September 4 Tuesday – If the intentions in the two letters of Sept. 3 to Mary Fairbanks and the Howlands were carried out, the Clemens family left Elmira and returned to their home in Hartford.
September 10 Monday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Etta Booth, a girl of eight when Sam first saw her in Virginia City in 1863. Etta had written to Sam from New York. Sam responded:
September 11 Tuesday – Samuel C. Upham sent Sam a printed poem, “The Land We Adore” handwriting on the bottom, “Mr. Samuel L. Clemens with compliments of The Author” [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env “ ‘Poetry’ by the man who said that if Prentice Mulford would put his mind to it he could easily cast Twain & Harte’s literature far into the shade.”
September 12 Wednesday – Joe Twichell wrote from Keene Valley, NY to quote a paragraph from Charles Kingsley’s Life, Am. Edition p. 407 which contained the botanical word “Oreodoxa” which he thought Sam should have used in his article “to take off the flavor of the cabbage.” He hoped Sam was “up for a long walk this fall” [MTP].
September 15 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to George Bentley, publisher of the London Temple Bar. Sam sent Bentley the first of four articles he’d written for Howells and the Atlantic on his Bermuda trip, and now sent the second. Sam conveyed Andrew Chatto’s desire for the advance sheets of the articles if Bentley did not want them.
September 16 Sunday – H.J. Mettenheimer wrote from Cincy to Sam, clipping enclosed that claimed Clemens had written a St. Louis insurance man asking for “a full history of the rise and fall of life insurance in the West.” H.J. volunteered such information [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env “A lie probably started by Raymond”
September 17 Monday – In Cambridge, Mass., Howells wrote to Sam, advising him not to give “that story about the captain” to “those fellows” in some unidentified club, as “They’d be sure to slap it into print.” Howells wanted to use Sam’s story about John T. Lewis from Sam’s Aug. 25 letter, calling Lewis the “Elmira life-preserver” [MTHL 1: 202].
September 18 Tuesday – John Brougham (1810-1880) wrote to Sam, criticizing the detective character in a possible play (Simon Wheeler) [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env “Jhn Brougham Sept 77 About Detective”
September 19 Wednesday – From Hartford, Sam wrote a letter to the editor of the Hartford Courant, which ran on page 2 on Sept. 20 as, “A Tramp of the Sea.” Sam threw some light upon the mystery of a “schooner with a black crew of thirteen and only one white man,” (the Jonas Smith). On return from Bermuda Sam’s ship had come in contact with the mystery vessel [MTLE 2:&nb
September 20 Thursday – Sam’s letter about contacting the mystery vessel, the schooner Jonas Smith, with a large black crew not being mutineers as first reported, ran in the Hartford Courant under the headline “Tramp of the Sea” [MTLE 2: 154-7].
September 21 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Perkins. Sam informed Perkins that he’d told H.W. Bergen to report once a year or so, that dramatics weren’t worth the effort to do it oftener [MTLE 2: 164]. An agreement with this date temporarily transferred Sam’s interest in the Colonel Sellers play to Bergen [MTPO Notes with Oct.
September 22 Saturday – Sam wrote from Hartford to John Sherman, Secretary of the Treasury, enclosing an excerpt from an article regarding the schooner Jonas Smith not being in trouble. Sam apologized for having caused Sherman any trouble connected with the “shameful” crew [MTLE 2: 165].
September 23 Sunday – Isaiah Weston wrote a postcard from St. Louis: “Friend Sam = Have just returned from the Black Hills, Rusty & Seedy = Save old Judge Morgan = also, & nearly all the old broken Pioneers , of the few who are left = If you wish to write me, — Direct to Sherman, Texas, the next 40 days = your absent friend of 11 years…” [MTP]. Note: nothing further found on Weston. 11 years would = 1866, when Clemens was in Hawaii.
September 24 Monday – In Hartford Sam wrote a postcard to Charles Perkins, asking if money from Edwards (unidentified) had been received [MTLE 2: 167].
H.W. Bergen wrote to Sam: “Yours of he 21st enclosing chk for $100—reached me this A.M all OK. Also the contract which I enclose signed.” He promised to hold down expenses and had hope the business would pay them both [MTP].
September 25 Tuesday – Frederick Wicks wrote on Glascow News notepaper to tell Sam about G.C. Clemens, a man people kept thinking was Mark Twain, even though his hair was jet black. Even reporters of the Evening News published the man was Twain [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env “Rather amusing & a trifle discomforting”
September 27 Thursday – O.W. Bromwell wrote from Jacksonville, Tenn. to Sam, clippings enclosed. “Thinking that perhaps the fate of the ‘Ocean Tramp’ described in your letter to the Hartford Courant Sept. 19 would be of some interest to you, I take the liberty to send you the enclosed clippings” [MTP]. Note: clippings about the schooner Jonas Smith, from NY Herald Sept. 20, “Mark Twain Solves the Mystery of the Bark Jonas Smith”
September 30 Sunday – Sol Smith Russell wrote to Sam: “Yours to Norfolk Va – was sent to me. Thank you kindly for your letter as I had about despaired of hearing from you—Depend on it I shall run up and see you as soon as possible” [MTP].
October – The first of a four-part, 15,000 word article on Sam and Joe Twichell’s trip to Bermuda, ran in the Atlantic Monthly: “Some Rambling Notes of an Idle Excursion” [Wells 22].
October 2 Tuesday – Sam gave a dinner speech at the Putnam Phalanx Dinner, Allyn House in Hartford for the Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company of Massachusetts. “If you fight as well as you feed, God protect the enemy” [Fatout, MT Speaking 106-9]. Budd identifies the title as “My Military History” [“Collected” 1017].
October 3? Wednesday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Perkins, enclosing a bill from a London merchant that Routledge refused to pay.
October 4 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford, again to Charles Perkins, asking him to “re-mail that letter to me. I believe I will not concede the ‘dramatic’ year yet” [MTLE 2: 171].
October 5 Friday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Minnie L. Wakeman-Curtis, daughter of Edgar “Ned” Wakeman (1813-1875). Minnie would aid in publishing her father’s memoirs, The Log of An Ancient Mariner in 1878. Minnie sought biographical anecdotes about her father, and had written to Sam for anything he might supply.
October 7 Sunday – Howells inscribed a copy of Frederica Sophia Wilhemina, Margravine of Bayrueth’s memoirs, in two volumes: “S.L. Clemens, / from his friend / W.D. Howells / Cambridge, / Oct. 7, 1877” [Gribben 771].
Maze Edwards wrote to Sam reporting such low receipts on Ah Sin that an infusion of $400 would be needed to keep it going till the end of the season [Duckett 158].
October 8 Monday – J.L. Goodloe wrote from Memphis to ask Sam to look over 400 pages of MS for him [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env “An absurd request”
October 10 Wednesday – Phineas T. Barnum wrote to Sam, clipping from the Denver Post pasted at top: “Barnum seems to be quite an admirer of Pope and quotes him more than any other writer except Mark Twain”. “My dear Mark / You cant well have more begging letters than I do ….but here is a peculiar case.” He seems to have asked Twain for tips for his “lecture or talk” to a poor church on some specific case [MTP].