January 28 Friday – Sam wrote a post card from Hartford to Thomas Bailey Aldrich, who had been “captured” and confessed his love for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Sam was “delighted!” so much so that he felt healthy again, after being “in the doctor’s hands for 2 months…” [MTLE 1: 16].
Sam also wrote a short note to Miss Higgins (unknown). Sam added a PS:
January 29 Saturday – Sam’s notes in Hyppolyte Taine’s The Ancient Regime (1876) state that he finished reading the book on this day [Slotta 32]. This was a major sourcebook for both P&P and CY (See also Sept. 10 entry).
January 31 Monday – Frank Fuller wrote from NYC to Sam [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “Ex-gov of Utah Territory”—a joke about Fuller being acting Governor for a day.
February – William Dean Howells published a review of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in the Atlantic. Howells gave Sam high praise for the boy-mind presentation “with a fidelity to circumstance which loses no charm by being realistic in the highest degree.” Howells called The Adventures of Tom Sawyer a book “full of entertaining character, and of the greatest artistic sincerity.” The only thing off about the review was the unintended timing, caused by the long delay in the book’s publication.
February 2 Wednesday – Sam inscribed a copy of Franz Ahn’s (1796-1865) Ahn’s First German Book (1873): “S.L. Clemens, Hartford, Feb. 2, ’76” [Gribben 13].
Mary Mason Fairbanks wrote from Camden, N.J.
My Dear Samuel / “A blue trip slip for a six cent fare”—you see I have caught the infection. The last Atlantic brought it into our family and since then it has spread throughout the house.
February 3 Thursday – Joe Twichell wrote from Hartford.
Dear Mark, / I have just refused to ask you to lecture or read in a case in which I would have hardly refused anything I could do but that. Mrs. G. F. Davis of Washington St, representing the Orphan Asylum now caught in a pecuniary crisis, is the party I turned away, not without regret and, I confess, considerable compunction. But I have sworn not to let my personal relations to you be utilized in that way. I had to do it in self defense, and in decency.
February 4 Friday – Sam wrote to Cashier of the First National Bank, Hartford, asking for a New York draft of $1,500 payable to William Wright (Dan De Quille) and to charge his “Personal” account. The bank’s cashier at this time was Charles S. Gillette [MTPO]. (See Feb. 8 entry.)
February 7 Monday – William Wright (Dan De Quille) wrote to Sam, increasingly impatient with Bliss for taking his time publishing The Big Bonanza:
February 8 Tuesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to William Wright (Dan De Quille), sending him $1,500 to invest in:
“California or Con. Virginia at such time as John Mackey thinks is best, & when he says sell, sell, whether at a loss or a profit, without waiting to swap knives” [California and Consolidated Virginia were Comstock silver mine stocks]
February 9 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Mollie Fairbanks, daughter of Mary Mason Fairbanks. Sam idealized girlhood, as his later treatment of “Angel Fish” would show. Mollie had just had her “coming out” to society party, and Sam reflected:
February 10 Thursday – Marvin Henry Bovee wrote to Sam, flyer enclosed, once again (see Bovee’s Apr. 7, 1875) appealing for a visit and contribution by Clemens to the cause of ending capital punishment. Sam wrote on the letter, “From that inextinguishable dead beat who has infested legislatures for 20 years trying to put an end to capital punishment” [MTP].
February 13 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Mary Mason Fairbanks, calling his letter only a “Postscript” to the one he’d sent Mollie Fairbanks.
February 15 Tuesday – Edward Hastings for the National Soldier’s Home wrote from Elizabeth City, Va. to ask Sam for copies of his books. Sam complied, asking Bliss on Feb. 17 [MTP].
February 17 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Elisha Bliss asking that copies of his four books plus, Everybody’s Friend, Life Amongst the Modocs (by Joaquin Miller), My Captivity Amongst the Sioux (by Fanny Kelly), Beyond the Mississippi (by Richardson), The Secret Service: The Field Dungeon, and the Escape (by Richardson) be sent to Edward Hastings, librarian at the National Sold
February 18 Friday – William A. Seaver wrote : “Fine Old Man:— / The March No. of the Drawer opens with your ‘Riley – Newspaper Correspondent.’ It tickled me awfully. / When are you coming to York?” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “Old Seaver of Harpers Weekly”
February 19 Saturday – Joe Twichell wrote : “Dear Mark, / Home last night at midnight. / Here is a letter from Kojima. The news concerning House (if it be news) concerns you or his friend. / as for Kojima…we shall have yet to consider…raising the means of keeping him here till he is through college. Love to Livy.
February 20 Sunday – Edward Hastings for the National Soldier’s Home wrote to thank Sam for books rec’d [MTP].
February 21 Monday – Charles W. Stayner wrote to Sam enclosing papers that announced his new lecture “American Humor,” in which he included “a biographical sketch” of Sam [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “No Answer”
February 22 Tuesday – Moncure Conway wrote from Cincinnati, Ohio:
February 23 Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Frank Marx Etting (1833-1890), accepting his invitation of Feb. 19 to attend the Congress of Authors at Independence Hall, Phila. on July 2. Sam wrote he would bring “a brief biographical Sketch of Francis Lightfoot Lee of Virginia” [MTLE 1: 26].
February 25 Friday – Sam’s uncle John Adams Quarles, once a prominent and well-to-do man of Monroe County, Missouri, died a poor man [The Twainian, March 1942 p5].
Mary Mapes Dodge wrote from NYC asking for a piece of writing [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env. “Mrs. M.M. Dodge Editor St Nicholas”
February 26 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Moncure Conway, answering his Feb. 22 and confirming Conway’s visit for Mar. 9. Conway had finished a fall and winter lecture tour on “London,” [MTL 6: 600n1] and would leave for England on Mar. 11 to make a deal with a publisher for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer.
February 28 Monday – George Barclay wrote from Edinburgh to inform Sam of the “precarious” nature of Dr. John Brown’s health. It was doubtful the good doctor could ever resume practice [MTP].
March – Harper’s Monthly printed “The First Century of the Republic,” by Edwin P. Whipple. This article described popular humorists like Artemus Ward, John Phoenix, and Mark Twain, who was said to be:
March 3 Friday – Francis Wayland wrote to Sam to pin down which evening he would “bask in your smile”—either March 22nd or 29th [MTP].