 Flop – Orion the Chicken-Rancher
    Colonel Sellers Stars on Broadway – Clara “Bay” Clemens Born – Elmira Summer - Dream House Built – Fredonia Visit – Hike to Boston with Twichell
    “Old Times on the Mississippi” – Atlantic Monthly Breakthrough - Typewriter for Genius – Reformed Lecturer

  • January 1, 1874 Thursday

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    January 1 Thursday – Sam wrote after midnight from London To Livy. Sam the romantic waxed eloquent in his love and missing his wife.

    “I am wild to see you. So I mean to go away every now & then, just to renew that feeling—but never more than 48 hours.”

  • January 4, 1874 Sunday

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    January 4 Sunday – Sam wrote two letters from London to Livy, one in the daytime with “drizzling rain” and the other after a dinner engagement. Sam and Stoddard dined at the Dolby’s and had a “rattling good time.” Sam wrote about two 60-year old, “white-haired gentlemen” who were at the dinner and told the story of how each had rescued the other from poverty at various times in their youth. One was a Prussian; the other French.

  • January 5, 1874 Monday

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    January 5 Monday  Sam spent “a good part of the day browsing through the Royal Academy Exhibition of Sir Edwin Henry Landseer’s” (1802-1873) paintings. He thought the work “wonderfully beautiful!” [MTL 6: 11].

  • January 8, 1874 Thursday

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    January 8 Thursday – Sam gave his “Roughing It” lecture in Leicester, England at Temperance Hall [MTPO]. Note: This lecture is given as “Sandwich Islands” and a reading of “Jumping Frog” story by MTL 6: 16n1.

  • January 9, 1874 Friday

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    January 9 Friday – Sam dictated through Stoddard to John Murray Moore (1844-1914), advising him of his plans for lunch the next day but that he would be back in his room by 3:30 PM. Moore was a physician, and his business with Sam is unknown. In the evening Sam gave his “Roughing It” lecture in Liverpool, England [MTPO].

    Bill paid to Mansury & Smith, carriage mfr. $23.15 for repairs [MTP].

  • January 10, 1874 Saturday

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    January 10 Saturday  Sam had lunch aboard the Java, which left that day for New York. Sam’s host is not known. That evening, Sam gave the “Sandwich Islands” lecture and read the “Jumping Frog” story in Liverpool, England [Schmidt; MTL 6: 15-16n1, 20n1].

  • January 11, 1874 Sunday

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    January 11 Sunday – George MacDonald wrote “a thousand thanks for your book. I did not mean to beg for one, and I hope you will not think so.” He was reading it now, likely GA, and said that he was “delighted with the courage & honesty” though he didn’t feel “the action quick enough” [MTP].

  • January 12, 1874 Monday 

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    January 12 Monday  Sam wrote from Liverpool to Frank Finlay that he’d had full houses in Liverpool and “a jolly good time with them.” Sam wanted to send a “God be with you!” note to Finlay in the “midst of hustle & bustle of getting ready for an early start in the morning” [MTL 6: 19].

  • January 13, 1874 Tuesday

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    January 13 Tuesday – Sam sent a dispatch to Livy that he was boarding the Parthia for home. Livy reported the contents of the note to Mollie Clemens and remarked that this was five days earlier than he’d expected to sail, probably due to his inability to secure lecture dates in Ireland. The Parthia left Liverpool [MTL 6: 20].