March 6 Friday – Sam returned alone to Hartford, perhaps after luncheon at the Aldrich home. Of the lecture, The Boston Globe:

March 7 Saturday – Howells, Osgood, and the Aldriches left Boston on the train to Springfield, Mass., where Sam and Warner met and accompanied the group to Hartford. Howells and Osgood stayed with the Warners, while the Aldriches stayed with Sam and Livy [MTL 6: 62n1-2].

March 8 to 10 Tuesday – The visit of Howells, Osgood and the Aldriches lasted until Mar. 10.

March 9 Monday – Sam inscribed a photograph of himself to Lillian W. Aldrich (Mrs. Thomas Bailey Aldrich): “With regards not to be expressed in their full strength because of the overlooking eye of T.B” [MTL 6: 64]. See insert photo.

March 10 Tuesday – In Hartford, Sam wrote a short note to Mr. McElroy, who had inquired if Sam would ever return to Albany to lecture as he did on Jan. 10 1870. Sam recalled the “festive lunch” but offered that he had “no present idea or intention of ever standing on a lecture platform again” [MTL 6: 65].

March 11 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Elisha Bliss about publishing details and Charles Dudley Warner [MTL 6: 65].

March 12 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to the editor of the London Standard. In explaining the phenomenon of non-violent prayer-ins at liquor shops by respectable females in the U.S., Sam forthrightly raised the cause of women’s suffrage, reflecting an evolution in his thought from 1867, when he said, “I never want to see women voting, and gabbling about politics, and electioneering.

March 13 Friday – Sam telegraphed from Hartford to James Redpath, asking what hour Charles Kingsley would arrive for his two-day visit to Hartford from his last lecture stop, Troy New York [MTL 6: 73].

March 14 Saturday – Charles Kingsley, canon of Westminster, and unmarried elder daughter, Rose Georgiana, visited the Clemens family. Kingsley had come to America on a lecture tour [MTL 6: 32n1]. Note: Kingsley returned to England exhausted from the American tour, and died the next year, 1875.

March 15 and 16 Monday – Sam wrote to Thomas Bailey Aldrich, best known for his 1869, The Story of a Bad Boy, a sort of forerunner to The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Sam read the book but claimed not to have been influenced by it and did not like the prose style [Rasmussen 7]. Aldrich had visited earlier in the month and had sought Sam’s help on his current work, Prudence Palfrey. After several pages of suggestions, Sam wrote the next day (Mar.

March 18 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Orion. Captain Edgar “Ned” Wakeman had written to Sam asking him to write the story of Wakeman’s life. Sam’s response has been lost, but he wrote his brother:

“I have written him that you will edit his book & help him share the profits, & I will write the introduction & find a publisher” [MTL 6: 82].

March 19 Thursday – Susy Clemens’ second birthday. See insert age 2-3.

Sam wrote from Hartford to Ainsworth R. Spofford, the Librarian of Congress. Sam wanted to publish a pamphlet (Mark Twain’s Sketches. Number One) and copyright both the contents and the engraved design on the cover. Would one copyright suffice? [MTL 6: 85].

March 20 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to William Dean Howells to advise him of a house for sale near where the new house was being built. Sam wanted Howells or Aldrich to move to Hartford. The reply is not known, but neither man moved [MTL 6: 85].

Sam also wrote to Frank Fuller about making money from buying and publishing a manuscript:

March 23 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Jerome B. Stillson (1841-1880), managing editor of the New York World and a native of Buffalo.

March 24 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Thomas Bailey Aldrich, telling him to “send along the proofs” for Aldrich’s book, Prudence Palfrey. Sam would also help Aldrich get the book published by Elisha P. Bliss—what’s more, Sam’s strategy was to approach Bliss with the manuscript, and ask if he could pay a ten per cent royalty or should Sam go to a “hated rival”?

March 25 Wednesday – Sam again wrote from Hartford to Thomas Bailey Aldrich, clarifying prior advice on a revised section of Aldrich’s book [MTL 6: 94].

March 26 Thursday – The London Standard ran Sam’s letter, “The Temperance Insurrection” [MTL 6: 66].

March 27 Friday – In Hartford, Sam wrote to James Redpath.

“Dear Redpath: / If you’ve got that old Postmaster monologue by you, please send it to me—I want to revise & publish it in the Atlantic Monthly, & see if I like it upon re-reading” [MTP, drop-in letters]

March 28 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to William S. Andrews, a fellow lecturer and member of the Lotos Club.

Spring of 1874 – Sam’s pamphlet of ten sketches, Mark Twain’s Sketches. Number One, was ready but was withdrawn before distribution [MTL 6: 49n6].

April 3 Friday – Sam paid an Apr. 1 bill of $2.45 from Geer & Pond, Hartford booksellers for a subscription of Littell’s Living Age for the period Dec. 6, 1873 to Mar. 21, 1874 [Gribben].

April 4 Saturday ­– C. Gleim wrote to Sam [MTP]. (See Apr. 9-12 entry)

April 6 Monday – David Gray wrote from Buffalo, NY. In part:

April 7 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Annie F. Fuller (1840?-1906), 2nd wife of Frank Fuller:

My Dear Mrs. Fuller:

April 8 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Chatto & Windus, English publishers who had taken over John Camden Hotten’s company upon his death. Responding to a request for a blurb to promote Ambrose Bierce’s new book, Nuggets and Dust Panned Out in California by Dod Grile; Sam had known Bierce in San Francisco in the 1860s. Sam wrote: