October 18 Thursday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Charles Webster. He thought the game board was “excellent” and suggested “one possible improvement” dealing with the dates of several reigns. He directed a “few copies” to be printed, “25 is plenty—& keep several for you & Annie to experiment with.” Sam was waiting for the right timing to “contract with Bliss for the new book” [MTP].
October 19 Friday – Sam wrote to Worden & Co., stockbrokers; note not extant; referred to in Oct. 23.
October 23 Tuesday – Chatto & Windus wrote to Clemens with statement of account and book sales, royalties of £904.7.11 [MTP].
Orion Clemens wrote all about the history game research he was working on [MTP].
** Worden & Co. wrote receipt of Sam’s Oct. 19 order to buy 100 shs O.T. @ 25 [MTP].
October 25 Thursday – Charles Webster wrote about business matters: canvassing of books; business now good; suggestion to leave 14,000 books bound for the trade [MTP].
October 28 Sunday – Sam wrote Orion, letter not extant but referred to in Orion’s Nov. 1 reply.
October 29 Monday – Bissell & Co. per George H. Burt wrote they’d received Sam’s acceptances made by Osgood & Co. for $20,000, and had credited his account for that amount [MTP]. Note: Sam wrote on the env., “$20,000 acceptances”
Charles Webster wrote to Clemens: Proof sheets on English History sent; negotiations for 10,000 LM with Watson Gill [MTP].
October 30 Tuesday – Charles Webster wrote about business matters: contract signed with Watson Gill “to act as my agent in the trade” [MTP].
October 31 Wednesday – Hubbard & Farmer bankers & brokers sent a statement with Nov. 1 balance of $22,949.11 [MTP].
November 1 Thursday – In Boston, Howells wrote to Sam of his plans to come for a visit on Nov. 3 [MTHL 1: 447].
Orion Clemens wrote to Sam having rec’d his Oct. 28th. Ma went to a 90 year old’s party and they were all well. He worked 4 hrs a day on the Kings [MTP].
November 2 Friday – Margaret Meestenmacher wrote from St. Louis to ask Sam & Livy for funds to help her church. Evidently she’d known the Langdons [MTP].
November 3 Saturday – After receiving Howells’ Nov. 1 letter about coming to Hartford, Sam telegraphed from Hartford to Howells for him to “Come Wednesday” [MTHL 1: 447]. Sam expected “an important telegram” the same day (from Howells? Or, possibly from Raymond or Webster) but it did not arrive (see Nov. 7 entry).
November 4 Sunday – Sam wrote from Hartford to Howells, further explaining his telegram of the previous day:
“…Mrs. Clemens has a menagerie on her hands from now till Tuesday Evening—the preparation & achievement of a big lunch party of old ladies to meet her mother.”
November 5 Monday – The missing telegram from Howells turned up at the telegraph office (see Nov. 7 entry).
Kate D. Barstow wrote what is now a letter too faded to read. Likely another request for funds for activities beyond her medical training, because Sam wrote on the env., “No” [MTP].
November 7 Wednesday – This article ran in the Hartford Times (and Nov. 9 in the New York Times, p4, below), documenting the missing telegram:
THE TELEGRAM THAT WAS “MISLAID”
From the Hartford (Conn.) Times, Nov. 7
November 8 Thursday – Francis Hopkinson Smith for Pedestal Fund Exhibition wrote about his plan to read “that letter” to a group, “ if it don’t send every mother’s son of them home with a sore back, I’m a Dutchman” [MTP].
November 11 Sunday – The New York Times ran this article:
MARK TWAIN ON COPYRIGHT LAW.
November 12 Monday – In Hartford, Sam typed a note to Andrew Chatto, acknowledging receipt of “904 pounds, 7 shillings and 11 pence.” He expected to talk contracts on the new book (HF?) in about a month, and accepted their word on pricing their edition of TA [MTP].
November 13 Tuesday – Western Union per W.C. Hamstone, J.H. Lounsbury wrote in response to a report in the NY Times that a telegram had been lost/delayed. He claimed from reports he’d rec’d that “our service was properly performed,” the telegram phoned to his residence at about 4 pm Nov. 3, the date it was sent from Boston by Howells [MTP].
November 14 Wednesday – In the evening Sam and Livy and Howells attended a Hartford reception for Matthew Arnold (1822-1888), who was to lecture in Hartford the next day. Arnold had lectured in Boston on Nov. 7 and would repeat the talk there on Nov.
November 15 Thursday – In the afternoon, the Clemenses held a tea for Matthew Arnold in their Hartford home [LeMaster 36]. Arnold gave his “Numbers” lecture after the tea. He also visited the Clemens home in the evening. Sam did not disclose to Howells what the two talked about [Powers, MT A Life 480]. From Twichell’s journal:
November 16–17 Saturday – Sam, Livy and William Dean Howells went to Boston sometime during this period. Matthew Arnold lectured there on Nov. 17 [MTHL 1: 449n2].
November 17 Saturday – A pink 3×5 receipt to Sam, printed “Stock Account” for a check of $5,000 is in the 1883 MTP financial file.
William Dean Howells wrote: “When I supposed you were coming to us I engaged to take you out to Cambridge this (Saturday) evening to see my play at a friend’s done by children. If you can go, come to 4 Louisburg Square by a quarter to eight, and let me know, anyway”[MTP]. (not in MTHL)
November 18 Sunday – Sam was in Boston and accompanied the Howellses in a social call upon the Aldriches Sam returned to Hartford directly from the Aldriches, after the Howellses left. Howells wrote him on Nov. 19 about being “half dead …from eating & laughing yesterday” [MTHL 1: 448, 450n3].
November 19 Monday – Back in Hartford, Sam telegraphed Howells. He and Livy repeated an invitation for the Howellses to visit. Sam had not received a letter from Howells written the same day expressing that he couldn’t return to Hartford for a solid week, but would come “two weeks from to-day” (Dec. 3) [MTHL 1: 449-50].
“I have told thirty lies and am not out of the Woods yet; S L Clemens” [MTP].
November 20 Tuesday – George W. Cable arrived for a visit. He went with the Clemenses and the Warners to a reception. Cable wrote his wife the next day that he’d “Talked my head off; but don’t worry, there wasn’t anything in it.” At the Clemens home, Cable read for “Mark T., his sweet wife, her mother, & Clara and her sister. They were pleased…” [Turner, MT & GWC 23].